The very name by which porcelain is commonly known suggests, to those in whom it arouses an interest beyond the mere aesthetic pleasure to be got from its outward beauty of appearance, that if they would understand it rightly, they must turn their attention first to the land of its origin. To the Chinese the world owes a material as lovely as any ever fashioned by the hand of man, and some account of the growth of this art in Chinese hands is a necessary prelude to any study alike of the Chinese ware itself and of the European imitations of it.

The first beginnings of this wonderful art must be sought in pottery of humble material. The rough but dignified earthenware of the Han Dynasty, contemporaneous approximately with the opening of the Christian era, signalises the first appearance in China of pottery of an artistic nature. The green-glazed vessels of this period, imitating the shapes and outward texture of bronze, have become only in recent times familiar objects on the shelves of our museums. From them we can trace the porcelain of later times, by which the Chinese have proved themselves the master-potters of the world, excelling and giving the lead to the ceramists of every other race. Yet it is strange to reflect how late in history their skill has been learned, and to remember that Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and other Western races were masters of the potter’s craft many centuries before the Chinese achieved their earliest artistic wares. Coming late into the field, they evolved in a comparatively short span of time a material which placed them ahead of every rival.

The Sung Dynasty, which occupied the throne of China for more than three hundred years beginning towards the end of the tenth century, witnessed the first emergence of a true ceramic style. The potters of earlier times had been content to follow the forms set by the bronze-founder, but their successors of the Sung period set forth on purely ceramic lines and arrived at a great variety of wares which are recorded in Chinese literature. To identify these among surviving specimens that may be attributed to this period is a formidable task for the antiquarian. The problem need not be discussed here, as most of these wares cannot be classed as porcelain in the ordinary sense of the word; but it is interesting to note briefly those types which foreshadow the developments of later times.

The emancipation of the potter to a position of independence is well shown by a small vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum of the type known as “Chün yao,” made from the earliest years of the Sung period at Chün-chou, in the province of Honan. The vase is of ovoid form with a lizard-like dragon coiled round it in relief; the surface is covered with a thick lavender-blue glaze on which is a splash of strong crimson. Though the body is porcellanous, the freedom of the modelling marks a distinct advance from the imitative bronze vessels of earlier times, while the brilliancy of the colouring anticipates the pure and gorgeous hues which were among the triumphs of the golden age of porcelain.

The discovery during this period of the properties of kaolin and the effort to imitate by artificial means the luminous beauties of jade, pointed the way to the evolution of a white translucent porcelain body. The cream-coloured Ting ware, made at Ting-chou in the province of Chihli, stand, among the relics of these far-off times which have escaped destruction, as the first achievements in this direction. The beauty and dignity of this ware is well exemplified by the two quadrangular vases at South Kensington, formerly in Dr. Bushell’s collection. The delicate floral or diaper ornament incised under the soft ivory-toned glaze gives promise of the skilful handiwork of the golden age of the art. One distinctive characteristic of porcelain, the quality of translucency, is still absent in most wares of this order, but pieces of smaller size, such as an exquisitely fashioned little box and cover at Kensington, show a warm glow through their thinner parts when held to the light.

Another class of ware to which reference must here be made is the celebrated celadon ware of Lung-ch’üan, in the province of Chekiang, which was first produced during this dynasty in the effort to imitate green jade. This ware was widely exported over land and sea, and is met with in remote and unexpected corners of the Old World. A well-known specimen of it, Archbishop Warham’s cup, preserved at New College, Oxford, is the first piece of Chinese ware recorded to have reached this country. Though it has the nature rather of fine stoneware than of porcelain, it is to be noted as the forerunner of a large class of porcelain of later times.

It was not until the period of the Ming Dynasty that the ware usually associated in Europe with the term “porcelain” first began to be made, that is, a ware with a hard, pure white body, more or less translucent. The beginning of the same period witnessed the emergence to a position of ascendancy of the imperial factory at Ching-tê-chên, in the province of Kiangsi. The factory was rebuilt in 1869 by Hung Wu, the first of the Ming emperors, and remained henceforward the chief centre of the porcelain industry in China. The subsequent achievements of Ching-tê-chên have never been surpassed in the whole history of ceramic art.

The Ming dynasty productions have a certain well-marked cachet, which distinguishes them clearly in their several classes alike from the wares of earlier times and from the porcelain made under the later Ch’ing emperors. There is a notable predominance of vessels of large size, formed of heavy material, displaying a massiveness and bold simplicity in their contours and decorated with designs, whether modelled or painted, of vigorous conception and of free, even rough execution. The potter addresses himself with energy to his task, and is no longer limited either to the imitative work of the Han dynasty, or to the more restrained, often delicate performances of the intervening age. At the same time, he has not yet gained the mastery of hand or the familiarity with the powers of the kiln which made possible the artistic and technical refinements of his successors.

We are probably right in recognising as the earliest productions in pure white-bodied porcelain that have come down to us, a group, of which there are several fine examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum; one of these has been chosen for illustration in Plate 2. The class is characterised by a dense heavy body, massive form, and decoration, executed by means of coloured glazes, which are applied and fixed at a lower temperature after the first firing of the ware. The colours are confined to a full dark blue, turquoise-blue, straw-yellow, and a pale manganese-violet, to which sometimes an opaque white is added. In the greater number of cases the outline stands out in slight relief from the surface of the object, and is filled in with the coloured glazes in the same manner as the hollows in the copper base of a champlevé enamel. A similar technique is met with again in the so-called cuenca tiles made in Southern Spain in the sixteenth century. In some rare instances the vase is made with double sides, and the design is reserved in openwork by cutting through the outer casing. This type is represented at South Kensington by a large jar1 decorated with a procession of soldiers, which stands out with bold effectiveness against the dark hollows of the pierced background.

A fine example of the more usual method of decoration is the piece reproduced in Plate 2. It is a jar of large dimensions which has reached this country by way of Persia, and has been embellished there with a mounting of brass chased with inscriptions and medallions. The high esteem in which Chinese porcelain has been held for centuries in the Nearer East is evident from the pronounced Chinese influence manifested in Persian and Syrian art from an early period, while during the course of the Ming dynasty the export of porcelain from China to Western Asia grew enormously, and the imitation of Chinese motives became the predominant element of design in the indigenous wares of Persia. That country was the source which supplied a large part of the collection of Ming porcelain now exhibited at South Kensington.

The jar here illustrated is of characteristically solid material, only slightly translucent. Groups of crested wading birds among rocks and bushes of peony in blossom, the flower symbolical of spring in Chinese lore, form the main feature of the decoration. On the shoulder are lobed compartments enclosing the eight Buddhist “Emblems of Happy Augury.” Round the lower part are floral designs in shaped panels. The outlines, being slightly raised from the surface of the jar, form barriers by which the coloured glazes were kept from mingling one with another in the kiln. The harmonious hues serve to emphasise the bold and simple forms of the ornament, which seem thoroughly in keeping with the strong curves of the profile of the vase itself.

Other fine examples of this class exhibiting the same technique may be seen at South Kensington. Besides two large jars with processions of mounted soldiers, there are two smaller vases of the elongated pear shape which is also characteristic of this period. One of these, decorated with chrysanthemums and peonies, is remarkable for the full and rich colours of the glazes, while the other is of interest from the quaint figures on it with their primitive garb of sewn leaves. In a pair of square vases, probably early exponents of the style, an effect of solemn beauty has been obtained by the use of white and turquoise only on a manganese ground of dense purple.

In the classes of porcelain which have hitherto been dealt with, the decoration has been effected either by cutting into the surface with a pointed instrument or moulding it in relief, or by the addition of colouring materials to the glaze. We must now consider the method most widely prevalent in recent times, namely, that of painting on the surface either before or after glazing. In China this method came into use at a comparatively late period. Elsewhere it had been known for many centuries as a means of ceramic decoration. In Persia, for example, painted designs are met with on the pottery found by French excavators in the lowest stratum on the site of the city of Susa, dating possibly from 5000 years before Christ, while on the semi-porcellanous ware of ancient Egypt painting is of common occurrence. It was widespread as a ceramic process in the Near East and the countries round the Mediterranean long before it was practised by the Chinese. The earliest painted wares of China certainly do not date back before the Sung dynasty, and it is doubtful whether even so great an age as this can be ascribed to them.

There is a class of vases painted in a strong dark brown with roughly-drawn ornament of Buddhistic character, which are probably not more recent than the earliest years of the Ming dynasty, and may date from the latter part of the Sung period. They were made at Tzŭ-chou, in the province of Honan. Several examples of this kind are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, most of them painted with spirited designs of lotus-flowers and leafy scrollwork, sometimes with birds introduced amongst the foliage. One vase is decorated with four shaped panels, three enclosing lotus-flowers, while in the fourth is a crude figure of a Buddhist monk. These vases are worthy of special attention, as they appear to mark the point at which a step forward was taken of far-reaching significance in its effect on Chinese ceramics. The introduction of the painter’s brush among the implements of the Chinese potter led the way to developments which placed him above his fellow-craftsmen in other lands, amongst whom this branch of the art had been familiar in much earlier ages.

Of all the materials employed as pigments in the decoration of porcelain, the most important and the most widespread in use is cobalt-blue. It is said that this colour was first introduced into China from the west of Asia as early as the tenth century, but it does not appear to have been used for painting before the thirteenth century. In this connection mention may be made of a miniature vase at South Kensington of the cream-coloured Ting ware already alluded to, which is painted with indistinct markings in cobalt-blue. It may be that such pieces as this can rightly be referred back to the end of the Sung dynasty, and that we have in them the first manifestations of the great family of “blue and white” china, which in the eyes of the world at large represents Chinese porcelain par excellence.

Be that as it may, it was not till the time of the Ming emperors that there was any extensive production of painted “blue and white” porcelain. The earliest extant pieces that can be dated with any degree of certainty are ascribable to the reign of the emperor Hsüan Tê (1426–1435). There is a small bowl of this period in the Salting Collection. It is remarkable as well for the quality of the glaze, resembling vellum in its texture, as for the soft greyish tones of the cobalt used in the delicate painting of chrysanthemums and other flowering plants.

Two other pieces bearing the mark of Hsüan Tê are to be seen at South Kensington, but although they belong undoubtedly to the Ming dynasty, it cannot be regarded as certain that the mark upon them indicates their actual age. One of these is a bowl painted with a design of trees, the pine, peach, and bamboo, symbolising long life, and the pomegranate, which is the emblem of fecundity; by a quaint conceit the trunks of the trees are distorted into the form of the characters fu (“happiness”) and shou (“longevity”). The other specimen is a tall cylindrical vase, bearing the mark in a cartouche on the border, as it is sometimes found on porcelain of the later Wan Li period. It is decorated with conventional lotus-flowers in three horizontal bands, painted in dark cobalt-blue and the underglaze crimson obtained from copper, which ranks with cobalt as one of the earliest pigments used in Chinese ceramics. A noticeable feature of the painting is the way in which the leaves and petals are darkened by a stippling of dots over a lighter wash of colour.

Another interesting jar, of six-sided form and undoubtedly early in date, has floral ornament executed in dark blue, approaching to black where heavily laid on, which recalls the designs occurring on the hexagonal tiles from the Great Mosque at Damascus. The Persian chased brass rim with which the jar is mounted indicates the channel through which it has come to the West. The Damascus tiles are believed to date from the fifteenth century, and the resemblance between them and the jar in question is so striking as to suggest that they were painted under direct Chinese influence. This view is confirmed by the occurrence among the motives upon them of the Far Eastern chrysanthemum.

Advancing to the sixteenth century and the reigns of Chêng Tê, Chia Ching, and Wan Li, we find surviving “blue and white” specimens by no means rare. To the first reign are attributed certain objects made for Mohammedan use, as shown by the occurrence upon them of Arabic inscriptions, and some large globular jars with conventional lotus designs under a glaze usually of pronounced bluish tone. The Chia Ching period is characterised particularly by a blue of great intensity, sometimes verging upon violet; it is seen in several large jars at South Kensington in which the strong painting harmonises with the massiveness of the form.

The bowl figuring in Plate 3 shows that a more refined style was also in vogue at the same time. It is fashioned with the utmost delicacy and painted in a free manner, but with unerring sureness of hand. On the outside are seen the mythical fêng huang, or phœnix, of Buddhist lore, and other smaller birds flying amid bamboos; on the bamboo stems grows the sacred fungus or ling-chih, like the bamboo itself an emblem of longevity. In the medallion at the bottom inside is an exquisite drawing of a song-bird perched on the branch of a blossoming tree. The bowl is marked underneath with the words Ta Ming Chia Ching nien chih (“Made in the Chia Ching period of the great Ming dynasty”). The soft grey-blue recalls the bowl of the Hsüan Tê period to which reference has already been made. Form and painting alike are executed with spontaneity and directness, qualities as attractive as the technical finish of later periods, when a loss of sincerity was the inevitable price paid for exactness of workmanship. This difference of quality may be well appreciated by a comparison of the bowl with the “egg-shell” plate of the Yung Chêng period reproduced in the same drawing, to which reference will again be made.

Another drawing (Plate 4) shows a typical example, formerly in Sir Charles Robinson’s collection, of the better kind of “blue and white” produced during the reign of Wan Li, who was contemporary with our own Queen Elizabeth. That this elegant wine-pot found its way to Europe at no long interval after it was made is proved by the bronze mounting, which happily accentuates its gracefulness of contour. The domed cover of ogee outline and the crested borders indicate that the mounting is of German origin, and was done probably at Augsburg in the early years of the seventeenth century. The six sides of the body form panels filled in with a variety of flowers, among which may be distinguished such oft-recurring emblems of longevity as the lotus and the ling-chih or miraculous fungus; the slender neck is painted with conventional flames. In the hollow beneath the foot is the word fu (“longevity”), written in seal character.

This piece belongs to the same class of finer porcelain made under Wan Li as a melon-shaped wine-pot, mounted in silver-gilt, bearing the London hall-mark for 1585–86, and the well-known set of bowls, also with Elizabethan silver-gilt mounting, which were formerly in the possession of the Cecil family at Burghley House. In addition to this finer porcelain, vast quantities of “blue and white” ware of inferior quality were made for export. It went eastwards to Japan, where it provided patterns for some of the porcelain turned out from the kilns of the province of Hizen, and westwards to Persia, to be imitated in earthenware by the native potters of the time of the great Shah Abbas II. The decoration, rough and careless as it often is, has generally a certain attractiveness on account of its freedom from the fault of over-refinement. Roughly-sketched landscapes with deer, hares or birds in shaped panels are frequent motives.

A dish at South Kensington, probably of the Wan Li period, is doubly interesting. Its decoration of floral ornament on scrolled stems is identical with a design not uncommon on Damascus earthenware of the sixteenth century. The back exhibits an unglazed surface of deep reddish-yellow, and bears, sharply cut into the paste, the Persian word naranji (“orange-coloured”) and a Persian name, probably that of a former owner.

The next illustration (Plate 1) stands for another process of decoration invented in the Ming period, which opened the way to wonderful developments in later times. This new method consisted in painting over the glaze in enamel colours, necessitating a second firing at a lower temperature than that required for fusing the glaze. The colours employed are a dry scarlet obtained from oxide of iron, green, yellow of straw-coloured tone, and manganese-violet, which, together with underglaze cobalt, constitute the scheme known as the “five colour” decoration. In some cases only two or three of these colours are used, but generally the predominant notes are given by red and green. This style anticipates the famille verte order of the time of K’ang Hsi; it is specially associated with the Wan Li period, when it came into general vogue, but instances of it occur dating from the reign of Chia Ching, and in these the red is of a more neutral tone sometimes verging on orange.

The jar figuring in Plate 1 is altogether exceptional by reason of the manganese-purple ground on which the ornament is painted. The predominance of this colour gives a splendour of effect which is accentuated by the points of bright red and green distributed with such sureness of judgment over the surface. The powers of the Ming dynasty potter are here displayed at their best. Scattered flowers of the winter plum, one of the numerous emblems of long life, are interspersed among the “Eight Precious Things” (Pa Pao), tokens to the Buddhist of all that goes to make up mortal felicity. Visible in the drawing are the pair of books strung together, standing for literary accomplishments; the open lozenge, a symbol of victory or success; and the pearl or jewel of the law. The remaining five objects, not appearing in the view of the vase shown in the illustration, are the “cash,” figuring as a square enclosed by a circle, for pecuniary wealth; the painting, representative of the arts; the ch’ing or musical stone, a kind of gong considered lucky on account of the identity of its name with the word for “prosperity”; the pair of rhinoceros-horn cups paralleled by the classical “horn of plenty”; and the leaf of the artemisia, a fragrant plant believed to be efficacious as an antidote against harmful influences. Below these symbols are waves of the sea, tossing in green foam against jagged rocks; spiral eddies painted in black outline under a wash of transparent purple form the background to the composition. The jar was bought in Persia, and is mounted with a brass neck and domed cover of Persian workmanship, chased with arabesques and pierced with grotesque figures in a row of medallions.

Mention has already been made of the celadon-glazed wares made from the Sung period onwards in imitation of green jade, which are perhaps the most widely distributed of all the wares produced in China for export. To this category belong the great rice-dishes and jars for storing grain, often of extraordinary weight in proportion to their size, frequently met with in India and Persia, and everywhere along the shores and islands of the Indian Ocean. This class of porcelain was known to the Arab traders of the Middle Ages as “Martabani,” from the name of the Burmese port which was one of the centres for its distribution. This nomenclature finds its parallel in the name “Gombroon ware,” by which it was called in England in the seventeenth century; the establishment of the East India Company’s factory at Gombroon on the Straits of Ormuz first opened the way for its importation in any considerable quantity into this country.

The long-necked vase of celadon ware from the Jones Collection in Plate 5 may fitly be described here, as it probably dates from the latter part of the Ming dynasty, though the refinement of the form suggests that it may have been made in the earlier years of K’ang Hsi. The surface of the vase is entirely coated with a crackled glaze of bluish-celadon tone, running down in thick waves round the edge of the foot. On this glaze is a design delicately traced in white slip, thick enough to stand out in sensible relief, with details incised by means of a pointed instrument. This decoration, spread over the whole of the vase, is composed of archaic dragons, from the mouths of which issue scrolled stems with leafy terminations having in some cases the outline of the sacred ling-chih fungus. The rich ormolu mounting is characteristic French work of the period of Louis XVI. Below the mouth of the vase hang festoons of drapery, passing through handles which are finished downwards with a bunch of grapes and vine-leaves; the foot is chased with a band of guilloche pattern above a square plinth with incurved corners. This is probably the workmanship of Levasseur, one of the host of artist-craftsmen to whose talent the furniture of eighteenth-century France owes its dignity and refinement. Their taste and judgment was never better displayed than when objects of beauty or rarity were handed to them to be enriched by their skill. The vase before us is a typical case; the porcelain loses nothing of its own loveliness in becoming the medium for displaying the beauty of the metalwork.

The numerous minor factories existing in China before the Ming dynasty were unable to hold their own against the great imperial factory at Ching-tê-chên. Since the time of its establishment there has been only one other factory of artistic standing, that of Têhua in the province of Fuchien. It is devoted to the production of plain white porcelain with a creamy surface, resembling ivory in texture, but varying considerably in shades of colour. Quantities of Fuchien china were brought to Europe during the seventeenth century by the various India Companies. In France, where it received the name of “blanc de Chine,” it provided models for the porcelain makers of St. Cloud, and among the earliest output of many other European works will be found plain white cups and teapots with applied sprays of Chinese plum-blossom in relief, faithfully copying the models of the Têhua factory. Statuettes and groups of divinities always formed a large proportion of its productions; the royal collection at Dresden contains a fine series of such figures, many of them nearly two feet in height, which were among the porcelain collected by Augustus the Strong of Saxony, through the agency of the Dutch East India merchants.

The smaller objects made at Têhua are delightful by virtue of their very simplicity. In the absence of coloured decoration of any kind, the full charm of the soft white surface can be appreciated. The specimen illustrated in Plate 6 affords proof that this ware was highly esteemed by early European collectors. This piece, one of a pair in the Jones Bequest, was doubtless originally a bottle or rosewater-sprinkler with bulbous body and narrow tapering neck, but it has been cut down and fitted with silver-gilt mounts to adapt it to the purpose of a pastille-burner. The neck has been removed and replaced by a silver-gilt knob of finely-chased foliage. The shoulder has been drilled with holes; lower down the porcelain has been cut away for the insertion of a band engraved with delicate cartouches and rosettes. The foot of the bottle is raised on a tripod silver-gilt base, ornamented with three lions’ heads and three grotesque mascarons exquisitely chased. When the piece is turned up, further enrichment is disclosed underneath it in the form of an engraved design of a type much in favour about 1700, representing, in a half-grotesque manner, a squirrel, birds and a hound among trees. The hall-marks with which the mounts are stamped in several places are unfortunately very indistinct, but from their form it is clear that they are Parisian marks of the early years of the eighteenth century. The initials of an unknown silversmith “P. B.” can easily be made out, while another mark appears to be that of Étienne Baligny, fermier général from 1703 till 1713; but no marks are necessary to show that we have here French work in the finest style of the age of Louis XIV. The care bestowed upon the mounting is sufficient evidence of the value set upon Fuchien porcelain by European collectors of the time. Further testimony of this is afforded by the fact already noticed, that the designs and methods of decoration in vogue at the Têhua potteries were extensively imitated in the earlier stages of several Western factories. In the blossoming sprays of plum applied to the body of the piece in our illustration we recognise the favourite emblem of longevity which is of such constant occurrence on Chinese objects, lending them a felicitous significance appropriate to things destined to be given as presents or tokens of congratulation. The same motive is familiar in the early white china of Meissen, Bow, and Chelsea, and of St. Cloud, Vincennes, and Sèvres.

In addition to applied reliefs the Fuchien potters decorated their porcelain with delicate incised designs, sometimes scarcely perceptible until closely examined, or with ornaments impressed by means of small stamps. An instance of the latter method is seen on the foot of the piece under consideration, which has a repeating border of fret-pattern lightly impressed in the paste.

The reign of Wan Li was followed by an epoch extending over nearly half a century which is almost devoid of significance in the history of porcelain. The invasions of the Manchu Tartars brought to an end the native Ming dynasty, and gave its last two emperors little leisure for the patronage of art. The establishment on the throne of the still-ruling Ch’ing dynasty of Tartar emperors was the opening of a new era, and the accession of its second monarch, K’ang Hsi, was the signal for a brilliant artistic renaissance, nowhere more apparent in its effects than in the wonderful achievements of the imperial porcelain works at Ching-tê-chên. K’ang Hsi’s reign of sixty years’ duration covered roughly the same space of time as that of his illustrious French contemporary, the Grand Monarque, who gave the impetus for a similar revival in the arts of his own kingdom. It was an age of peace and order following after years of strife and confusion. Energies no longer required to be spent in warfare were free to be diverted to the pursuance of the arts of peace.

In the domain of porcelain the outcome of these favourable conditions is seen in an extraordinary advance along technical lines unparalleled in the history of ceramics. A white body of the utmost purity, a glaze fusing so perfectly on to the surface of the paste as to give an appearance of deep luminosity, underglaze colours and overglaze enamels unsurpassed in brilliance and liveliness, brought within the reach of the potter a wonderful variety of effects far beyond anything that had been attained before. Yet the very technical skill which made the triumphs of the K’ang Hsi period possible, opened the way for the artistic decline of the following half century. Virtuosity took the place of aesthetic spontaneity; while there is undeniable beauty in the new achievements, they generally lack the vigour and sincerity of earlier periods when the principles of technique were less well understood.

The characteristic qualities of K’ang Hsi porcelain are well illustrated by the vases chosen for the drawings reproduced in Plates 7 and 8. The first of these is a “blue and white” covered vase, formerly in the collection of Mr. James Orrock, with decoration in shaped panels reserved on a “powdered blue” ground. Of the four large panels, two are filled with sprays of flowers, and a third with a selection from the curious assemblage of objects known as the “Hundred Antiques” (Po Ku), symbolising the elegant arts and accomplishments. In the remaining panel is a mountainous landscape rendered in the conventional manner customary in Chinese paintings; the conventions are not such as we are familiar with in Western art, but once accepted, they will be found to suggest nature and to perform a decorative function no less effectively than those of the European designer.

The cobalt-blue is typical of the finest quality of the period; it has a depth of tone and a limpid brilliancy found only in the reign of K’ang Hsi, compared with which all but the best blue of other periods seems dingy and lustreless. The ground colour is carefully sprayed or splashed on to the vase, and has in consequence on a close inspection a minutely speckled appearance; to this is owing the intense throbbing effect which has often been noticed as the peculiar quality of the blue of this class. This beauty of colour, combined with the faultless spacing of the decoration, compensates for a certain prim formality noticeable when comparison is made with the less orderly designs of the Ming dynasty.

Passing on to Plate 8, we come to a representative of the class of decoration above all others associated with the K’ang Hsi period. This class is derived from the “five colour” group, already discussed, of the later Ming emperors, characterised by painting in enamel colours fired over the glaze at a comparatively low temperature, and hence known to French collectors as enamels of the demi-grand feu. From the predominance of green the class is generally termed the “famille verte.” The blue comprised among the five colours of the Ming dynasty is always an underglaze cobalt painted on the biscuit before the application of the glaze; but in the majority of pieces of later date, whether strictly of the “five colour” order or of the derivative famille verte, the blue, like the rest of the pigments, is an overglaze enamel.

The vase here illustrated is of special interest as exemplifying the use of both kinds of blue; while in the main decoration an enamel blue of greyish tone has been employed, there are also two bands, round the shoulder and base respectively, filled with a diaper pattern in underglaze blue enclosed between ridges in slight relief. The form of the vase is that known as “club-shaped.” The scheme of decoration is of a type which became increasingly prevalent as the eighteenth century advanced, and departs entirely from the traditions of earlier times. Instead of a broadly-treated design proportionate to the dimensions of the vase, the surface is divided into a number of panels of diverse size and outline, set against a figured groundwork and filled in with delicate miniature paintings. Two large rectangular panels contain rocky lake-scenes with figures. Smaller panels enclose some of the “Hundred Antiques” already alluded to, while in two circular medallions we see a carp rising from a cataract, beneath a full moon partly hidden among clouds. This latter subject is an allegory of literary success attained by perseverance and industry. The allusion is to the legend according to which the sturgeon of the Hoang Ho river, when they ascend the stream in the third month of the year, are transformed into dragons if they succeed in climbing the rapids of the Lung Mên or Dragon Gate. The green ground of the vase is figured with a close pattern of conventional lotus-flowers amid small scrolled foliage. The whole is exquisitely rendered, and composes such a beautiful harmony of colour as to compel admiration, in spite of the comparative lack of breadth in the treatment of the design.

To detail all the methods of decoration in vogue in the K’ang Hsi period, many of them then for the first time introduced, would be beyond the scope of such a work as this; it must suffice to mention briefly a few of the most remarkable. Firstly, there are many varieties of the famille verte, the most notable being that in which naturalistic flowers are relieved against a ground of enamel, either straw-yellow, green, or lustrous black. The pieces on which the last-named ground colour occurs form the subdivision known to connoisseurs as the “famille noire”; the Salting Collection includes a splendid series of vases of this category. Dignity of form is combined in them with masterly composition in the painting, while the measure of conventionalism necessitated by the limited palette frees this type from the imputation of excessive naturalism.

The “blue and white” of the time of K’ang Hsi has already been noticed. Beautiful effects were obtained where the cobalt was used in harmonious combination with the other high temperature underglaze pigments, a greyish celadon-green and the soft crimson obtained from copper. Another new type of painted ware dating from this time is that in which the design is entirely carried out in the overglaze iron-red, first seen amongst the pigments of the “five colour” order. The red of the K’ang Hsi period, a pure coral-red of the utmost brilliancy, is generally employed in conventional designs, such as dragons and symbols or lotus-flowers, symmetrically disposed over the whole surface of a vase.

Perhaps the greatest glory of the reign are the single-colour and variegated glazes, reviving and excelling the achievements in this direction of the Sung dynasty. Chief among these are the crimson, or “sang de bœuf,” and the apple-green associated with the name of Lang T’ing-tso, viceroy during the beginning of the reign of the province of Kiangsi, in which the imperial kilns of Ching-tê-chên are situated; further developments were attained, such as the “peach-bloom,” the “kingfisher” turquoise-blue, and the revived “clair de lune,” when in 1683 Ts’ang Ying-hsüan was appointed director of the factories. These wares rank among the most splendid achievements of the potter’s art; in beauty of form and gorgeousness of colour they have never been surpassed, while by their nature they are free from the defect of over-refinement incident to the productions of an age of great technical discoveries, which has been noticed in speaking of the painted porcelain.

Lastly, before passing on to the next reign, a word must be said of the statuettes of divinities and the objects fashioned in the shape of fruit or living creatures, which are another feature of the K’ang Hsi renaissance. Painted generally in the enamel colours of the famille verte, these figures are often masterpieces of modelling, instinct with vivacity and expression.

The short reign of Yung Chêng, who succeeded K’ang Hsi in 1723, witnessed still further advances in the direction of technical perfection, accompanied on the artistic side by a corresponding growth of the tendency to over-refinement. The discovery during the latter years of K’ang Hsi of a rose-coloured enamel derived from gold, varying in shade from pink to crimson, opened the way for a revolution in the colour-scheme which is the chief characteristic of the painted porcelain of Yung Chêng and his successor Ch’ien Lung. From the prevalence of this colour, the type of porcelain on which it occurs received the name of “famille rose” among French connoisseurs. The widened range of the enamel-painter’s palette made possible a completely naturalistic manner, in which all conventionalism of treatment was abandoned. No album of flora can show more faithful botanical drawings than are to be seen in such exquisite subjects after nature as that in the piece reproduced in Plate 2; in no work on ornithology could be found truer renderings of bird life. The plate, painted with a bird of the kingfisher family perched on the branch of a gnarled plum-tree in flower, belongs to the collection bequeathed by Mr. W. H. Cope. The spray of blossoming pomegranate which completes the composition is naturally rendered by means of the newly-invented carmine enamel. While we may question the fitness of a subject thus treated for the decoration of a porcelain plate, we cannot but admire the exquisite delicacy of the painting and the skilful arrangement of the composition.

Perhaps the most famous of the productions of the Yung Chêng period are the plates and cups and saucers of thin “egg-shell” china with enamel decoration of figure-subjects or birds and flowers enclosed within elaborate borders of complex diaper. The same fine porcelain was employed as a material for lanterns; fine examples of these are exhibited in the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Concurrently with such technical refinements as these, there came about under Yung Chêng an archaistic revival of ancient wares, resulting from the commission given by the emperor for the reproduction of the ceramic treasures of past centuries preserved in his palaces. Imitations were made both of the shapes and of the numerous varieties of glaze of the factories of the Sung dynasty, while in the “blue and white” category the spotted manner of painting already noticed as characteristic of the reign of Hsüan Tê was specially in favour. Another ancient type extensively reproduced was the “five colour” class of the later Ming emperors. Where there cannot be traced a refinement in the handling of the design foreign to the earlier painters, the copies are readily distinguished from their prototypes by a difference in the quality of the colours employed. The underglaze cobalt-blue has a decidedly violet nuance, a delicate lilac replaces the earlier purple, and the green is of a lighter grass-coloured hue; furthermore, the enamel colours often display a faint iridescence where the light glances on them. The vase represented in Plate 9 is a fine example of this archaistic school of the time of Yung Chêng. The shape, of noble simplicity, dates back to the earliest period of the Ming dynasty, but the decoration belongs to the “five colour” type of Wan Li. The design is composed of a dragon and a mythical phœnix (fêng huang), emblems of the emperor, amid flowers and foliage of the tree-peony on wavy stems. The breadth of treatment, the vigorous drawing, the masterly balance of the colouring, entitle this vase to a place among the best performances of the Chinese potter.

By the time of the Emperor Ch’ien Lung, whose reign of sixty years ended in 1795, deteriorating influences made themselves felt with ever-increasing insistence, and the story of Chinese porcelain from this time forward is a record of steady decline. The seeds of decay may be considered to have been planted about the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the establishment of the European trading companies brought China into close and constant touch with the Western world. The new markets thus opened for Chinese products inevitably brought about the creation of a new style in Chinese art to suit the taste of European buyers. Traces of Western influence may be discerned, if not in the decoration, at all events in the forms of Chinese porcelain all through the seventeenth century, and in K’ang Hsi’s reign its effect is fully apparent. The splendid rebirth of art and culture consequent upon the restoration of peace in the empire under his rule availed for a time to check the sinister effect of these changes; but as the eighteenth century advanced, a new class of wares affecting shapes unknown to Oriental customs and designed to meet Western requirements, was produced in ever-increasing quantities, and did not fail to influence the whole output of the Chinese kilns. The commercial spirit thus engendered, hastened the decline already originated by too close attention to the technical side of ceramic craftsmanship. The result is seen in the shapeless extravagances, wonderful in technique, but devoid of grace and beauty, produced in the latter years of Ch’ien Lung, and in the dreary “India china” made for export through the various India companies of Europe. There was a momentary gleam of revival in the nineteenth century under Taou Kuang, when creditable copies were made of some of the Yung Chêng designs, but such imitative efforts do not avail to arouse the interest of those to whom the art of a country ceases to appeal, when it reflects the genius of a people no longer in the full vigour of manhood.