In the present reign much more importance has been given to the improvement of porcelain, which is largely made for export, high prices being obtained for imitations which are sold as antiques. The largest customer is the United States of America. The intense conservatism of the Chinese has been largely broken down by the influence of outside pressure. The almighty dollar holds the field. Yet, if it is still true that "for ways that are dark and tricks that are vain," "the heathen Chinee" is "peculiar," he holds no monopoly of such qualities. Western civilisation runs him close. On the other hand, the honour of a Chinese in trade is generally of a high standard, and the people have a natural instinct for artistic decoration, which has come to them as the legacy of ages past. And with this power they have, too, an unlimited supply of the very finest kaolin. Let us hope that happier times will bring back the glories of the past.
XIII
CHINESE
WHITE
PORCELAIN
CHAPTER XIII
CHINESE WHITE PORCELAIN
M. Gasnault, the friend and pupil of M. Jacquemart, has put on record the results of their united work in the Museum at Limoges. The collector is able to see how he has tried to reconcile and combine the elements of a complete history of Oriental china, how he has collected specimens of all the manufactures, even the smallest, how Oriental porcelain holds the first place in the collection, being represented by most remarkable specimens of industry which in the Celestial Empire to-day is on the decline, after having had a brilliant career through so many ages, that it seemed as if nothing could have led to its failure.
If the Chinese have not yet returned to that state where they have forgotten entirely the art of making porcelain, at least they have lost the secret of those admirable productions—the forms so pure, the glazes so marvellous, the enamels so sparkling, the decoration so diversified, and the paintings so exquisite—which remained with us as monuments of an age when there must have been such art in the Ceramic world as has never been seen since. It will be advantageous to say something about the collections at Limoges and the lessons we may learn from them. The first place in the collection is given to the white china known throughout the world as "blanc de chine." This kind of porcelain was highly esteemed in France, and the Oriental artists and potters from a material which seemed to offer but little resource proceeded to work wonders. By the side of the small sacrificial cups destined for religious uses with the glassy glaze and a tone which recalls that of wax or ivory, in the form of the horn of the rhinoceros or of the flowers of the lotus, which was the plant pre-eminently sacred, one is able to admire examples perfect in execution of which the texture is so thin and fine that it seems dangerous even to touch them. The greater part is decorated with ornaments in white or in white slip, which by a few simple strokes, or by a delicate tracery, almost inconceivably beautifies the limited surface. Garlands and detached bouquets of flowers have been engraved upon the wet or the dry clay so finely—indeed, so exquisitely, that they cannot be seen unless held up to the light. Here the sacred dragon winds round the cup as if he wished to defend it from profane hands, and a Buddhist god only appears when a coloured liquid is poured into the cup, which then shows up the lines, before invisible, engraved in the paste.
Again, we find little bottles decorated with dragons and symbolical dogs of Fô or Buddha cut deeply into the paste with a patience and an art unequalled in the productions of the Western Hemisphere. The statuettes of the gods and goddesses are also made in this white porcelain, amongst whom is one to whom we have before referred, Kwan-Yin, a mysterious being, the personification of mercy and goodness, who protects the sailors and saves them from shipwreck, who takes pity on those who suffer in hell and intercedes for them. She also gives children to those who are sterile.
Kwan-Yin has many attributes and emblems. Sometimes she has a diadem on her head ornamented with images of Buddha, or she rests seated on a throne of lotus in memory of the miraculous bridge which the gods constructed to enable her to cross the sea. The god of riches is often found as a white statuette, so is Poutai, the god of contentment, with a broad smile and round, uncovered stomach; Cheou, or Chow, the god of longevity, with an enormous bald head. Other figures of emperors and empresses are all of the same type, with the accompanying Ho-Ho birds.
KWAN-YIN. WHITE PORCELAIN.