Naturally the value of the specimens varies widely with the beauty of the colour. The pinker shades approach within measurable distance of the pink of the peach bloom, and they are often classed with the latter by their proud owners; but the colour is usually uniform, and lacks the bursts of russet brown and green which variegate the true peach bloom, and the basis of the maroon is a pure white glaze without the celadon tints which seem to underlie the peach bloom. It may be added that the maroon red glaze is usually uncrackled.
As to the overglaze red, which is known by the names of mo hung (painted red) and ts’ai hung (enamel red), it is the colour derived from iron, and it was used both as one of the enamels of the famille verte palette and as a monochrome. In both capacities it figured on Ming porcelain, and was fully discussed in that connection. On K’ang Hsi wares it varied in tone from dark brick red to a light orange, according to the density of the pigment, and in texture from a thin dry film to a lustrous enamel, according to the quantity of fluxing material[328] combined with it. Among the richly fluxed varieties is a fine tomato colour of light, translucent tone. Sometimes the iron red is found as sole medium for painted designs, as on a rouleau vase in the Salting collection, but more commonly it serves as a ground colour between panels of enamelled ornament (Plate [103]), or in border passages. In these last two positions it is usually of a light orange shade, and broken by floral scrolls reserved in white. A dark shade of the same pigment is also used in diapers of curled scrolls, forming a groundwork for enamelled decoration. There are besides beautiful examples of a pure red monochrome formed of this colour, but I have only met with these among the later wares.
The blue monochromes include a large number of glazes varying in depth and shade with the quality and quantity of the cobalt which is mingled with the glazing material. These are chiao ch’ing (blue monochrome glazes), and they are all high-fired colours. They include the chi ch’ing[329] or deep sky blue, whose darker shades are also named ta ch’ing (gros bleu), the slaty blue, the pale clear blue,[330] the dark and light lavender shades, and the faintly tinted clair de lune or “moon white” (yüeh pai), in which the amount of cobalt used must have been infinitesimal. But it would be useless to attempt to catalogue the innumerable shades of blue, which must have varied with every fresh mixture of colour and glaze and every fresh firing.
There is, however, another group materially different from the ordinary blue glazes. In this the colour was applied direct to the body, as in blue and white painting, and a colourless glaze subsequently added, with the natural result that the blue seems to be incorporated with the body of the ware rather than with the glaze. There were several ways of applying the colour, each producing a slightly different effect. The cobalt powder could be mixed with water, and washed on smoothly with a brush, or dabbed on with a sponge to give a marbled appearance, or it could be projected on to the moistened surface in a dry powder, through gauze stretched across the end of a bamboo tube.
The result of the last process was an infinity of minute specks of blue, a massing of innumerable points of colour. This is the well-known “powder blue,” the bleu soufflé, or blown blue described by Père d’Entrecolles in his second letter[331]: “As for the soufflé blue called tsoui tsim (ch’ui ch’ing), the finest blue, prepared in the manner which I have described, is used. This is blown on to the vase, and when it is dry the ordinary glaze is applied either alone or mixed with tsoui yeou (sui yu), if crackle[332] is required.” We are further told that as on the blue and white a glaze softened with a considerable proportion of lime was necessary for the perfection of the colour.
The “powder blue” seems to have been a new invention in the K’ang Hsi period. Under the name of ch’ui ch’ing (blown blue) it figures in the T’ao lu[333] among the triumphs of Ts’ang Ying-hsüan’s directorate. It is certainly a singularly beautiful colour effect, and worthy of the homage it has received from collectors and ceramic historians. Though the blue used was as a rule of the finest quality, it varied much in intensity and tone with the nature of the cobalt and amount applied. Probably the majority of collectors would give the palm to the darker shades, but tastes differ, and the lighter tones when the blue is pure sapphire have found whole-hearted admirers. A notable feature of the powder blue is its surprising brilliancy in artificial light, when most other porcelain colours suffer eclipse.
PLATE 110
Two examples of “Powder Blue” (ch’ui ch’ing) Porcelain of the K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722), in the Victoria and Albert Museum