[138] Figured in F. Dillon, Porcelain, Plate v.
[139] Bk. v., fol. 9 recto.
[140] . Ts’ui is a fairly common name. It occurs as a mark on a small figure of an infant in creamy white ware of Ting type in the Eumorfopoulos Collection; but it is highly improbable that this piece has anything to do with the Mr. Ts’ui here in question.
[141] The Ming ch’ên shih pi chou chai yü t’an, quoted in the T’ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 4, says, “When we come to Chia Ching ware then there are also imitations of both Hsüan Tê and Ch’êng Hua types (they even are said to excel them). But Mr. Ts’ui’s ware is honoured in addition, though its price is negligible, being only one-tenth of that of Hsüan and Ch’êng wares.”
[142] Bk. iii., fol. 7.
[143] See Bushell, O. C. A., p. 235.
[144] Bk. vi., fol. 16, and Bushell’s translation, p. 152.
[145] See Ming ch’ên shih pi chou chai yü t’an (quoted in T’ao lu, bk. viii., cf. 4 verso): “For Mu Tsung (i.e. Lung Ch’ing) loved sensuality, and therefore orders were given to make this kind of thing; but as a matter of fact 'Spring painting’ began in the picture house of Prince Kuang Chüan of the Han dynasty....”
[146] See T’ao lu, bk. viii., fols. 10 and 11, quoting from the Ts’ao t’ien yu chi.
[147] T’ang ying lung kang chi, quoted in the T’ao lu, bk. viii., fols. 11 and 12.
[148] Chao was supposed to have displayed superhuman skill in the manufacture of pottery in the Chin dynasty (265–419 A.D.).
[149] Bk. v., fol. 8.
[151] Bushell’s rendering, “cups and saucers,” is misleading if not verbally incorrect.
[152] These are Bushell’s renderings.
[153] ssŭ hsŭ t’ou, a phrase which would more usually refer to the beard than the hair of the head. The above rendering is Bushell’s.
[154] .
[155] .
[156] .
[157] . There is an allusion in this name to the story of Hu Kung, a magician of the third and fourth centuries, who was credited with marvellous healing powers. Every night he disappeared, and it was found at length that he was in the habit of retiring into a hollow gourd which hung from the door post. See A. E. Hippisley, Catalogue of a Collection of Chinese Porcelains, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, 1900. Hao’s porcelain is also known as Hu kung yao (the ware of Mr. Pots).
[158] See T’ao lu, bk. v., fol. 10, and bk. viii., fol. 7, and T’ao shuo, bk. vi., fol. 26.
[159] luan mu, “the curtain inside the egg,” which conveys the idea of extreme tenuity better than the most usual expression, “egg shell” porcelain.
[160] Half a chu.
[161] .
[162] Tzŭ chin. Golden brown with reddish tinge (tzŭ chin tai chu), accurately describes one kind of stoneware tea pots made at Yi-hsing (p. 177); but it is not stated whether Hao’s imitations were in stoneware or porcelain.
[163] An allusion to the celebrated orchid pavilion at Kuei-chi, in Chêkiang, the meeting place of a coterie of scholars in the fourth century. The scene in which they floated their wine cups on the river has been popularised in pictorial art. See Plate 104 Fig. 1.
[164] .
[165] The K’ao p’an yü shih.
[166] Bk. vi., fol. 16 recto.
[168] Bk. v., fol. 10 verso, under the heading, Hsiao nan yao (Little South Street wares).
[169] , apparently referring to the size of the vessels and not necessarily implying that they were shaped like a frog. On the other hand, small water vessels in the form of a frog have been made in China from the Sung period onwards.
[170] .
[171] A similar ewer in Dr. Seligmann’s collection is marked with one of the trigrams of the pa kua.
[172] Cat., L 24.
[173] Cat., E 19–25.
[174] Denkmäler Persischer Baukunst, Plate lii., Text p. 41 and Fig. 44.
[175] The same emperor showed his appreciation for Chinese ceramics by importing a number of Chinese potters into Persia. See p. 30.
[176] It is recorded that the Emperor Wan Li sent presents of large porcelain jars to the Mogul Emperor, and it is likely that similar presents had arrived at the Persian Court.
[177] Cat., Case X, No. 245, and Plate xv.
[178] Burlington Magazine, October, 1910, p. 40.
[179] See Franks Catalogue, No. 763.
[180] Burlington Magazine, March, 1913, p. 310. See also Hainhofer und der Kunstschrank Gustav Adolfs, op. cit., Plate 69, where a set of dishes of India lacquer is illustrated, each mounted in the centre with a roundel of this type of porcelain. These dishes are mentioned in a letter dated 1628.
[181] Numbered 1191 and 1192. A number of other painters who have introduced these Chinese porcelains into their work are named by Mr. Perzynski (Burlington Magazine, December, 1910, p. 169).
[183] C 5–7.
[184] Cat., No. 112D.
[185] Burlington Magazine, December, 1910, p. 169.
[186] The figures sometimes stand out against a background coloured with washes of green, yellow and aubergine glaze. See Plate 82, Fig. 2.
[190] I have seen occasional specimens with the Wan Li mark.
[192] Cat., J 21.
[193] Cat., A 33. In the Lymans Collection in Boston there are several examples of this ware, including specimens with dark and light coffee brown grounds and a jar in blue and white.
[194] A collection of these is in the British Museum, and they include many types of late Ming export porcelains.
[195] Cat. B. F. A., K 37.
[196] A jar with vertical bands of ornament in a misty underglaze red of pale tint in the Eumorfopoulos collection probably belongs to this period. Though technically unsuccessful, the general effect of the bold red-painted design is most attractive.
[198] Cat., J 16.
[199] There is a whole case full of them in the celebrated Dresden collection, a fact which is strongly in favour of a K’ang Hsi origin for the group.
[202] The fact that the enamellers’ shops at Ching-tê Chên to this day are known as hung tien (red shops) points to the predominance of this red family in the early history of enamelled decorations.
[207] H 17, exhibited by Mr. G. Eumorfopoulos.
[210] Other saucers of this kind have a decoration of radiating floral sprays, and there are bowls of a familiar type with small sprays engraved and filled in with coloured glazes in a ground of green or aubergine purple. Some of these have a rough biscuit suggesting the late Ming period; others of finer finish apparently belong to the K’ang Hsi period. They often have indistinct seal marks, known as “shop marks,” in blue.
[211] Burlington Magazine, December, 1910, p. 169, and March, 1913, p. 311.
[212] Figured in Monkhouse, op. cit., Fig. 2. The date of the mount is disputed, some authorities placing it at the end of the sixteenth century.
[213] Figured by Perzynski, Burlington Magazine, March, 1913. A vase of this style with tulip design in the palace at Charlottenburg has a cyclical date in the decoration, which represents 1639 or 1699 (probably the former) in our chronology.
[214] pai tun tzŭ white blocks.
[216] Many observers positively assert that the grooved foot rim does not occur on pre-K’ang Hsi porcelain. If this is true, it provides a very useful rule for dating; but the rigid application of these rules of thumb is rarely possible, and we can only regard them as useful but not infallible guides.
[217] Quoted in T’ao lu, bk. viii., fol. 6.
[218] fu ti.
[219] Man hsin.
[220] See T’ao shuo, bk. iii., fol. 7 verso. “Among other things the porcelain with glaze lustrous and thick like massed lard, and which has millet grains rising like chicken skin and displays palm eyes (tsung yen) like orange skin, is prized.” The expression “palm eyes” occurring by itself in other contexts has given rise to conflicting opinions, but its use here, qualified by the comparison with orange peel and in contrast with the granular elevations, points clearly to some sort of depressions or pittings which, being characteristic of the classical porcelain, came to be regarded as beauty spots.
[221] e.g. The P’ing shih, the P’ing hua p’u, and the Chang wu chih, all late Ming works. An extract from the second (quoted in the T’ao lu, bk. ix., p. 4 verso) tells us that “Chang Tê-ch’ien says all who arrange flowers first must choose vases. For summer and autumn you should use porcelain vases. For the hall and large rooms large vases are fitting; for the study, small ones. Avoid circular arrangement and avoid pairs. Prize the porcelain and disdain gold and silver. Esteem pure elegance. The mouth of the vase should be small and the foot thick. Choose these. They stand firm, and do not emit vapours.” Tin linings, we are also told, should be used in winter to prevent the frost cracking the porcelain; and Chang wu chih (quoted ibidem, fol. 6 verso) speaks of very large Lung-ch’üan and Chün ware vases, two or three feet high, as very suitable for putting old prunus boughs in.
[222] Cobalt, the source of the ceramic blues, is obtained from cobaltiferous ore of manganese, and its quality varies according to the purity of the ore and the care with which it is refined.
[223] 0. C. A., p. 263. This very dark blue recalls one of the Chia Ching types noted on page 36.
[226] Biscuit is the usual term for a fired porcelain which has not been glazed.
[228] It has been suggested by Mr. Joseph Burton that the opacity of the colours described in the preceding paragraphs may have been due to the addition of porcelain earth to the glazing material.
[232] The T’ao lu (bk. ix., fol. 17 verso) quotes an infallible method for fixing the gold on bowls so that it would never come off; it seems to have consisted of mixing garlic juice with the gold before painting and firing it in the ordinary way.
[233] Loc. cit., and Bushell, O. C. A., p. 268.
[235] See T’ao shuo, bk. iii., fol. 10 verso.
[237] e.g. The Chieh tzŭ yüan ma chuan of the K’ang Hsi period, mentioned by Perzynski, Burlington Magazine, March, 1913, p. 310.
[238] Bushell’s translation, op. cit., p. 71.
[239] Ku chin t’u shu chi ch’êng, section xxxii., bk. 248, section entitled tz’ŭ ch’i pu hui k’ao, fol. 13 verso.
[241] The supplies of porcelain earth in the immediate district of Jao Chou Fu were exhausted by this time.
[242] The others were the Ch’ing-yün factory at Ssŭ-tu, and the Lan-ch’i factory in the Chien-ning district. The latter district was mentioned in vol. i., p. 130, in connection with the hare’s fur bowls of the Sung period.
[244] Tê-hua was formerly included in the Ch’üan-chou Fu, but is now in the Yung-ch’un Chou.
[246] Bk. vii., fol. 13 verso.
[247] Loc. cit.
[248] According to de Groot, Annales du Musée Guinet, vol. xi., p. 195.
[249] Brinkley, China and Japan, vol. ix., p. 274.
[250] See W. Anderson, Catalogue of the Japanese and Chinese Paintings in the British Museum, p. 75.
[251] O. C. A., p. 628.
[252] In the letter dated from Jao Chou, September, 1712, loc. cit.
[253] Incised designs on Fukien wares consist of the ordinary decoration etched in the body of the ware and of inscriptions which have evidently been cut through the glaze before it was fired. The latter often occur on wine cups, and are usually poetical sentiments or aphorisms, e.g. “In business be pure as the wind”; “Amidst the green wine cups we rejoice.”
[254] Japan and China, vol. ix., p. 273.
[255] Everyday Life in China, or Scenes in Fukien, by E. J. Dukes, London, 1885, p. 140. The reference is given by Bushell in his Oriental Ceramic Art.
[256] Loc. cit., p. 273.
[257] The Li t’a k’an k’ao ku ou pien, a copy of which, published in 1877, is in the British Museum. This book does not inspire confidence, but I give the passage for what it is worth: “When the glaze (of the Chien yao) is white like jade, glossy and lustrous, rich and thick, with a reddish tinge, and the biscuit heavy, the ware is first quality ... Enamelled specimens (wu ts’ai) are second rate.”
[258] In the Pierpont Morgan collection (vol. i., p. 78), a specimen with a blue mark is described as Fukien porcelain; but I should accept the description with the greatest reserve, white Ching-tê Chên ware being very often wrongly described in this way.
[259] O. C. A., p. 294.
[260] In the second volume of the Pierpont Morgan catalogue—which, unfortunately, had not the benefit of Dr. Bushell’s erudition—the late Mr. Laffan extended the term lang yao so as to embrace the magnificent three-colour vases with black ground and their kindred masterpieces with green and yellow grounds. It is impossible to justify this extension of the term unless we assume that the pieces in question were all made between the years 1654–1661 and 1665–1668, while Lang T’ing-tso was viceroy of Kiangsi.
[261] O. C. A., p. 302.
[262] Quoted in the Franks Catalogue, p. 8.
[263] O. C. A., p. 302 footnote.
[264] See also Hippisley, Catalogue, p. 346, where another version is given which makes this Lang actually a Jesuit missionary, a version which Mr. Hippisley afterwards abandoned when research in the Jesuit records failed to discover any evidence for the statement.
[267] Op. cit., Section ix. The paragraph in the first letter runs: “Il y en a d’entièrement rouges, et parmi celles-là, les unes sont d’un rouge à l’huile, yeou li hum; les autres sont d’un rouge soufflé, tschoui hum (ch’ui hung), et sont semées de petits points à peu près comme nos mignatures. Quand ces deux sortes d’ouvrages réüssissent dans leur perfection, ce qui est assez difficile, ils sont infiniment estimez et extrêmement chers.”
[268] There is a very beautiful glaze effect known as “ashes of roses,” which seems to be a partially fired-out sang de bœuf. It is a crackled glaze, translucent, and lightly tinged with a copper red which verges on maroon.
[269] The Emperor K’ang Hsi was specially concerned to encourage industry and art, and in 1680 he established a number of factories at Peking for the manufacture of enamels, glass, lacquer, etc. Père d’Entrecolles mentions that he also attempted to set up the manufacture of porcelain in the capital, but though he ordered workmen and materials to be brought from Ching-tê Chên for the purpose, the enterprise failed, possibly, as d’Entrecolles hints, owing to intrigues of the vested interests elsewhere.
[270] Bushell, op. cit., p. 3.
[271] Bk. v., fol. 11.
[272] lit. watered. This word has been rendered by some translators as “pale”; but probably it has merely the sense of “mixed with the (glaze) water,” i.e. a monochrome glaze. The recipe given in the T’ao lu (see Julien) is incomplete, only mentioning “crystals of saltpetre and ferruginous earth (fer ologiste terreux).” Another chiao which signifies “beautiful, delicate,” is applied to the Hung Chih yellow in Hsiang’s Album. See vol. ii., p. 28.
[274] See O. C. A., p. 317.
[275] The two letters were published in Lettres édifiantes et curieuses. They are reprinted as an appendix to Dr. Bushell’s translation of the T’ao shuo. They have been well translated by William Burton, in his Porcelain, Chap. ix.; Bushell gave a précis of them in his O. C. A., Chap, xi., and Stanislas Julien quoted them extensively in his Porcelaine Chinoise.