[397] Quoted from a letter written to Sir Wollaston Franks by Mr. Arthur B. French, who visited Ching-tê Chên in 1882.
[398] Officially the reign of K’ang Hsi dates from 1662–1722, but he actually succeeded to the throne on the death of Shun Chih in 1661, so that his reign completed the cycle of sixty years in 1721.
[399] As Bushell has done in Chinese Art, vol. ii., p. 42.
[400] See “Note on Canton Enamels,” Burlington Magazine, December, 1912.
[401] See p. 225, No. 40.
[402] Op. cit., second letter, section xx.
[403] Nos. 39 and 55–57.
[404] Miao is used in the sense of to “draw” a picture or design.
[405] Bushell, O. C. A., p. 400, explains how the studio name was formed by the common device of splitting up Hu into its component parts ku and yüeh .
[406] From the Hippisley collection, Catalogue, p. 408.
[407] Catalogue of Hippisley Collection, p. 347.
[408] Chinese Art, vol. ii., fig. 74.
[409] See p. 224, Nos. 15–17.
[410] A recipe given in the T’ao lu (bk. iii., fol. 12 verso) for the lu chün glaze speaks of “crystals of nitre, rock crystal, and (?) cobaltiferous manganese (liao) mixed with ordinary glaze.” But apart from the uncertain rendering of liao (which Bushell takes as ch’ing liao, i.e. the material used for blue painting), it is difficult to see how this composition, including the ordinary porcelain glaze, can have been fired in the muffle kiln.
[411] In the jujube red the iron oxide is mixed with the plumbo-alcaline flux of the enameller, whereas in the mo hung it is simply made to adhere to the porcelain by means of glue, and depends for the silicates, which give it a vitreous appearance, on the glaze beneath it.
[412] O. C. A., p. 360.
[413] See p. 224, No. 18.
[414] See p. 225, No. 44.
[415] Op. cit., p. 67.
[416] Catalogue, K. 18.
[417] Catalogue, vol. i., p. 38. The colour has already been discussed in a note on p. 68 of vol. i. of this book.
[419] See Bushell, O. C. A., p. 368
[420] The Chinese is kua yu , lit. hanging, suspended or applied glaze. The Yi-hsing stoneware was not usually glazed; hence the force of the epithet kua applied.
[421] The gold-flecked turquoise has yet to be identified.
[422] Bushell says this is the sapphire blue (pao shih lan) of the period.
[423] mo, lit. “rubbed.” Bushell (O. C. A., p. 383) explains the term mo hung as “applied to the process of painting the coral red monochrome derived from iron over the glaze with an ordinary brush.”
[424] Bushell takes this to be the lemon yellow enamel which was first used at this time.
[426] yu t’ung yung hung yu hui hua chê, yu ch’ing yeh hung hua chê. Bushell (O. C. A., p. 386) gives a slightly different application of this passage, but the meaning seems to be obviously that given above.
[427] This note is given by Bushell, apparently from the Chinese edition which he used; but it does not appear in the British Museum copy. It is, however, attached to the list as quoted in the T’ao lu.
[428] As already explained, miao chin refers to gilt designs painted with a brush, and mo chin to gilding covering the entire surface.
[429] O. C. A., p. 50.
[431] Translated by Bushell, O. C. A., p. 398.
[432] Bk. v., fol. 12.
[433] , yu hsin shih, lit. “also he newly made.” This is undoubtedly the sense given by the Chinese original, and Julien renders it “il avait nouvellement mis en œuvre.” Bushell, on the other hand, translates: “He also made porcelain decorated with the various coloured glazes newly invented,” a reading which makes the word chih do duty twice over, and leaves it doubtful whether T’ang was the inventor of these types of decoration or merely the user of them. Both the grammar and the balance of the sentences in the original are against this colourless rendering.
[435] La Porcelaine Chinoise, p. 216.
[436] See p. 225. “In the new copies of the Western style of painting in enamels (hsi yang fa lang hua fa), the landscapes and figure scenes, the flowering plants and birds are without exception of supernatural beauty.”
[438] P. 397.
[439] An interesting series of these bird’s egg glazes appearing, as they often do, on tiny vases was exhibited by his Excellency the Chinese Minister at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in November, 1913.
[440] There is a very old superstition in China that cracked or broken pottery is the abode of evil spirits. The modern collector abhors the cracked or damaged specimen for other reasons, and it is certain that such things would not be admitted to the Imperial collections. Many rare and interesting pieces which have come to Europe in the past will be found on examination to be more or less defective, and it is probable that we owe their presence chiefly to this circumstance.
[441] See Bushell’s translation, op. cit., p. 6.
[442] The T’ao shuo was published in 1774.
[444] See Julien, op. cit., p. 101, under the heading lung kang yao (kilns for the dragon jars).
[445] The Chinese foot as at present standardised is about two inches longer than the English foot, and the Chinese inch is one-tenth of it.
[447] There are four examples of the large size of fish bowl in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, but they are of late Ming date.
[448] Possibly the tint named in the T’ao shuo (Bushell, op. cit., p. 5). “They are coloured wax yellow, tea green, gold brown, or the tint of old Lama books,” in reference to incense burners of this period.
[449] Nos. 8, 9 and 11. See Bushell, T’ao shuo, op. cit., pp. 16–19.
[451] A plaque in the Bushell Collection with famille verte painting has also a remarkably lustrous appearance, which I can only ascribe to excessive iridescence.
[452] See Bushell’s translation, op. cit. p. 20.
[453] Figured by L. Binyon, Painting in the Far East, first edition, Plate XIX. There is a fine vase of late Ming blue and white porcelain with this design in the Dresden collection.
[454] This green enamel is sometimes netted over with lines suggesting crackle studded with prunus blossoms. Possibly this is intended to recall both in colour and pattern the “plum blossom” crackle of the Sung Kuan yao; see vol. i., p. 61.
[456] See Burton and Hobson, Marks on Pottery and Porcelain, p. 151.
[457] Op. cit., pp. 116–175.
[458] T’ao shuo, op. cit., pp. 7–30 and O. C. A., ch. xv.
[459] The Lowestoft factory started about 1752, but its earlier productions were almost entirely blue and white, often copied, like most of the contemporary blue and white from Chinese export wares.
[460] A curious instance of imitation of European ornament is a small bowl which I recently saw with openwork sides and medallions, apparently moulded from a glass cameo made by Tassie at the end of the eighteenth century; and there is a puzzle jug with openwork neck, copied from the well known Delft-ware model, in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.
[461] Rotterdam was captured by the Spaniards in 1572; but those who are interested in the anachronism of Chinese marks will observe that these plates have the date mark of the Ch’êng Hua period (1465–1487).
[463] Op. cit., p. 207.
[464] An interesting example of an early eighteenth century service with European designs is the “trumpeter service,” of which several specimens may be seen in the Salting Collection. It has a design of trumpeters, or perhaps heralds, reserved in a black enamelled ground.
[465] One of these pieces, for instance, is a plate with arms of Sir John Lambert, who was created a baronet in 1711 and died in 1722. It has enamels of the transition kind.
[466] P. 209.
[467] The willow pattern is merely an English adaptation of the conventional Chinese landscape and river scene which occurs frequently on the export blue and white porcelain of the eighteenth century. That it represents any particular story is extremely improbable.
[468] Frank Falkner, The Wood Family of Burslem, p. 67.
[469] Another chambrelan who flourished about the same time and who worked in the same style was C. F. de Wolfsbourg.
[470] O. C. A., p. 464.
[471] “The mountains are high, the rivers long.”
[473] Catalogue, No. 367.
[475] Hippisley Collection, Catalogue, No. 169.
[476] O. C. A., p. 469.
[477] This extravagant idea has been long ago exploded, and need not be rediscussed. See, however, Julien Porcelaine Chinoise, p. xix., and Medhurst, Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong, 1853.
[478] O. C. A., p. 470.
[479] Bk. 93, fols. 13–15.
[480] O. C. A., pp. 474–83.
[481] Bushell applies the phrase pan tzŭ to the bowls and renders it “of ring-like outline.”
[482] Bushell renders ju-i in the general sense, “with words of happy augury”; it is, however, applied to ornaments of ju-i staffs and to borders of ju-i heads.
[484] Bk. i., fols. 1 and 2; see Bushell, op. cit., pp. 3–6.
[485] This is a variety of the key pattern or Greek fret, which is of world-wide distribution.
[486] A less usual variety has the ovoid body actually surmounted by a beaker
[487] See Bushell, O. C. A., p. 797.
[488] See Bushell’s translation, op. cit., p. 4.
[489] See Bushell, O. C. A., p. 489.
[490] Among others is the “tantalus cup,” with a small tube in the bottom concealed by a figure of a man or smiling boy. When the water in the cup reaches the top of the tube it runs away from the base.
[491] Loc. cit., p. 204.
[492] The cup with handle was made in the tea services for the European market, but the handle is not, as has been sometimes asserted, a European addition to the cup. Cups with handles were made in China as early as the T’ang dynasty (see Plate 11, Fig. 2); but for both wine and tea drinking the Chinese seem to have preferred the handleless variety.
[493] When the names are known the incidents can usually be found in such works of reference as Mayers’ Chinese Reader’s Manual, Giles’s Chinese Biographical Dictionary, and Anderson’s Catalogue of Chinese and Japanese Pictures.
[494] Told in the Shui Hu Chuan; see O. C. A., p. 570, a note in Bushell’s excellent chapter on Chinese decorative motives, of which free use has been made here.
[495] A not uncommon subject is the meeting of a young horseman with a beautiful lady in a chariot, and it has been suggested that this may be the meeting of Ming Huang and Yang Kuei-fei; but the identification is quite conjectural.
[496] Another game, hsiang ch’i (elephant checkers), is far nearer to our chess.
[497] A group of five old men similarly employed represents the wu lao (the five old ones), the spirits of the five planets.
[498] Chang Kuo Lao, the Taoist Immortal, is also regarded as one of the gods of Literature; see p. 287.
[499] Vajrapani is one of the gods of the Four Quarters of the Heaven, who are guardians of Buddha. They are represented as ferocious looking warriors, sometimes stamping on prostrate demon-figures. As such they occur among the T’ang tomb statuettes, but they are not often represented on the later porcelains.
[500] The Kanzan and Jitoku of Japanese lore.
[502] Indeed it is likely that the modern ju-i head derives from the fungus. The ju-i means “as you wish” or “according (ju) to your idea (i),” and the sceptre, which is made in all manner of materials such as wood, porcelain, lacquer, cloisonné enamel, etc., is a suitable gift for wedding or birthday. Its form is a slightly curved staff about 12 to 15 inches long, with a fungus-shaped head bent over like a hook. On the origin of the ju-i, see Laufer, Jade, p. 335.
[503] The Japanese Mt. Horai.
[504] See Hippisley, Catalogue, op. cit., p. 392.
[505] The Buddhist pearl or jewel, which grants every wish.
[506] See a rare silver cup depicting this legend, figured in the Burlington Magazine, December, 1912.
[507] See W. Perceval Yetts, Symbolism in Chinese Art, read before the China Society, January 8th, 1912, p. 3.
[508] Hippisley (op. cit., p. 368), speaking of the various dragons, says that “the distinction is not at present rigidly maintained, and the five-clawed dragon is met with embroidered on officers’ uniforms.”
[509] A dual creature, the fêng being the male and the huang the female.
[510] See Laufer, Jade, pl. 43.
[511] See Laufer, Jade, p. 266.
[512] See Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. i., p. 111.
[514] They also symbolise the three friends, Confucius, Buddha, and Lao-tzŭ.
[515] O. C. A., p. 106.
[516] It is also used as a synonym for “embroidered,” and when it occurs as a mark on porcelain, it suggests the idea “richly decorated.”
[517] Also a symbol of conjugal felicity; and a rebus for yü, fertility or abundance.
[518] Having the same sound as ch’ang (long).
[519] O. C. A., p. 119.
[520] A pair of open lozenges interlaced are read as a rebus t’ung hsin fang shêng (union gives success); see Bushell, O. C. A., p. 120.
[521] Bushell, O. C. A., p. 521.
[522] See Hippisley, Catalogue No. 381.
[523] Ibid.
[524] Ibid., No. 388.
[525] Ibid.
[528] See Anderson, op. cit., No. 747.
[529] Bk. viii., fol. 4, quoting the Shih ch’ing jihcha.
[530] See chap. xvii. of vol. i., which deals with marks.