Marked examples of this modern ware in the Franks Collection include a saucer with coloured sprays in a cloudy pink enamel ground; a covered cup with spout decorated in red with cartouches of seal characters accompanied by translations in the ordinary script, and a dish with blackthorn bough and pink blossoms in Tao Kuang style. In every case the ware is coarse-grained and rough to the touch, while the glaze is of the lustrous surface and “musliny” texture, which is characteristic of the nineteenth century porcelains; and the painting is mechanical and devoid of any distinction. There are two little saucers of better quality both in material and painting, with stork and lotus designs in mixed enamels and marks[483] which show that they are palace pieces made for the Empress Dowager.
But the collector’s interest in Kuang Hsü porcelain is of a negative kind. When it is frankly marked he sees and avoids it. But the Chinese potters towards the close of the century evidently recovered some part of the skill which the ravages of the T’ai p’ing rebels seemed to have effectually dissipated; for they succeeded in making many excellent sang de bœuf reds and crackled emerald green monochromes which have deceived collectors of experience. Even the best, however, of these wares should be recognised by inferiority of form and material, and in the case of red the fluescent glaze will be found in the modern pieces to have overrun the foot rim, necessitating grinding of the base rim. There are also fair imitations of the K’ang Hsi blue and white and the enamelled vases of famille verte or on-biscuit colours, and even of the fine black and green grounds. But here again the inferior biscuit, the lack of grace in the form and the stiffness of the designs will be at once observed by the trained eye. When marked most of these imitations have the nien hao of K’ang Hsi, and this is almost invariable on the modern blue and white.
There is, of course, a great quantity of modern porcelain, chiefly enamelled and blue and white, made for the export trade and sold at prices which compete successfully with those of the European wares. It is chiefly in the style of the K’ang Hsi and Ch’ien Lung wares, and is marked accordingly; but the ware is coarse-grained, and the decorations summary, and there is no excuse for mistaking these obvious reproductions for anything but what they are and, in fact, what they pretend to be.
The brief reign of Hsüan T’ung
(1909–1911) is a blank so far as ceramic history is concerned; and with the fall of the Ch’ing dynasty in 1912 the Imperial works ceased its activity, and it remains to be seen whether Ching-tê Chên will again have the advantage of a state factory to set a standard for the industry in general.
CHAPTER XVI
PORCELAIN SHAPES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY
A considerable number of the forms which Chinese porcelain assumes have been described in the chapters dealing with the Ming wares; but these may be usefully supplemented by a rapid survey of those employed by the potters of the Ch’ing dynasty. The latter will, of course, include many of the former because the Chinese delight in reproducing the older types.
The brief summary of the eighteenth-century porcelain forms given in the opening pages of the T’ao shuo[484] begins in the correct style with the reproductions of the ancient ritual vessels tsun, lei, yi, ting, yu and chüo. These are all bronze forms, tsun being applied to wine vessels, lei to vases ornamented with the meander pattern known as “cloud and thunder” scrolls,[485] yi to bowl-shaped vessels without feet, ting to cauldrons with three or four legs and two handles, yu to wine jars with covers, and large loop handles for suspension, and chüo to libation cups of helmet and other shapes. The bronze forms are commonly decorated with bronze patterns such as the key-fret, archaic dragon and phœnix scrolls, cicada pattern, ogre heads and bands of stiff (banana) leaves, either painted, moulded, engraved, or carved in relief; and the complicated bronze shapes are usually fashioned in moulds, and in many cases furnished with ring handles attached to monster heads. Another ritual type manufactured in porcelain as well as bronze is the altar set of five pieces (wu kung), which consists of a ting or tripod incense vase, two flower vases, and two pricket candlesticks. A humbler altar set was composed of a single censer or a tazza-shaped cup (Plate [93], Fig. 1) for flowers, and a pair of lions on stands fitted with tubes for holding sticks of incense. The bronze forms have always been used by the Chinese potters, but they were specially affected in the archaising period of Ch’ien Lung.