[357] See M. Seymour de Ricci in the introduction to the Catalogue of a Collection of Mounted Porcelain belonging to E. M. Hodgkins, Paris, 1911, where much interesting information has been collected on the subject of French mounts and their designers. He quotes also from the Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux marchand-bijoutier ordinaire du Roy (1748–1758), which includes a list of objects mounted for Madame de Pompadour and others, giving the nature of the wares and the cost of the work.
[358] Persian, Indian, and occasionally even Chinese metal mounts are found on porcelain; and Mr. S. E. Kennedy has a fine enamelled vase of the K’ang Hsi period with spirited dragon handles of old Chinese bronze.
[359] White was also used in the worship of the Year Star (Jupiter). Other colours which have a ritual significance are yellow, used in the Ancestral Temple by the Emperor, and on the altars of the god of Agriculture and of the goddess of Silk; blue, in the Temple of Heaven and in the Temple of Land and Grain; and red, in the worship of the Sun.
[360] Brinkley has aptly described it as “snow-white oil.”
[361] Cf. Père d’Entrecolles, second letter, section xviii.: “(The designs) are first outlined with a graving-tool on the body of the vase, and afterwards lightly channelled around to give them relief. After this they are glazed.”
[362] See d’Entrecolles, loc. cit., sections iv. and v. After describing the preparation of the steatite (hua shih) by mixing it with water, he continues: “Then they dip a brush in the mixture and trace various designs on the porcelain, and when they are dry the glaze is applied. When the ware is fired, these designs emerge in a white which differs from that of the body. It is as though a faint mist had spread over the surface. The white from hoa che (hua shih or steatite) is called ivory white, siam ya pe (hsiang ya pai).” In the next section he describes another material used for white painting under the glaze. This is shih kao, which has been identified with fibrous gypsum.
[364] First letter, Bushell, op. cit., p. 195.
[365] O. C. A., p. 533.
[366] Ku chin t’u shu, section xxxii., vol. 248, fol. 15. In this way, we are told, were produced (1) the thousandfold millet crackle and (2) the drab-brown (ho) cups. The colour of the latter was obtained by rubbing on a decoction of old tea leaves. The former is a name given to a glaze broken into “numerous small points.”