Chats on Oriental China

by J. F. Blacker

PEACH-BLOOM, OR PEACH-BLOW.

The under-glaze reds belonging to the Celadon class differ from the under-glaze painted reds. The Celadon colours are applied in and with the glaze, and the other class is, like under-glaze blue, painted on the biscuit china and then glazed. The range of Celadon reds is very great, from "Peach-blow," commonly termed "Peach-bloom," to "sang de bœuf." About sixteen of these beautiful shades are within this range. "Peach-blow" is used as a self-colour glaze, covering the whole of the piece, but, like all other colours, it is employed also with other coloured glazes in the decoration of porcelain—white or Celadon. Dr. Bushell describes peach-blow as "a pale red, becoming pink in some parts; in others, mottled with russet spots displayed upon a background of light green Celadon tint." This and many other colours were invented by Ts'ang Yeng-hsüan, the director of the Imperial works towards the end of Kang-he's reign. Around the feet of many fine vases of the Yung-Ching period there are waves in this darkish red, with occasional flecks of green. In these cases the body of the vases is white. Examples occur where peach-blow is used as a Celadon colour in pieces decorated with blue under the glaze.

On the left is a Vase with large bulging body and short expanding neck of a clear white glaze, on which are blossoms painted in peach-bloom, with leaves and branches in blue. Kang-he period (1661-1722). Height with stand, 10-1/2 in.

A circular shaped Vase with tapering neck, expanding mouth, and a bulbous body. This is decorated with pomegranate fruits in peach-bloom; the leaves and stalks in rich blue; the whole on a Celadon ground. Kang-he.

The many shades of blue—dark blue and that peculiar tint known as mazarine, powder-blue, sapphire-blue, sky-blue, turquoise-blue, peacock-blue, "clair de lune," and kingfisher-blue—were all secured from cobalt and copper mixed in various proportions.

In dealing with the important red family we have to distinguish between the reds derived from copper and those derived from iron and from gold. The range of tints is very extensive. Those derived from copper give the more or less fanciful names of "sang-de-bœuf," "sang de poulet," "sang de pigeon," crimson, crushed strawberry, maroon, liver colour, and that curious tint known as peach bloom or peach blow. The reds secured from iron are vermillion, the well-known coral and the tomato tints. From gold, those beautiful shades of colour to which we have referred as being crowning triumphs of the Yung-ching and Keen-lung periods were procured. These, known as ruby, rose, and pink, were really covering a large range of colours from a very faint pink to a red purple.

The yellows have a no less extended range. At the head of the list we find Imperial yellow, then citron or lemon-yellow, eel-skin yellow, straw, canary, mustard, orange, and sulphur-yellow. Thus we see the yellows vary from a faint tinge of that colour to a strong shade which seems to include a little red. All these yellows were derived from antimony, and the variation was largely secured by the addition of iron.

The next class, the brown colour, was derived from iron or from clay in which iron in various proportions was present. These browns include various shades such as bronze, chestnut, chamois, chocolate, coffee, "café-au-lait," dead leaf—"morte feuille"—old gold.

The colours on English china for the purposes of contrast are given next. They were derived from oxides of various metals in various proportions. The blacks are secured from cobalt, nickel, manganese, iron, and chromium. The greens are variously derived; the yellow-green and the emerald-green are secured from chromium and sodium; the blue-green or celest from chromium, cobalt, silicon, and zinc; whilst other greens are derived from copper and chromium.

Blues come from cobalt and silicon, except the mat blue, which was procured from cobalt, lime, and zinc. The reds were made from gold and iron, which secured many shades of those colours. The blacks were derived from chromium, iron, and manganese. Another class of European colours—the purples—came from cobalt, chromium, tin, and calcium.