Chinese Porcelain.
Fig. 85.—Chinese Vase.
The manufacture of porcelain in China, according to their own accounts, dates for more than two hundred years before the Christian era. The composition of Chinese porcelain is of two elements: one, the infusible argillaceous earth or clay called kaolin; and the other the “pe-tun-tse,” which is feldspar slightly altered, a micaceous mineral and quartz or silica, which is fusible. The latter is used with or without other mixtures to form a glaze for hard porcelain. Other materials are sometimes used in the glaze, but, unlike the enamel of earthenware, tin or lead is not used.
The Chinese made their porcelain in different degrees of translucency. The kind made especially for the Emperor’s use, such as cups, saucers, and rice plates of a ruby-red tint, are very thin and almost transparent.
The porcelain coloured in turquoise blue, violet, sea-green, and celadon are of the oldest varieties made. Yellow, the colour of Ming dynasty, is a common colour in Chinese porcelain.
The Chinese decorated their vases sometimes without much regard to the spacing or divisions of body, neck, or foot (Fig. 85). Landscapes, dragons, fanciful kylins, dogs, and lions, as well as nearly all kinds of natural objects were used by them as decoration. Conventional renderings of flowers and foliage and geometric ornament are often used in a judicious sense.
Fig. 86.—Oriental Porcelain; Chinese, with French Ormolu Mounting.
(S.K.M.)
Peculiar shapes of vases, such as the square, hexagonal, and octagonal forms, are found very frequent in Oriental ware. The vase (Fig. 86), from the Jones Collection, is a less extravagant example of Chinese porcelain than usual; the egg-shaped body is, however, the only Oriental part of the vase.