I
CHINESE PORCELAIN
PLATE 5
Vase, Chinese celadon porcelain, decorated in slip under the glaze, with French ormolu mount of the period of Louis XVI. Height, 17 in. Jones Collection.
No. 817-1882. See p. [16].
Unmarked.
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.
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