It was under the régime of Nien Hsi-yao that this list was drawn up. He was the second of the great viceroys whose names are associated with the emperors Kang-he, Yung-cheng, and Kien-lung respectively. He succeeded to Tsang Ying-hsuan, and was followed in the next reign by Tang-ying. The wares made during the administration of these superintendents are known in chronological order as Tsang yao, Nien yao, and Tang yao. This Nien did not regard his post by any means as a sinecure. He frequently visited the works, and required samples of the imperial ware to be sent every two months to his official residence for inspection (Bushell, p. 361).
The Nien yao, to the Chinese collector, is especially associated with certain monochrome glazes—above all with the clair de lune—the yueh pai or ‘moon-white,’ and with a brilliant red glaze with stippled surface, a near cousin to the sang de bœuf and flambé classes. There is another ‘self-glaze’ ware which dates from this time, of which the mingled tints depend, as in the case of the flambé, upon the varying degrees of oxidation of the copper in the glaze. This is the ‘peach-bloom,’ the ‘apple red and green’ of the Chinese. The charm of this delicate ware is of another kind to that to be found in the vigorous flashes of colour of the transmutation glazes.
We can trace at this time the gradual introduction of two new colours that give so special a character to the wares of the next reign. I mean the pink derived from gold and the lemon-yellow. These colours were used sparingly and with great delicacy at first, but we come to associate them at a later time with a period of decline and of bad taste.
Kien-lung (1735-1795).—It was during the long reign of this emperor, poet and patron of all the arts, that the new direction which we find given to the porcelain made in the reign of his father, Yung-cheng, became even more accentuated—on the one hand, the copying of old glazes and the employment of archaic hieratic patterns for decoration, on the other, the more and more frequent use of new colours and new designs of non-Chinese origin. This latter tendency was fostered both by the eclectic tastes of Kien-lung himself and also by the increasing importance of the demand for foreign countries. Great care was given to the paste—it was required to be of a snowy (or rather sometimes chalky) whiteness, tending neither towards yellow nor towards blue, and so carefully finished on the lathe that on the uniform glassy surface of the finer specimens no signs were left of the movement of the potter’s wheel;[64] for compared with the ware produced in Ming times, and even during the reign of Kang-he, we now note the greater proportion of pieces thrown on the wheel. At no time has the skill of the potter who threw the clay, and of the workman who then pared and smoothed the surface on the lathe, been brought to a greater perfection, and this applies not only to the eggshell china, but to the large vases and beakers, so perfect in their outline. The same perfection of technique is found in the decoration, so that a blue and white vase of this period can at once be recognised in spite of the pseudo-archaic decoration and the Ming nien hao inscribed on the base. When the new colours are introduced the date is, of course, approximately fixed, and we may probably associate with the beginning of this reign (or perhaps a little earlier; see note on [p. 110]) the first use of the rouge d’or which has given its name to a well-known class of porcelain—the famille rose.
A manageable red had long been a desideratum. There was no more treacherous material than the basic copper oxide, whether painted under or mixed with the glaze. As an over-glaze source of red this pigment was of course unavailable, while the opaque brick-like tints obtained from iron, though in keeping with the rougher, picturesque decoration of early times, did not harmonise well with the delicate style of painting now in fashion,[65] so that it is not surprising that the beautiful pink tint obtained from gold carried all before it. The gold was probably incorporated with the enamel flux in the form of purple of Cassius, which is readily prepared by dissolving gold in a mixture of nitric acid and sal-ammoniac and adding some fragments of tin. The colour had been known for some time in Europe—we can perhaps even trace this pink tint on enamelled Arab glass of the fourteenth century ([see page 89]).[66] A very small quantity of this material goes a long way, especially when used to give a gradated tint to a white opaque enamel, as on the petal of a flower. As a colour it is singularly harmonious, and in a period of decline helped to ‘keep together’ the motley array of enamels used along with it.
There is nothing more popular in the work of this time than the little egg-shell plates, decorated with flowers and birds, for which such high prices are given by collectors. The original type, for both ware and decoration, is probably in this case to be found in the ‘chicken-cups’ of Cheng-hua’s reign.
On the plates of this ware the borders are filled with elaborate and minutely finished diapers and scrolls, evidently taken from silk brocades; indeed, the gold threads of the woof are sometimes directly imitated; the centre is occupied by a picture, either a flower piece or a genre figure scene ([Pl. xii].). We may connect these designs with the works of the naturalistic colour school of the time, many of the finest of which have been preserved by Japanese collectors. A very frequent subject is a rocky bank from which grow peonies, narcissi, or other flowers, and under which two or more chickens or sometimes quails are grouped. The petals of the flowers are rendered by a white opaque enamel in high relief, often with a flush of pink, imitating the tour de force by which the painters of the time, by a single stroke of the brush, produced a full gradation of colour. Indeed, the same artists doubtless painted both on silk, on paper, and on porcelain. We may compare their work to that of the fan-painters and miniaturists who were employed to decorate the panels of Sèvres porcelain, at this very time, with pastoral scenes and flower pieces. The Chinese enamellers rarely signed their work; but there is a plate in the British Museum with the name of a Canton artist. This gives a hint as to where most of the work was done. But the most remarkable instance of signed work of this period is found on a series of large plates in the Dresden Museum. On these a Chinese artist, some time before the middle of the eighteenth century, has painted a series of designs of birds and flowers, and in one instance at least a graceful female figure. On the field, in each case, we find a seal character (accompanied either by a smaller mark contained in a circle, or by an artemisia leaf) which indicates the painter’s name. With true artistic feeling he has succeeded in filling the surface of the plate with a graceful decoration, and at the same time he gives us a series of delightful pictures, employing the full range of the enamel colours at his command. And in thus combining a decorative design with an accurate
PLATE XII CHINESE