The two remaining types, hei ti pai hua (white decoration in a black ground) and hei ti miao chin (black ground gilt), apparently leave the nature of the black undefined, but as the expressions appear verbatim in the note attached to No. 52 of Hsieh Min’s list, which is “reproductions of wu chin glaze,” we must regard the black in this case, too, as of the wu chin type. The black ground with gilding can hardly refer to anything but the well-known mirror black glaze with gilt designs; and the white designs in black ground is equally clearly identified with a somewhat rarer type of porcelain in which the pattern is reserved in white in a ground of black enamel of the type of No. 3. There are two snuff bottles in the British Museum respectively decorated with “rat and vine,” and figure subjects white with slight black shading and reserved in a sticky black enamel ground. Both these are of the Tao Kuang period, but there are earlier and larger examples elsewhere with a black ground of finer quality. Such a decoration is scarcely possible with anything but an enamel black, and though there is some inconsistency in the grouping of an enamel and a glaze together in Hsieh Min’s list, they were apparently both regarded as “reproductions” of the old mirror black wu chin.
Out of the remaining innovations ascribed to T’ang’s directorate, the fa ch’ing (cloisonné or enamel blue) and the fa long hua fa (painting in the style of the enamels on copper) have already been described in connection with Hsieh Min’s list. The latter expression occurs verbatim in the note attached in the Annals of Fou-liang[436] to No. 49 of the list, which is “porcelain with foreign colouring,” and it clearly refers to the free painting on the Canton enamels for reasons already given.[437] It is true that fa lang (like fo lang, fu lang, and fa lan, all phrases suggestive of foreign and Western origin) is commonly used in reference to cloisonné enamel, but the idea of copying on porcelain “landscapes, figure subjects, flowering plants, and birds” from cloisonné enamels is preposterous to anyone who is familiar with the cramped and restricted nature of work bounded by cloisons. It is a pity that Bushell has confused the issue by rendering this particular passage “painting in the style of cloisonné enamel” in his Oriental Ceramic Art.[438]
But, it will be objected, the painting in foreign colours has been already shown to have been in full swing some years before T’ang’s appointment at Ching-tê Chên. The inconsistency is only apparent, however, for it is only claimed that T’ang introduced this style of painting on the Imperial porcelain, and it may—and indeed must—have been practised in the enamelling establishments at Canton and elsewhere for some time before. Indeed, when one comes to consider the list of T’ang innovations which we have discussed so far, they are mainly concerned with the adaptation of various foreign colours and of processes already in use in the previous reign.
Of those which remain, the t’ien lan or sky blue may perhaps be identified with a light blue verging on the tint of turquoise, a high-fired glaze found occasionally in the Ch’ien Lung monochromes. But probably the greatest of T’ang’s achievements was the mastery of the yao pien or furnace transmutation glazes, which were a matter of chance as late as the end of the K’ang Hsi period. These are the variegated or flambé glazes in which a deep red of sang de bœuf tint is transformed into a mass of streaks and mottlings in which blue, grey, crimson, brown and green seem to be struggling together for pre-eminence. All these tints spring from one colouring agent—copper oxide—and they are called into being by a sudden change of the atmosphere of the kiln, caused by the admission of wood smoke at the critical moment and the consequent consumption of the oxygen. Without the transformation the glaze would be a sang de bœuf red, and in many cases the change is only partial, and large areas of the deep red remain. Fig. 1 of Plate [123] illustrates a small but characteristic specimen of the Ch’ien Lung flambé. It will be found that in contrast with the K’ang Hsi sang de bœuf these later glazes are more fluescent, and the excess of glaze overrunning the base has been removed by grinding.
Plate 122.—White Porcelain with designs in low relief.
Fig. 1.—Vase, peony scroll, ju-i border, etc. Ch’ien Lung period. Height 7 inches. O. Raphael Collection.
Fig. 2.—Bottle with “garlic mouth,” Imperial dragons in clouds. Creamy crackled glaze imitating Ting ware. Early eighteenth century. Height 9½ inches. Salting Collection.
Fig. 3.—Vase with design of three rams, symbolising Spring. Ch’ien Lung period. Height 3½ inches. W. Burton Collection.
Another development of the yao pien at this time is the use of a separate “transmutation” glaze which could be added in large or small patches over another glaze, and which assumed, when fired, the usual flambé appearance. When judiciously applied the effect of this superadded flambé was very effective, but it is often used in a capricious fashion, with results rather curious than beautiful. There are, for instance, examples of blue and white vases being wholly or partially coated with flambé, which have little interest except as evidence that the potters could now produce the variegated effect at will and in more ways than one.