Plate 67.—Blue and White Porcelain. Sixteenth Century.
Fig. 1.—Bowl with Hsüan Tê mark. Diameter 4 inches. Dresden Collection.
Fig. 2.—Covered Bowl with fish design. Dresden Collection.
Fig. 3.—Bottle, peasant on an ox. Height 8½ inches. Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Fig. 4.—Bottle with lotus scrolls in mottled blue. Height 9 inches. Alexander Collection.
The Chêng Tê mark is far from common, but it occurs persistently on certain types of polychrome porcelain. One is a saucer-dish with carved dragon designs under a white glaze, the depressions of the carving and a few surrounding details being washed over with light green enamel. The design consists of a circular medallion in the centre enclosing a dragon among clouds, and two dragons on the outside, the space between them faintly etched with sea waves. The ware is usually thin and refined. These dishes are not uncommon, and it is difficult to imagine that they can all belong to such an early period. On the other hand, one also meets with copies of the same design with the Ch’ien Lung mark (1736–1795), which display unmistakable difference in quality. Another type has the same green dragon design with engraved outlines set in a yellow ground, and in most cases its antiquity is open to the same doubts. It is certain, however, that these pieces represent a style which was in vogue in the Chêng Tê period. A small vase of this kind was the only piece with the Chêng Tê mark in the exhibition at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910,[97] and it had the appearance of a Ming specimen. A good example of this Chêng Tê polychrome belonging to the Hon. Evan Charteris is illustrated in Fig. 2 of Plate [66]. It has the designs etched in outline, filled in with transparent green, yellow and aubergine glazes, the three colours or san ts’ai of the Chinese; and the Chêng Tê mark is seen on the neck.[98] And a square bowl in the British Museum, similar in body and glaze to the blue and white specimens with Arabic inscriptions, is painted in fine blue on the exterior with dragons holding Shou (longevity) characters in their claws, the background filled in with a rich transparent yellow enamel. This piece (Plate [66], Fig. 1) has the mark of Chêng Tê in four characters painted in Mohammedan blue, and is clearly a genuine specimen.