[45] See Bushell, p. 454.
[46] Note that cobalt as an enamel colour was not applied on porcelain during Ming times.
[47] There is, however, a curious old bowl in the Salting collection with the nien-hao of Cheng-te (1505-21), on which a design of iron red, two shades of green, a brownish purple, and a cobalt blue of poor lavender tint, all these colours over the glaze, is combined with an underglaze decoration of fish, in a full copper red. Note also the early use of a cobalt blue enamel, sur couverte, in the Kakiyemon ware of Japan.
[48] Much of this kind was translated by Julien, and a good summary may be found in Hippisley’s paper contributed to the Smithsonian Institute, but the information from the same and other sources is more accurately translated and critically analysed in the seventh and eighth chapters of Dr. Bushell’s great work.
[49] Yung-lo, according to the Chinese reckoning, did not commence his reign until the new year’s day following the death of his predecessor (1403). I have, however, thought it better to adopt the European method of reckoning dates.
[50] The name Sentoku that they give to it is the Japanese reading of the characters forming this emperor’s name.
[51] We may mention that a pair of wide-mouthed vases of this ware, shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1896, bore the nien-hao of Kia-tsing (1521-66) inscribed round the mouth.
[52] More properly a fresh name was given to the period, but for the sake of brevity we here as elsewhere identify the emperor’s name with that given to the nien-hao.
[53] The Trenchard bowls, mentioned below, belong probably to this or to the following reign.
[54] But this name is also applied by some to the older Su-ma-li blue.