BLUE AND WHITE.
These specimens of blue and white Vases answer the tests which are applied to the best porcelain decorated with different designs of flowers, trees, birds, &c., in blue, painted under the glaze. What are the tests? First, the material forming the paste or body must be so fine as to give a perfect surface. The surface must be a brilliant white when covered by the glaze. The drawing and painting should reveal the best qualities of cobalt blue. The shape of the piece must leave nothing to be required. Now, it is well known that blue and white was, and is, the most common of all Oriental porcelain, and modern work is good, so that it becomes quite easy to make mistakes; in fact, it would not be too much to say that old blue and white is most difficult to judge. Though the glaze is so much a part of the paste that it lasts practically for ever, yet it does get slightly dulled; the extreme brilliancy of the new pieces contrasts with the softer and more beautiful old porcelain. The glaze should not be too thick, for the fine, even quality of the paste is just as much an element as the glaze in giving the old lustre. The blue decoration under the glaze shows a perfect command of outline as well as colour. There is no soaking in of the colour, but the outline is applied by the brush with absolute equality.
The two specimen vases show "Lange-Lysen" or "Long Elizas" and flowers in fluted lotus-shaped medallions covering the whole surface, except under the lip and neck, where there are two bands of triangle-work diaper pattern. The mounts are in French ormolu, Louis XVI. Kang-he period.
BLUE AND WHITE. GINGER JARS.
There are several varieties of prunus (so-called hawthorn) blossom in the well-known blue and white ginger jars. The one given in the illustration has the pattern known as the "ascending stem" hawthorn. Then there is a "descending stem," and a third pattern showing the head or centre of the blooms arranged in groups. This is "blob hawthorn," and may consist of three small blooms around a central larger one, forming, roughly, a triangular group; or four blooms again around a central one, forming a cross-shaped group. This pattern is also known as "spray hawthorn." The ground is a brilliant cobalt, in which the colour is laid on very much as if it had been rubbed on by the thumb, or still more, as if the colour, when wet, had been so rubbed. Afterwards a network of blue lines was added on the blue ground. The suggestion is that the "blob pattern" imitates the fallen prunus blossoms resting upon the crackled ice in the early spring.
Our illustration shows a Ginger Jar with dome cover. The body decorated with large and small sprays of white prunus, rising from the base and falling from the shoulder. Very brilliant crackled ice ground of deep cobalt; a narrow band of white encircling the mouth, with a line of blue within, the space between decorated with a formal ornament. The lid with similar decoration to that on the jar, the top encircled with a ring of white. Height, 10 in. Period Kang-he. Value, about £2,000. Record price, 5,900 guineas.
BLUE AND OTHER COLOURS, UNDER-GLAZE.