).
Jewel mountains in the sea waves (pao shan hai shui). This is, no doubt, the familiar border pattern of conventional waves with conical rocks standing up at regular intervals.
Round medallions (ho tzŭ, lit. boxes) in brocade grounds.
Most of these designs are given under the heading of “blue and white,” though, as in the Lung Ch’ing list, the blue is in many cases supplemented by colour or by other forms of decoration such as patterns engraved in the body (an hua), and “designs on a blue ground,” the nature of them not explained, but no doubt similar to those described on p. [61]. The method of reserving the decoration in white in a blue ground (ch’ing ti pai hua) is specifically mentioned under the heading of “mixed decorations.” The supplementary decoration consists of on-glaze enamels mixed with the underglaze blue; bowls with coloured exterior and blue and white inside or vice versa; yellow grounds with designs engraved under the glaze; gilded fishes among polychrome water weeds, and other gilded patterns; curling waves in polychrome and plum blossoms; red dragons in blue waves, the red either under or over the glaze; relief designs (ting chuang[154]) and pierced work (ling lung[155]).
The “mixed colours” included garden seats with lotus designs, etc., in polychrome (wu ts’ai) and with aubergine brown (tzŭ) lotus decoration in a monochrome yellow ground; tea cups with dragons in fairy flowers engraved under a yellow glaze; yellow ground with polychrome (wu ts’ai) decoration; banquet dishes, white inside, the outside decorated with dragons and clouds in red, green, yellow, and aubergine.
The custom of minutely subdividing the work in the porcelain factories so that even the decoration of a single piece was parcelled out among several painters existed in the Ming dynasty, though perhaps not carried so far as in the after periods. It is clear that under such a system the individuality of the artists was completely lost, and we never hear the name of any potter or painter who worked at the Imperial factory. In the private factories probably the division of labour was less rigorous, and it is certain that many of the specimens were decorated by a single brush. But even so, signatures of potters or painters are almost unknown; and only one or two private potters of conspicuous merit at the end of the Ming period are mentioned by name in the Chinese books. Mr. Ts’ui, for instance, has already been mentioned in the chapter on the Chia Ching period, and three others occur in the annals of the Wan Li period.
Plate 75.—Ming Porcelain.
Fig. 1.—Tripod Bowl with raised peony scrolls in enamel colours. Wan Li mark. Height 5¾ inches. Eumorfopoulos Collection.