Porcelain

by Edward Dillon

It will be observed that in the muffle-stove the fine aubergine purple that we noted in the class last described is rarely to be obtained from manganese. In all cases the white ground is only left sparingly as a reserve for the petals of flowers and for the faces. In addition to these colours—the green, the yellow, and the purple—which are for the most part used as washes, a dark brown or black is largely employed for outlining the details of the decoration, as well as for tempering the colour of the background by covering it with scrolls and spirals.

When this decoration is applied to the small moulded pieces—the magots, for instance, so admired by the French collectors of the eighteenth century—we have a class of objects to which the descriptions (in the Bushell manuscript and elsewhere) of the decorated ware of the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries would seem to apply. As we have seen, it is at the least very doubtful whether these early pieces were decorated over the glaze, but in a general view it cannot fail to strike one that the Kang-he decoration, in which washes of colour[59] play so important a part, belongs to an earlier school than that of the Wan-li porcelain, with its designs and medallions scattered over a white ground. These last patterns are, it would seem, derived from textile fabrics, from the rich brocades of the time, both Chinese and, possibly, foreign. In the famille verte of Kang-he’s time, on the other hand, we may perhaps see a return, in general effect at least, to the san-tsai and wu-tsai painted glazes of earlier Ming time.

When in place of the wash of green (or may be of yellow) the background is formed by a black enamel, we still feel the prevailing influence of the green in the decoration, so that these black-ground vases are rightly included in the famille verte. The black background itself is often of a greenish quality, and in the designs the camellia-leaf green is predominant; yellow and purple are but sparingly introduced, but the effect is heightened by the white reserves ([Pl. x].). In many cases a wash of green appears to have been carried over the black ground. This green enamel may be often seen overlapping, as it were, on the foot of a vase.

It would be difficult to find in the whole range of Chinese porcelain anything more superbly decorative

PLATE X CHINESE

than some of these large black-grounded vases in the Salting collection. We would call attention to one example on which the thin skin-like glaze of the dull ground and the somewhat archaic drawing of the great dragon that curls round the side suggest a date earlier than that of its companions ([Pl. xi].). And yet these fine vases are wanting in two elements which we are accustomed to regard as essential to the best porcelain: they neither display to any extent the natural white colour of the paste,[60] nor is the outline dependent on the motion of the clay under the potter’s hand. Nearly all these vases, as indeed most of the large vessels of this time, are built up from segments made in moulds.

What rich effects of colour are here obtained with a palette so restricted! Perhaps not a little of the beauty of this decoration is due to this very restriction. It will be noticed that we have in the more characteristic examples a total absence of all shades both of red and of blue.

In the other not less important division of the enamel decoration of this time these last two colours are added, and we come again to a pentad of colours—not, however, quite the same as the wu-tsai of Wan-li times. We are still under the influence of the famille verte: the leafy green in two or more shades remains the predominant colour, the opaque red is used more sparingly than in the later Ming enamelled ware, and above all the cobalt blue is now used as an enamel colour over the glaze. This latter use points to an important advance in technique, and it affords an easy means of distinguishing the wares of the two periods. The new method of employing the blue is, however, often only to be recognised by close examination in a favourable light. What at once distinguishes the newer ware is rather the displacement of the opaque red of the Ming porcelain by the characteristic green of the Kang-he time as the dominant colour. When this full complement of five colours is used, the general scheme of the design, however, follows more on the lines of the Wan-li ware; we find sprays of flowers or figure subjects relieved upon the white ground. But the drawing of the newer ware is somewhat more realistic, and there is generally a greater finish. In rare cases the five colours are combined with the black ground, as may be seen on two large vases in the British Museum, but the effect is not so happy as that obtained with a simpler range of colours.