CHAPTER XIV
EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY
Hitherto the references to European influence on Chinese porcelain have been of an incidental nature. But the use of Western designs on the porcelains of the Ch’ing dynasty, and especially in the eighteenth century, attained such large proportions that it is necessary to treat the wares so decorated as a class apart. A highly instructive collection of this type of porcelain is exhibited in the British Museum, where it has been subdivided in groups illustrating porcelain painted in China with European armorial designs, porcelain painted in China after pictures, engravings and other patterns of European origin, European forms in Chinese porcelain, and, lastly, Chinese porcelain decorated in Europe.
The un-Chinese nature of these decorations, which is apparent at the first glance, justifies their segregation. Indeed, the foreign features are in many cases so conspicuous that it is small wonder if in days when little was known of Chinese ceramic history these wares were often attributed to European manufacture. We now know so much of the intercourse between China and Europe in the past, and of the enormous trade carried on by the various East India companies, that no surprise is felt at the idea of orders for table services sent out to China with armorial and other designs for their decoration. Not that anyone whose eye was really trained to appreciate the peculiarities of Chinese porcelain could ever mistake the nature of these wares. The paste and glaze are, with few exceptions, uncompromisingly Chinese, no matter how closely the decorator with his proverbial genius for imitation may have rendered the European design. And even here, if the Oriental touch is not betrayed in some detail, the Chinese colours and gilding will disclose themselves to the initiate.
It is hardly necessary here to allude to the absurd notion that any of this group was made at the little English factory of Lowestoft. If an error which has once had currency is ever completely dissipated, Chaffers’s great blunder on the subject of Chinese armorial porcelain should be forgotten by now. But it is high time that those who are fully aware of the facts of the case should abandon the equally stupid and wholly illogical expression, “Oriental Lowestoft,” not for Lowestoft porcelain decorated in Chinese style, which would be reasonable enough, but (save the mark!) for Chinese porcelain decorated with European designs. As if, indeed, an insignificant Suffolk pottery, which made no enamelled porcelain[459] until about 1770, had any influence on the decoration of a Chinese ware which was distributed all over Europe during the whole of the century.
The European style of flower painting and the European border patterns were used by the Chinese decorators on this class of ware in the last half of the century, but they were the patterns which originated at Meissen and Sèvres, and which were adopted and developed at Chelsea, Derby and Worcester. Any of these wares might have found their way to China and served as models to the Canton decorators, but the likelihood of Lowestoft porcelain exerting any appreciable influence in the Far East is simply laughable.
But to return to the subject of this chapter, the actual European shapes found in Chinese porcelain can be dismissed in a few words. There are a few figures, such as the well known pair reputed to represent Louis XIV. and his queen. These are of K’ang Hsi type, and decorated with enamels on the biscuit. And there are numerous groups or single figures of the same period in the white Fukien porcelain, discussed on p. [111]. A few vase forms, copied apparently from Italian wares and belonging to a slightly later date, and a curious pedestal in the British Museum, modelled in the form of a tree trunk with two Cupids in full relief near the top, are purely Western.[460] Needless to say, the bulk of the useful ware, being intended for European consumption, was made after European models, which speak for themselves.
Much might be written on the painted designs of this class if space permitted, but we must be content with citing a few typical instances, most of which may be seen in the Franks Collection. To the K’ang Hsi period belong some curious imitations of Dutch Delft, in which even the potter’s marks are copied, the designs having been, oddly enough, borrowed in the first instance from Oriental wares by the Dutch potters. There are the so-called “Keyser cups,” tall, covered cups with saucers, painted in blue with kneeling figures surrounding a king and queen, who probably represent St. Louis of France and his consort; and in the border is the inscription, L’EMPIRE DE LA VERTU EST ESTABI JUSQ’AU BOUT DE L’UNERS. Another cup has a design of a ship and a syren, with legend, GARDES VOUS DE LA SYRENE; and there are small plates with the siege of Rotterdam[461] copied in blue from a Dutch engraving.
PLATE 130
Vase with pear-shaped body and wide mouth; tubular handles. Porcelain with delicate clair de lune glaze recalling the pale blue tint of some of the finer Sung celadons. About 1800