Of the other kinds of polychrome, the porcelain with glazes of the demi-grand feu, and enamels of the muffle kiln in the three colours, green, yellow, and aubergine, was still made. It is hardly likely that the manufacture[381] which Père d’Entrecolles describes in 1722 ceased immediately, and we know that the finer types with engraved designs and transparent glazes in the three colours were made to perfection at the Imperial factory. Fig. 1 of Plate [116] illustrates a bowl of this kind with the Yung Chêng mark and, to judge from its exquisite quality, an Imperial piece. The ornament is in green, in a full yellow ground. This type of decoration is a legacy from the Ming dynasty, and doubtless many of the saucer dishes, bowls, etc., with Chêng Tê marks, but with all the trimness and neatness of the Yung Chêng wares, belong to the latter period. One variety is actually specified in the Imperial list[382] viz. “reproductions of porcelain with incised green decoration in a monochrome yellow ground.”
As for the on-glaze enamels of the muffle kiln the old famille verte colour scheme was to a great and increasing extent supplanted by the famille rose. It survived, however, in certain modified forms—in the delicately painted wares, for example, usually of eggshell thinness and decorated in thin, clear, transparent enamels, such as were described in connection with the late K’ang Hsi “birthday plates ” (see Plate [113]). And again the same colours were employed in a special type of decoration which seems to have originated in the Yung Chêng period, though it was freely used in later reigns. In this the design was carefully traced in pale blue outlines under the glaze, and filled in with light uniform washes of transparent enamels on the glaze. The effect is delicate and refined, though somewhat weak in comparison with the full, iridescent colours and broad washes of the older famille verte.
Possibly this style of decoration was intended to reproduce the traditional refinement of the Ch’êng Hua cups. The Imperial list[383] includes “reproductions of Ch’êng Hua polychrome (wu ts’ai),” and four exquisite eggshell wine cups in the Hippisley Collection which bear the Ch’êng Hua mark, are painted in this fashion.[384] Similarly in the Bushell collection there are some beautiful reproductions of the Ch’êng Hua “stem-cups,” with grape vine patterns, etc., which are no doubt of the same origin. Larger work in the same style is illustrated by a fine vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum with a phœnix design which suggests an Imperial destination (Plate [117]).
Plate 116.—Yung Chêng Porcelain.
Fig. 1.—Imperial Rice Bowl with design of playing children (wa wa), engraved outlines filled in with green in a yellow ground, transparent glazes on the biscuit. Yung Chêng mark. Diameter 6 inches. British Museum.
Fig. 2.—Blue and white Vase with fungus (ling chih) designs in Hsüan Tê style. Height 7½ inches. Cologne Museum.
Plate 117.—Yung Chêng Porcelain.
Fig. 1.—Vase with prunus design in underglaze red and blue. Height 15 inches. C. H. Read Collection.