The carmine and crimson rose tints derived from the glass tinted with precipitate of gold, which was known as yen chih hung (rouge red), were modified with white to produce the fên hung or pale pink; and the same carmine was combined with white and deep blue to make the amaranth or blue lotus (ch’ing lien) colour.
The ordinary brick red (the ta hung or mo hung) was derived from peroxide of iron mixed with a little glue to make it adhere, but depending on the glaze for any vitrification it could obtain. The addition of a plumbo-alcaline flux produced the more brilliant and glossy red of coral tint known as tsao’rh hung (jujube red).
The dry, dull black derived from cobaltiferous manganese was converted into a glossy enamel by mixing with green. This is the famille rose black as distinct from the black of the famille verte, which was formed by a layer of green washed over a layer of dull black on the porcelain itself.
There are, besides, numerous other shades, such as lavender, French grey, etc., obtained by cunning mixtures, and all these enamels were capable of use as monochromes in place of coloured glazes as well as for brushwork.
[394] Bushell, Chinese Art, vol. ii., fig. 61.
[395] Histoire de la porcelaine, pt. viii., fig. 3.
[396] These marks were discussed by Bushell in the Burlington Magazine, August and September, 1906. They are figured on vol. i., pp. [219] and [223].
[397] Quoted from a letter written to Sir Wollaston Franks by Mr. Arthur B. French, who visited Ching-tê Chên in 1882.
[398] Officially the reign of K’ang Hsi dates from 1662–1722, but he actually succeeded to the throne on the death of Shun Chih in 1661, so that his reign completed the cycle of sixty years in 1721.
[399] As Bushell has done in Chinese Art, vol. ii., p. 42.