---- proportion of, in hard pastes, 385
Pierced decoration in Chinese porcelain, 154
Pillows in Chinese porcelain, 139
Pinxton porcelain, 371
---- Billingsley makes porcelain at, 368, 371
Pirkenhausen factory, Carlsbad, 392
Place, Dr., of York, experiments with various clays, 242
Planché, modeller at Derby, 351
Plymouth porcelain, 375-381
---- ---- composition of glaze, 380
---- ---- marks on, 380
Poems on Chinese porcelain, 113
Poison detected by Chinese porcelain, 215
Polo, Marco, account of China, 72
---- ---- on Chinese porcelain, 213-214
Pompadour, Marquise de, and Sèvres, 290, 292, 295, 300
Porcelain, physical properties of, 5
---- microscopical structure, 5
---- chemical composition, 6-12
---- materials, 14-18
---- transition to kaolinic stoneware in Japanese porcelain, 206
---- vague early use of the word, 217
---- early reports in Europe as to its composition, 223
‘Porcelain fever’ at time of Seven Years’ War, 255
Porcelain or purslane, word, how used in Elizabethan times, 222
Portugal, porcelain made in, 325
Portuguese in China, 219
---- as importers of porcelain, 222, 230
Poterat family of Rouen, 239, 282, 284
Potsherds of Chinese porcelain, ground up for paste
of English porcelain, 326 _note_
Potter’s wheel, 20-22
---- ---- early forms, 20-21
_Pourcelainnes_, the word, how used by Marco Polo, 214
Pressing, process described, 23
Quan-yin, or Kwan-yin (Jap. Kwannon), 135, 143, 226
Randall copies Sèvres porcelain, 366
Raynal, Abbé, on Chinese porcelain, 85
---- ---- quoted, 166, 231
---- ---- on classification of Oriental porcelain, 223 _note_
Réaumur makes porcelain, 278
Red decoration _sous couverte_, 43
Red Sea ports, early Chinese trade with, 213
Reine, porcelaine de la, made in Rue Thiroux, 313
Reproductions of old types of Chinese porcelain, 104, 115
Riaño, Don Juan, on Spanish porcelain, 322, 325
Rice-grain, in pierced decoration, 155
Ringler, the arcanist, 264, 266, 267
Risampei, a Korean, at Arita, 181
Ritual vessels in Chinese porcelain, colours of, 138
Rockingham porcelain, 371-372
Rörstrand, porcelain made at, 273
---- ---- contemporary work, 388, 393
Rose, John, 365, 366
Rose-red grounds (opaque), _mei-kwei_, on Chinese porcelain, 110
Roses on English porcelain, 352, 368
Rouen porcelain, 238-239, 282
---- ---- examples where found, 239
_Rouge d’or_ on Chinese porcelain, 107
---- ---- date of introduction in China, 110 _note_
---- ---- not mentioned by D’Entrecolles, 136
---- ---- late introduction in Japan, 189, 205
---- ---- used early at Saint-Cloud, 283
_Rouge d’or_, source of, 284 _note_
---- ---- mentioned in De Frasnay’s poem, 284 _note_
Rozenburg works at the Hague, 389, 393
Russian porcelain, 274, 392
Sacrifice of the potter Tung, 113
Saint-Cloud, porcelain made at, 282-284
---- seventeenth century designs on porcelain, 283
St. Petersburg, porcelain made at, 274, 392
Saladin’s present of Chinese porcelain, 215
Salting collection, early vase with _cloisons_, 80
---- ---- enamelled bowl with Cheng-te mark, 89, 161
---- ---- _famille verte_ with black ground, 101
Salvétat, notes to Julien’s work, 53
Samson, imitates old wares, 314
Sanda celadon, 201
_Sang de bœuf_ glazes, 42
---- ---- imitated in England, 387
---- ---- on Chinese porcelain, 151
San tsai or ‘three-colour’ glazes, 44
---- ---- the ‘three colours’ of Ming enamels, 89, 97
---- ---- relation to Kishiu ware, 98
Saracenic glass, enamels on, 88
---- ---- found in China, 88 _note_
---- motives and forms in Chinese porcelain, 76, 140
---- origin of enamelled porcelain, 87, 88
Sassanian influence on Far East, 70 _note_
Sawankalok, porcelain made at, 173, 212 _note_
Sceaux, porcelain made at, 288
_Schneeball-vasen_, 254
_Schnorrische Erde_ used by Böttger, 250
Seggars, preparation and arrangement in furnace, 28-29
---- arrangement in Chinese furnaces, 133
---- late introduction in Japan, 188
Sei-ji, Japanese term for celadon, 64
Sentoku, Japanese reading of Hsuan-te, 92
Seto, village in Owari, connection with Japanese porcelain, 180, 202
Seto-mono, Japanese equivalent to ‘china,’ 202
Sève for Sèvres, 290 _note_
‘Severe’ or kaolinic porcelain, 17-18, 385-386
Sèvres, experimental work at, 15
---- hard paste, two types, 17
---- the new porcelain, 18
---- the soft paste of, 289-304
---- porcelain works removed to, 292
---- edicts against competing works, 295
---- the factory a fashionable lounge, 295
---- date of the best work, 297
---- soft paste abandoned, 303
---- ---- repainted at later dates, 304
---- the hard paste of, 305-312
---- German workmen at, 305
---- Macquer succeeds Hellot, 305
---- early hard paste of mild type, 306
---- the new mild type of hard paste, 307, 390
---- proposed withdrawal of State support, 310, 311, 312
---- hard paste, analysis of, 386
---- contemporary porcelain, 389, 390
---- laboratory, chemical and technical researches
on Chinese porcelain, 47-48, 55
---- porcelain sold at Versailles, 292
---- ---- biscuit figures, 296
---- ---- royal dinner-services, 297-298
---- ---- colours of grounds on, 299
---- ---- turquoise enamel, how prepared, 299
---- ---- _Rose carnée_ or _Pompadour_, 300
---- ---- gilding on, 301
---- ---- date-marks on, 302
---- ---- jewelled decoration, 302
---- ---- artists’ marks on, 303
---- ---- felspathic glaze, 306
---- ---- glaze on early hard paste, 306
---- ---- big vases of, 307-308
---- ---- the Napoleonic decoration, 308
---- ---- changes in decoration illustrate history, 310
---- ---- coloured pastes, 311
---- ---- pictorial plaques, 271, 311
---- ---- later developments, 312, 390
‘Shaping,’ term explained, 20
_Sha-t’ai_ or ‘sand-bodied’ relation to _hua-shi_, 132
---- ---- used as slip, 154
Shonsui, first made porcelain in Japan, 181
Siamese porcelain, 172-175
---- ---- primitive methods of support in kilns, 174, 211
---- ---- Buddhist emblems, 175
---- ---- decorated at Canton, 175
Signatures of painters on _famille rose_ plates, 108
Silica, proportion of, in hard pastes, 7, 385
Silver plate replaced in France by porcelain, 285
Slip or _barbotine_, 19, 312
---- decoration of Chinese porcelain, 146, 147, 154
Slop-blending, 16
Snuff-bottles of Chinese porcelain, 113-114, 140
Soft pastes, how distinguished, 277 _note_
---- ---- of France, origin of, 277-279
---- ---- composition, 279
Solon, M., at Sèvres, 311
_Sometsuke_, Japanese term for ‘blue and white,’ 187
_Soufflé_ glazes on Chinese porcelain, 30, 150
_Sous couverte_ or under-glaze decoration, 43
Spain, porcelain made in, 322-324
---- Chinese porcelain early imported, 322
Spengler of Zurich at Derby, 354
Spode family of Stoke, 372-373
---- Josiah, abandons use of frit in porcelain, 373
---- ---- his felspar porcelain, 373
---- ware, 373-374
Sprimont, Nicholas, manager at Chelsea, 333, 338, 341
---- ---- his _Case of the Undertaker_, 334
Staffordshire porcelain, composition, 372
Steatite in Chinese porcelain, 131
---- used at Worcester, 359
---- used at Swansea, 368
---- relation to _Hua-she_, 376 _note_
Stoneware, relation of, to porcelain, 7, 386
---- composition, 7
Stonewares of Chinese, 165-167
Strassburg, porcelain made at, 269
Strawberry Hill, porcelain at, 266, 283, 321, 379 _note_
_Sui-ki_, Chinese term for crackle or _truité_ ware, 146
Sumatra, Chinese trade with, 210
Sung dynasty of China, 62
---- porcelain, 62-68
---- ---- copied in later times, 52, 104
---- ---- rarity in European collections, 71
Su-ni-po and Su-ma-li, cobalt blues of Arab origin, 92
Swansea porcelain, 367-369
Swedish porcelain, 273
---- ---- contemporary work, 388, 393
Swinton, Rockingham porcelain made at, 371
Swiss porcelain, 270
Ta-mo (Jap. Daruma), 143
Tang dynasty of China, importance of, 56, 209
Tang-ying, superintendent at King-te-chen, 110
---- report on manufacture of porcelain, 111-113
Tao-kwang (1820-50), porcelain of, 115
Tea drinking, influence on ceramic wares, 179, 224, 243
---- ---- ridiculed in drinking-song, 243
Tek-kwa or Te-hua, 142
‘Throwing’ on wheel, 20-22
Thüringer Wald, porcelain made in, 269
Tin enamel used at Chantilly, 286, 294
Tin-glazed fayence, 73
Tin in glaze, 33-34
Ting yao, old Chinese ware, 67, 141
Tingui of Marco Polo, 213-214
Tokugawa period, decline of art in later times, 198, 205
Toshiro, Japanese potter, 180
To-t’ai, ‘bodiless’ porcelain, 91
Tournai, porcelain made at, 289
Toys made of Mennecy porcelain, 287
---- made of Chelsea porcelain, 337
Transfer-printing at Bow, 347
---- at Worcester, 360
‘Transmutation’ glazes on Chinese porcelain, 66, 150-154, 151 _note_
_Trembleuse_ saucers, 283, 294
Trenchard family, early pieces of Chinese porcelain in possession of, 219
Triads of colour--San-tsai, 89, 97
Trou, Henri, at Saint-Cloud, 283
Tsang Ying-hsuan, superintendent at King-te-chen, 96
Tschirnhaus, glass made by, 246-247, 278
---- his connection with Böttger, 246-247, 248
Tsing or Manchu dynasty, 96
Tung, the potter’s god, 113
Tung-chi (1861-74), porcelain of, 115
Tu Ting ware, term explained, 68
Turks use coffee-cups of Oriental porcelain, 224
Turner, Thomas, at Caughley, 365
Turquoise glaze on Chinese porcelain, 97, 147
---- grounds (opaque)--_fei-tsui_--on Chinese porcelain, 110-111
---- ---- on Sèvres porcelain, 299
---- ---- on Chelsea porcelain, 339
_Tu-ting_, 142
Tzu-ching, writer of Bushell MS., 61, 79, 86
_Tzu-kin_ (burnished gold), Chinese name for _fond laque_, 146
Unaker, kaolin from America, 342, 376, 378
Uranium, black enamel from, 261
Uses of Chinese porcelain, 137-141
---- of Japanese porcelain, 192
Venice, Chinese porcelain in St. Mark’s, 77 _note_
---- early attempts to make porcelain in, 235
---- Oriental porcelain abundant in seventeenth century, 235 _note_
---- porcelain made at, 316-318
---- German influence on porcelain, 317
Vernadsky, on chemical reaction in firing porcelain, 11
Vezzi family at Venice, 316
Vienna, origin of porcelain works, 260
---- porcelain, decoration, 260
---- ---- marks on, 260
Villeroy, Duc de, and Mennecy, 287
Vincennes, porcelain made at, 289-291, 293-295
---- _bleu du roi_, 294
---- early perfection of porcelain, 295
Vinovo, or Vineuf, porcelain factory at, 318
_Vissage_ or wreathing, 22, 106 _note_, 384
Vogt, M., of Sèvres, quoted, 17, 278
Wall, Dr. John, at Worcester, 357, 363
Walpole, Horace, porcelain from Doccia, 321
Wan-li (1572-1619), his present of porcelain to Jehangir, 85
---- porcelain of, 95
Warham, Archbishop, celadon bowl at Oxford, 218
‘Wasters,’ importance of discovery of, 29
Watteau, influence on German art, 253
Wedgwood, his Jasper ware, 40
---- at Meissen, 256
---- and fugitive workmen, 381 _note_
---- his opposition to Champion, 383
Weesp, in Holland, porcelain made at, 272
White Chinese porcelain, two families of, 68
Willow pattern at Caughley, 365
Worcester porcelain, 357-364
---- ---- foundation of factory, 357
---- ---- composition of pastes, 358
---- ---- the factory described, 358
---- ---- Oriental wares copied, 359
---- ---- portraits of celebrities, 360, 364
---- ---- marks on, 360, 364
---- ---- transfer-printing, 360-361
---- ---- migration of painters from Chelsea, 361
---- ---- _bleu du roi_ grounds, 361-362
---- ---- decorated in London, 362-363
---- ---- the Chamberlain factory, 363
---- ---- late developments, 364
‘Wreathing’ or _vissage_, 22, 106 _note_, 384
_Wu-kung_, five vessels on Buddhist shrine, 138
_Wu-shê_ (_see_ Garniture), 139
Wu-tsai, the ‘five colours’ of Ming enamels, 89
---- relation to _famille verte_, 101
_Yang-tsai_, ‘foreign colours,’ associated with Indian enamels, 165
_Yao-pien_, or furnace transmutation, 152
_Yao-ping_, or medicine-flasks, 113, 140
Yeiraku ware, 198-199
Yeisen, potter at Kioto, 197
Yellow glazes on Chinese porcelain, 94, 147
Yi-hsing yao, stoneware, 165
Yuan or Mongol dynasty, 72
---- ---- porcelain of, 77, 152
Yung-cheng (1722-35), porcelain of, 103-105
---- copies of old wares, 104
---- his early interest in porcelain, 135
Yung-lo (1402-24), early date-mark, 67
---- porcelain of, 68, 91
Zaitun, 142, 209, 213
Zanzibar, Chinese porcelain found at, 211
Zengoro, family of Japanese potters, 198
---- his coral red, his Yeiraku seal, 198-199
---- his Kairaku ware in Kishiu, 200
---- Hozen at Kutani, 205
Zurich, porcelain made at, 270
Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE, Printers to His Majesty at the Edinburgh
University Press
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Some English porcelain is stated by Professor Church to have a
hardness equal to that of quartz. See below, ‘Bristol Porcelain.’
[2] We have thought it well, once for all, to treat briefly of the
scientific aspect of our subject, but those who are not interested in
this point of view may pass over the next few pages.
[3] I shall return to this point in a later chapter. I lay the more
stress on this fact, as it is often stated that the hard and slightly
translucent stonewares, such as the Fulham ware of Dwight, which
contains as much as eighty per cent. of silica, form one degree of a
series of which true porcelain is the next term. The fact is, those
who sought to make porcelain by a refinement in the manufacture of
stoneware were as much astray as those who started from a fusible
glass frit.
[4] The china-stone of Cornwall might, in part at least, be claimed
as an old volcanic rock, and that used in the Imari district of Japan
is distinctly of volcanic origin. Both these rocks, however, consist
essentially of a mixture of quartz and felspar.
[5] For further details consult the authorities quoted in the
_Handbook_ of the Jermyn Street Collection, p. 5; for sections showing
the relation of the beds of kaolin to the surrounding rock, see
Brongniart’s _Traité des Arts Céramiques_, vol. i.
[6] It is to the scattered notices and essays of Mr. William Burton
that we must go for information in this country. In his new work on
_English Porcelain_ he does not treat upon this side of the subject.
[7] The most complete work on the processes of manufacture is now
Dubreuil’s _La Porcelaine_, Paris, 1885. It forms part forty-two in
Fremy’s _Encyclopédie Chimique_. This volume brings up to date and
replaces in some measure the great work of Alexandre Brongniart, the
_Traité des Arts Céramiques_ (two volumes, with a quarto volume of
plates), Paris, 1844. M. Georges Vogt in _La Porcelaine_, Paris, 1893,
gives valuable details of the processes employed at Sèvres.
[8] The _cailloux_ of the French. This material is often described as
felspar, but I think that quartz can seldom be completely absent.
[9] I should, however, be inclined to class not only much of the
porcelain of Japan, but some of that made in Germany and in south-west
France, rather in the ‘severe’ kaolinic than in the intermediary class
of M. Vogt.
[10] We can, however, distinguish, in the tomb paintings of the Middle
Empire, an earlier form without the lower table. This earlier type,
moved by hand from the upper table, was that used by the Greeks at
least as late as the sixth century B.C., and a similar
primitive wheel is still used in India. On later Egyptian monuments of
Ptolemaic time, the potter is seen moving the wheel by pressing his
foot on a second lower table, as now at Sèvres and elsewhere. Both
forms of wheel appear to have been used by the Italian potters of the
Renaissance.
[11] This seam is often visible on vases of old Chinese porcelain, and
may be taken as a sign that the object has been moulded.
[12] Porcelain in China followed, as we shall see, in the wake of the
more early developed arts of the bronze-caster and the jade-carver.
Hence the prevalence in the early wares of shapes unsuitable to the
wheel.
[13] I think that this is a more practical division than the one made
by M. Vogt and adopted by Dr. Bushell.
[14] An important exception is to be noted in the case of the firing
of large vases in China.
[15] A good instance of the first case is the finding of crow-claws in
the rubbish-heaps of Fostât or Old Cairo. As to the method of support
indicating the place of origin, see what is said below about the
celadon ware of Siam.
[16] There is only one exception of any importance--the porcelain of
Chantilly, much of which has an opaque stanniferous glaze.
[17] So we can infer from the magnificent wall decoration of the
Achæmenian period brought home from Susa by M. Dieulafoi.
[18] A glaze of this nature was in the Saracenic East applied to a
layer of fine white slip, which itself formed a coating on the coarse
paste. Such a combination, often very difficult to distinguish from a
tin enamel, we find on the wall-tiles of Persia and Damascus.
[19] Metallic gold has, of course, been applied to the decoration of
porcelain in all countries.
[20] The colour of the ruby glass in our thirteenth century windows
has a very similar origin. In this case the art was lost and only in
a measure recovered at a later period. As in the case of the Chinese
glaze, the point was to seize the moment when the copper was first
reduced and, in a minute state of division, was suspended in floccular
masses in the glass.
[21] With these colours a dark blue is sometimes associated. Is this
derived like the turquoise from copper? It is a curious fact that we
have here exactly the same range of colours that we find in the little
glass bottles of Phœnician or Egyptian origin, with zig-zag patterns
(1500-400 B.C.).
[22] See Vogt, _La Porcelaine_, p. 219. The problem is really more
complicated. For simplicity’s sake we have ignored the changes that
take place in the glaze that lies between the enamels and the paste.
[23] The same result may be obtained by painting one colour over the
other, as we find in the black ground of the _famille verte_.
[24] In Persia, where for three centuries at least the Chinese wares
have been known and imitated, the word _chini_ has almost the same
connotation. See below for a discussion of the route by which this
word reached England.
[25] During the eighteenth century, however, the French missionaries
remained in friendly relation with the Chinese court, especially with
the Emperor Kien-lung, a man of culture and a poet. The Père Amiot
sent home not only letters with valuable information, but from time to
time presents of porcelain from the emperor. He was in correspondence
with the minister Bertin, who was himself a keen collector of
porcelain. See the notes in the Catalogue of Bertin’s sale, Paris,
1815.
[26] Thanks to the industry of the present curator, Herr Zimmermann,
the same may now be said of the great collection at Dresden.
[27] For a discussion, and for many illustrations of the art of these
early dynasties which survives chiefly in objects of jade or bronze,
see Paléologue, _Art Chinois_, Paris, 1887.
[28] The wild statements as to the transparency, above all, of the
Sung and even the Tang porcelain may, however, appear to receive some
confirmation from the reports of the old Arab travellers. But how
much credence we can give to these authorities may be gleaned from
a description of the fayence of Egypt, by a Persian traveller of
the eleventh century. ‘This ware of Misr,’ he says, ‘is so fine and
diaphanous that the hand may be seen through it when it is applied to
the side of the vessel.’ He is speaking not of porcelain, but of a
silicious glazed earthenware!
[29] _Pekin Oriental Society_, 1886; see also Bushell’s _Ceramic Art_,
p. 132 seq.
[30] See the passage in his _History_ (chapter ix.) where this stern
censor, referring to the passion for collecting china, rebukes the
‘frivolous and inelegant fashion’ for ‘these grotesque baubles.’
[31] The name Céladon first occurs in the _Astrée_, the once famous
novel of Honoré D’Urfé. When later in the seventeenth century Céladon,
the courtier-shepherd, was introduced on the stage, he appeared in a
costume of greyish green, which became the fashionable colour of the
time, and his name was transferred to the Chinese porcelain with a
glaze of very similar colour, which was first introduced into France
about that period.
[32] Julien translated the word _ching_ as blue, an unfortunate
rendering in this case, which has been the cause of much confusion.
He was so far justified in this, in that the same word is used by the
Chinese for the cobalt blue of our ‘blue and white,’ while it was not
applied by them to a pronounced green tint.
[33] I shall return to this point when treating of English porcelain.
[34] Somewhat later the Chinese were for a time neighbours of the
Sassanian empire, where the arts of glazing pottery and making glass
were highly developed. Sassanian bronzes, and probably textiles, have
found their way to Japan.
[35] The salt-glazed ware of Europe seems to be the only important
exception to this perhaps rather sweeping generalisation.
[36] It is possible, however, that some of the various tints of brown
used from early Ming times, especially that known to the Chinese as
‘old gold,’ may have been suggested by this copper lustre. The ground
on which this lustre is superimposed in some old Persian wares is of
a very similar shade. Dr. Bushell mentions a tradition that the old
potters tried to produce a yellow colour by adding metallic gold to
their glaze, but that the gold all disappeared in the heat of the
_grand feu_. They had therefore to fall back upon the _or bruni_.
[37] Consult for this ware the beautifully illustrated monographs of
Mr. Henry Wallis on early Persian ceramics.
[38] The cobalt pigment itself, when not of native origin, was known
to the Chinese in Ming times as _Hui-hui ch’ing_ or ‘Mohammedan blue.’
The other names for the material, _sunipo_ and _sumali_, probably
point in the same direction.
[39] A little white oval vase, in the Treasury of St. Mark’s, at
Venice, may possibly be of this old Ting ware. The decoration is in
low relief, and four little rings for suspension surround the mouth.
In any case this is the only piece in this famous collection that has
any claim to be classed as porcelain.
[40] The style of this _cloisonné_ decoration is almost identical
with that seen in the two magnificent lacquer screens with landscapes
and Buddhist emblems at South Kensington. The chains of pearls and
_pendeloques_ are characteristic of a style of painting often found on
the beams and ceilings of the old Buddhist temples of Japan. This is,
I think, a _motif_ not found elsewhere on Chinese porcelain.
[41] The late M. Du Sartel gives in his work on Chinese porcelain good
photographs of some jars of this class in his collection. He was one
of the first to call attention to this ware.
[42] This dull surface is especially noticeable in some of the
specimens with Arabic inscriptions in the British Museum; these date
from the Cheng-te period (1505-21).
[43] In Persia, too, and in that country accompanied by many other
varieties of Chinese porcelain. For examples of these wares see above
all the collection at South Kensington.
[44] _Relations des Musulmans avec les Chinois._ It is not impossible,
however, that further research may bring to light some information on
this subject. Since writing this I hear from Dr. Bushell that some
specimens of Saracenic enamelled glass, presumably of the fourteenth
century, have lately been purchased in Pekin. The Arab trade with
China was probably never more active than in the first half of the
fifteenth century. It is with the Memlook Sultans, then ruling a wide
empire from Cairo, that we must associate most of this enamelled
glass, and the Eastern trade was in their hands.
[45] See Bushell, p. 454.
[46] Note that cobalt as an enamel colour was not applied on porcelain
during Ming times.
[47] There is, however, a curious old bowl in the Salting collection
with the nien-hao of Cheng-te (1505-21), on which a design of iron
red, two shades of green, a brownish purple, _and a cobalt blue of
poor lavender tint, all these colours over the glaze_, is combined
with an _underglaze_ decoration of fish, in a full _copper red_. Note
also the early use of a cobalt blue enamel, _sur couverte_, in the
Kakiyemon ware of Japan.
[48] Much of this kind was translated by Julien, and a good summary
may be found in Hippisley’s paper contributed to the Smithsonian
Institute, but the information from the same and other sources is
more accurately translated and critically analysed in the seventh and
eighth chapters of Dr. Bushell’s great work.
[49] Yung-lo, according to the Chinese reckoning, did not commence his
reign until the new year’s day following the death of his predecessor
(1403). I have, however, thought it better to adopt the European
method of reckoning dates.
[50] The name _Sentoku_ that they give to it is the Japanese reading
of the characters forming this emperor’s name.
[51] We may mention that a pair of wide-mouthed vases of this ware,
shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1896, bore the nien-hao of
Kia-tsing (1521-66) inscribed round the mouth.
[52] More properly a _fresh name was given to the period_, but for the
sake of brevity we here as elsewhere identify the emperor’s name with
that given to the nien-hao.
[53] The Trenchard bowls, mentioned below, belong probably to this or
to the following reign.
[54] But this name is also applied by some to the older Su-ma-li blue.
[55] Perhaps the earliest nien-hao on a piece of blue and white in
which we can place any confidence.
[56] A predecessor of his as viceroy and superintendent at
King-te-chen was _Lang Ting-tso_, from whom the famous Lang yao, the
_sang de bœuf_, had its name, though this derivation is not absolutely
certain. It could only have been quite in the last days of the latter
viceroy’s rule that much good work was turned out from the kilns.
[57] It will be observed that the turquoise blue and the green, both
derived from copper, so happily combined in the wall-tiles of the
Saracenic East, are in China rarely found united in the decoration of
the same piece, and this arises from practical difficulties connected
with the fluxes and the firing. At least the two colours are never
_successfully_ combined, for the attempt was apparently made in Ming
times, and of this some instances are given in the following note.
Indeed I should be inclined to regard such a combination on any piece
as an evidence of early, probably of Ming, origin.
[58] I would especially point to a remarkable water-vessel, about ten
inches high, in the collection at Dresden. This vase is in the form
of a phœnix. _Green_, as well as _turquoise_, purple and yellow are
all found in the decoration, and the colours are all well developed.
There is in the British Museum--a collection in many ways remarkable
for the number of exceptional types illustrated--a jar with cover, of
this class. The ground is a dull purple covered with small spirals
of black; the rest of the decoration--rocks, waves, flowers, and
jewels--is mainly green of two shades with a little yellow. On some of
the flowers, however, we see a poor attempt at turquoise blue. Next
to this example stands a baluster-shaped vase with tall, straight
neck (PL. VII. 2.). The ground is here of a pale greyish yellow, with
crackles of a darker shade--so far, in fact, of a Ko yao type. The
decoration is of a predominant leafy green, with a little purple and
yellow here and there; but on the flowers we find, in addition, an
enamel of turquoise, poor in colour, indeed, but certainly a copper
blue. Both these examples are classed as Ming, and both would seem
to show that the combination of the turquoise enamel (essentially
a silicate of copper and soda) with the lead-fluxed green had been
attempted in Ming times. It was, however, impossible to obtain
satisfactory results in this way, so that in Kang-he’s time the
turquoise was reserved for the _demi grand feu_, and the green alone
used as an enamel over the glaze.
[59] ‘Muffle-colours,’ of course in these later examples painted over
the glaze, and therefore to be classed as enamels.
[60] In this respect we may compare such decoration to a dark
water-colour drawing on white paper, where advantage is only taken of
the white ground for scattered lights here and there.
[61] We must always think of this great man in connection with his
contemporary in France, Louis XIV. Omitting the early years of the
French king, before he attained his majority, the two long reigns run
almost exactly together.
[62] This list is to be found in Julien’s book. Dr. Bushell has since
given a more accurate translation, accompanied by a careful analysis
(_Chinese Ceramics_, chapter xii.).
[63] The red paste of early times was, however, imitated, and a
‘copper paste’ is also mentioned in connection with these old wares.
The last expression is obscure, but it has certainly nothing to do
with an enamel on copper.
[64] On the other hand, on some large showy vases of this time we can
trace a series of rings, giving an uneven surface. These are caused
either by the undue pressure of the potter’s fingers (_vissage_), or
perhaps in part by the way in which the successive stages of the jar
were built up with ‘sausage-shaped’ rolls of clay.
[65] How this iron red was manipulated, apparently at a transition
period, so as to obtain an effect approaching that of the _rouge
d’or_, is described on page 162.
[66] A ruby-red can be obtained by careful manipulation from gold
alone. We may regard the addition of tin as a convenient method of
developing the colour which was apparently known to the mediæval
alchemists.
[67] It would be a point of special interest to determine the date
when these two colours--the pink (used as a ground) and the opaque
turquoise blue--were first used in China. Their presence together
with the lemon-yellow gives perhaps the first note of a period of
decline. There is in the British Museum a bowl and saucer covered
on the outside with this rose enamel and bearing this unusual
inscription--‘the _Sin-chou_ year occurring again.’ This expression
was referred by Franks to the sixty-first year of the reign of
Kang-he, when the cyclical year in which his reign began recurred
again, an unprecedented fact in Chinese history. In the same
collection is a saucer-shaped plate with a pale pink ground with
the mark of the period Yung-cheng. But the evidence in favour of a
somewhat later date for the fully developed use of the _rouge d’or_
seems to me fairly strong. Dr. Bushell, however, tells me that he has
seen other examples where the same inscription is found upon ware
decorated with the _rouge d’or_, and that he accepts the early date
(1722) on the Sin-chou plate. I return to this question on page 136.
[68] Julien omitted this curious passage in his translation as devoid
of interest!
[69] There are two magnificent vases of the black lacquered ware, each
about eight feet high, in the Musée Guimet, and of the brown variety a
well-preserved spherical bowl may be seen at South Kensington.
[70] The snuff-bottles of the Chinese represent the _inro_ of the
Japanese. Both were originally used for pills and for eye medicine.
[71] Dr. Bushell tells us that she is an accomplished artist and
calligraphist, and that her autograph signature is much valued. She is
said to have sent down from the palace, to be copied at King-te-chen,
bowls and dishes of the time of Kien-lung, just as that emperor in his
day forwarded from Pekin examples of Sung and Ming wares with the same
object. So the old tradition is kept up!
[72] These references are to the plates of marks at the end of the
book.
[73] See, however, p. 110 note, for a curious instance of its use.
[74] A good example of a date-mark of Wan-li in this position may be
seen on the vase reproduced on PL. VII. Fig. 2.
[75] Why, by the way, do we find, in catalogues otherwise well edited,
porcelain ascribed to the Kang-he _dynasty_? One might as well speak
of the Louis XIV. dynasty.
[76] At least such was the case when the Canal was in working order.
For some time since, the Grand Canal has only been navigable _when the
country is flooded_.
[77] I cannot find the exact date of the first publication of these
letters. In the eighteenth century we find them generally quoted from
Du Halde.
[78] This is a passage made use of by Longfellow in those often-quoted
lines beginning--
‘A burning town, or seeming so,
Three thousand furnaces that glow,’ etc.
[79] If we are to understand by this ‘transparent pebble’ some form of
arsenic, for it would seem that arsenic (and not tin as with us) is
the base of the opaque white enamels of the Chinese, it is difficult
to believe that so volatile a substance could be thus prepared.
[80] For the use of steatite in English porcelain see chap. xxii. At
Vinovo, in Piedmont, another magnesian mineral has been employed for
the paste.
[81] In the following summary I have kept to the Père D’Entrecolles’s
words as far as possible, but with considerable abbreviations.
[82] We must here think of the more sober _famille verte_ lantern at
South Kensington, rather than of the magnificent specimen of pierced
work in the Salting collection, which is of later date.
[83] The unique bowl of Chinese porcelain illustrated in Du Sartel’s
book, of which the outside is decorated in black and gold in imitation
of the Limoges enamel of the renaissance, may have had some such
origin. This piece, on which even the initials of the original French
artist have been copied, was formerly in the Marquis collection, and
is now to be seen in the Grandidier Gallery at the Louvre.
[84] We have already alluded to this point, _à propos_ of a bowl in
the British Museum; see p. 110 note.
[85] This branch of the subject is fully worked out in chapter xvii.
of Dr. Bushell’s work.
[86] When compared with a similar collection of European wares,
perhaps the most noticeable difference is the small number of vessels
adapted to _pouring_. So much is this the case that when we find a
spout or lip on a specimen of Chinese porcelain, the piece takes
at once a somewhat exotic aspect, and we are reminded of the Arab
_Ibraik_, or the European ewer.
[87] It is a curious fact that London chemists now send out their
pills in little glass bottles almost identical in shape and size with
these Chinese yao-ping.
[88] The word is used in a restricted sense as explained above.
[89] We have far too often to fall back on names of French origin. Our
colour-vocabulary in the case of the enamels and glazes of porcelain
is a sadly poor one.
[90] In the case of some monochrome ware the colour may have been
painted on the raw paste or on the biscuit, and a colourless glaze
then added; or again, as in the case of the coral red mentioned below,
it may be painted like an enamel _over_ the glaze.
[91] It must, however, be remembered that this carved lacquer itself
is sometimes applied as a coating to porcelain in China.
[92] It would be convenient to have a name to include the whole
series--the _flambé_, the _sang de bœuf_, the lavender Yuan, and
perhaps also the peach-bloom and the ‘robin’s egg.’ I would propose to
include _all these classes_ under the head of _transmutation glazes_.
[93] A French writer compares the effect to the ‘palette d’un
coloriste montrée sous un morceau de glace’ (E. de Goncourt, _La
Maison d’un Artiste_).
[94] There were many kinds of ‘furnace transmutations’ known to the
Chinese, mostly of a miraculous nature (see Bushell, p. 219).
[95] When applied to _the whole surface_, a similar slip forms the
ground on which the decoration is painted in the case of many kinds of
European and Saracenic fayence, but in such ware the slip is used to
conceal a more or less coarse and coloured paste.
[96] It may, however, be noticed, on close examination, that the
crackles do not seem to be developed in the lower glaze covered by the
slip. This would rather point to both the first and the second coats
of glaze, as well as the intermediate slip, being all applied before
the firing.
[97] Not that we need claim any great age for these plates, but it is
in such places that old types (as _e.g._ the celadon) are likely to
continue in fashion.
[98] We may perhaps connect the first steady export of ‘blue and
white’ direct to Europe with the establishment of the Dutch at
Nagasaki, where they probably employed Chinese workmen.
[99] So what is by far the most successful imitation of Chinese ‘blue
and white’ ever produced in Europe was made by the Dutch, in the
enamelled fayence of Delft, about the middle of the century.
[100] In Japanese art also we find the prunus as a symbol of the
approaching spring, but there the branches are covered with freshly
fallen snow. The contrast of the weather in early spring, in China and
Japan respectively, could not be better expressed--by ice in the one
case, by soft thawing snow in the other.
[101] Dr. Zimmermann, the curator of the Dresden Museum, regards the
black division of the _famille verte_ as a product of the _demi grand
feu_, _i.e._ he holds that the black and green was painted on the
biscuit. But this is certainly not the case with the fully developed
examples. I may say that this class is only represented at Dresden by
some small roughly painted plates.
[102] We find it so used, however, upon the Japanese ‘Kakiyemon’
porcelain, some of which cannot be much later than the middle of the
seventeenth century.
[103] Since writing this I have discovered a tall-necked bottle of
this ware at South Kensington, which is stated to have been purchased
in Persia (PL. XX.).
[104] That is to say, no attempt was ever made to imitate the
material--the hard paste.
[105] An important collection of armorial china was bequeathed to the
Museum in 1887 by the Rev. Charles Walker.
[106] This plate belongs to a group in which the arms, above all the
mantlings, are in the style of the seventeenth century. On these the
_gules_ is always rendered by an opaque iron-red, although the new
_rouge d’or_ is freely used in the rest of the decoration. I learn
from my friend Colonel Croft Lyons that the arms on this plate are
those of Leake Okeover, who was born in 1701. The initials, repeated
four times on the margin, L. M. O., stand for Leake and his wife Mary.
The plate, therefore, cannot well have been painted before, say, 1725.
[107] This class of Kuang yao must not be confused with the old heavy
pieces of Yuan ware mentioned on p. 77.
[108] I quote, with a few contractions, from the edition of 1774.
[109] I have examined the Korean pottery in the British Museum, at
Sèvres, and that in some of the German museums, but I have not seen
the specimens in the Ethnographical Museum at Hamburg, which are said
to be very remarkable.
[110] For an account of the exploration of Sawankalok, see _Man_,
the volume for 1901. By the kind permission of Mr. Read I have been
able to closely examine the specimens which are now deposited in the
British Museum.
[111] We may mention that the Japanese appear also to give the name
of Kochi to other wares, especially to the deep blue and turquoise
porcelain with decoration in ribbed cloisons which we have attributed
to early Ming times.
[112] We may compare with this the impulse given, some four hundred
years later, in Europe, to the spread of the use of porcelain at the
time when tea was first introduced in the West.
[113] See page 66. This Sung ware is known to the Japanese as
‘_Temmoku_,’ and is highly esteemed by them.
[114] Many, however, of these so-called Jesuit plates were probably
painted at King-te-chen at a later date. Christianity was finally and
ruthlessly crushed in Japan after the rebellion of 1637: in China
it was tolerated up to the close of the reign of Kang-he (1721). I
must refer back to a quotation from the Père D’Entrecolles given on
p. 133. See also a curious note in Marryat, where a statuette of
Quanyin, with the boy patron of learning, is described as ‘a Virgin
and Child.’--_Pottery and Porcelain_, p. 293.
[115] In the Dresden collection are several cases full of this early
Japanese blue and white.
[116] The Chinese, however, were given much greater liberty than the
Dutch.
[117] See the South Kensington handbook on Japanese pottery, p. 86.
In the chapter on Japanese ceramics contained in the magnificently
illustrated _History of the Arts of Japan_, published in 1901 in
connection with the Paris Exhibition, a little further light is thrown
on the history of porcelain in that country. But in this work and in
the other guides published at the time of our American and European
exhibitions (and the same may be said of the Japanese report contained
in the South Kensington handbook), the same scanty materials are
served up again and again.
[118] _Ambassades Mémorables de la Compagnie des Indes Orientales des
Provinces Unies vers les Empereurs du Japon_, Amsterdam, 1680, Part
II. p. 102. I take the reference from Marryat, but I have not been
able to find the book.
[119] We know of no Chinese type to which we can refer this
decoration. Certain points of resemblance have been found with the
work of the great contemporary Japanese artist Tanyu. The most
characteristic _motifs_ are the tiger, the dancing boy with long
sleeves, and the straw hedge.
[120] The ‘old Japan’ was at one time closely copied at King-te-chen
for exportation to Europe. (_Cf._ PL. XXIV. 1.)
[121] The composition of the Owari porcelain is more normal, the
silica only amounting to 65 per cent.; but as the paste contains
little or no lime, it comes nearer to the hard porcelain of Berlin
than to the milder Chinese type.
[122] Much, however, of the china-stone of Cornwall differs little in
composition from the Imari stone; but the latter contains, as we have
said, soda, in place of the more usual potash.
[123] It is to this _Koransha_, I understand, that we are indebted for
the historical notices on Japanese porcelain that have appeared on the
occasion of our successive international exhibitions (see above, p.
183 note).
[124] Captain Brinkley speaks of the lower edge being serrated, but I
have never seen any specimen of this serration.
[125] Another seal was granted to Zengoro with the inscription
(reading in Chinese) _Hopin chi liu_ (PL. B. 24). This refers to an
old tradition that Shun, a Chinese emperor of very early date, had,
before his accession to the throne, made pottery at a place called
Hopin, in Honan. This story is told by Ssuma Chien, the ‘Herodotus of
China,’ and would be well known to scholars in Japan. These characters
are sometimes found on Japanese ware. (_Cf._ Bushell, chap. i., and
the Franks catalogue, fig. 191, where, however, the words are wrongly
interpreted.) Yeiraku, I should add, may be also rendered ‘long
content.’
[126] This question of the relation between the Kishiu, the Kochi of
the Japanese, and our class of old Ming wares with coloured glazes,
is full of difficulties. It remains for some Japanese connoisseur,
who is at the same time both an expert in ceramics and a good Chinese
scholar, to clear it up.
[127] This work is analysed by Dr. Hirth in his essay on _Ancient
Chinese Porcelain_ already referred to.
[128] Dr. Meyer, who brought this collection together, has always
supported the theory that in early days no true porcelain was ever
made except in China. In support of this he points to the specimens,
including ‘wasters,’ from Sawankalok in Siam, in this collection,
as being all of stoneware. We have seen (p. 173) that more recent
excavations in the same neighbourhood have brought to light fragments
of true porcelain of undoubted local manufacture. It is true, however,
that most of the examples of celadon in the Dresden collection are of
what we should call a kaolinic stoneware.
[129] I suppose that Franks, who refers to this notice, was satisfied
that the present really consisted of Chinese ware. Many slips have
been made in quoting this passage, but I will only point out that
Nureddin, who died in 1173, has no claim to the title of caliph.
[130] This belief, however, long lingered not only in the East, but
even in Europe. According to some, if poison was present, the bowl
lost its transparency; others state that the liquid would boil up in
the centre, remaining clear round the edge. In a French comic poem,
written as late as 1716, among other merits possessed by vessels of
Chinese porcelain, it is claimed for them that--
‘Ils font connaître les mystères
Des bouillons à la Brinvillière.’
[131] By far the greater number of the fragments are of local or at
least of Saracenic origin, and many of them may be as old as the date
mentioned in the text. But at Fostât, at all events, some of the
pot-sherds are of a much later date. There are important collections
of fragments from these rubbish-heaps both in the British Museum and
at South Kensington.
[132] Professor Karabacek of Vienna quotes from the encyclopædist
Hâdji Khalifa, who died in 1658: ‘The precious magnificent celadon
dishes seen in his time were manufactured and exported at Martabani,
in Pegu.’
[133] The little bowl of apple-green porcelain in the British Museum,
‘garnished’ with a mounting of the time of Henry VIII., has perhaps as
long a European history. The two ‘Trenchard’ bowls (in spite of the
later date of the mounting) probably came to England in 1506.
[134] I think that it is not unlikely that during the time that
King-te-chen lay waste, kilns may have been erected somewhere in
the neighbourhood of the Canton river, and that from these kilns
originated much of the rough ware, hastily decorated in blue, that
reached India and Persia in such quantities at this time (_cf._ the
statement of Raynal quoted on p. 166). We have spoken in the last
chapter of the influence of these events upon the Japanese trade.
[135] I am referring, of course, to Stuart times. In the eighteenth
century the so-called Gombroon ware was of Persian origin, and
recognised as such in England.
[136] The word ‘china’ is used in this sense, I think, by no other
European nation.
[137] See, however, for the Portuguese merchants who sold porcelain in
France, the note on page 230.
[138] The Abbé Raynal, writing about 1770, says that connoisseurs
divide Oriental porcelain into six classes--‘_truitée_, _vieille
blanche_, _de Japon_, _de Chine_, _le Japon Chiné et la porcelaine des
Indes_.’
[139] Marryat’s extracts are unfortunately often carelessly quoted;
nor is it easy in all cases to control them by reference to the
originals.
[140] August II. certainly bought a collection of porcelain from the
Bassetouche family for 6750 thalers. It would be interesting to know
of what wares this collection consisted. The only further additions
until quite recent times have been to the European department.
[141] The tradition of the ‘dinner-service’ made in China for Charles
V., and presented by him to Moritz of Saxony (or, as others say,
captured from him by that prince), belongs to the same category of
stories as that of the crusader’s cup. No such commission as this
was possible at so early a date, and there is nothing in the Dresden
collection that could be connected with such a service.
[142]
‘Menez-moi chez les Portugais
Nous y verrons à peu de frais
Des marchandises de la Chine
... de la porcelaine fine,’ etc.--Scarron, _Paris Burlesque_.
[143] In 1689 Madame de Sévigné notes the quantity of Oriental
porcelain imported at L’Orient.
[144] Are we to identify these with some huge Imari vases, now in the
Louvre, with coats of arms bearing the French lilies and the label of
Orleans? Some similar vases, with the same arms, have lately been seen
in dealers’ shops in London.
[145] The catalogues of Gersaint and of some other early French
collections may be found at South Kensington.
[146] Passeri, writing in 1752 in favour of the then neglected
majolica, claims that ‘la parte brutale dell’ uomo sarà a favor delle
porcellane, ma l’intellettuale e raziocinativa giudicherà a favor
delle nostre majoliche.’
[147] Recent researches in the archives of Venice have proved that
Oriental porcelain was comparatively abundant in Venice at the
beginning of the sixteenth century. Dr. Ludwig has shown me extracts
from the inventory of the property of a rich ‘cittadino’ who died in
1526, in which can be distinguished plain white, blue and white, and
porcelain decorated with red, green, and gold.
[148] It is quite possible that Palissy may have tried his hand at
this problem. M. Solon has suggested that in the many years’ labour
at Saintes (when attempting especially to imitate ‘the cup with white
enamel’) Palissy was really seeking to make porcelain.
[149] I take the following from the excellent catalogue of the Ceramic
Museum at Limoges, by E. Garnier: ‘1125. _Pot à Pommade, de forme
cylindrique godronné à la partie inférieure et décoré en bleu d’une
bande de lambrequins. Marque_ A.P.’ Some other small pieces in this
museum are classed as Rouen porcelain.
[150] Professor Church allows that ‘the substance of some of these
statuettes is distinctly porcellanous.’ He found, however, in a
fragment of this ware as much as 79·5 per cent. of silica, and only
12·5 per cent. of alumina (_Cantor Lectures_, 1881).
[151] This feeling is well expressed in a contemporary drinking-song:--
‘To drink is a Christian diversion
Unfit for your Turk or your Persian;
Let Mohammedan fools live by heathenish rules,
And get drunk over tea-cups and coffee,
But let British lads sing, give a rouse for the king,
A fig for your Turk and your Sophi.’
The punch-bowl of porcelain, however, came to the rescue about this
time.
[152] In the porcelain gallery at Dresden may be seen (together with
one or two small lumps of gold and silver, the results of Böttger’s
alchemistic experiments) some snuff-boxes and little flasks of a
marbled glass, made by Tschirnhaus at an early date. It is probable
that the latter experimenter’s researches lay rather in the way of a
frit-made soft paste, on the same lines as the contemporary attempts
in France.
[153] And yet, forty years later (so well was the secret kept), it was
maintained by practical authorities in France that the Saxon ware was
no true porcelain, but only some kind of hard enamel. See Hellot’s
_Mémoire_, quoted below.
[154] We hear, however, of Dutch potters being engaged as early as
1708, and with their assistance Böttger, in 1709, made some imitations
of Delft ware.
[155] In a contemporary German pamphlet, which I only know from a
French translation (_Secret des Vrais Porcelaines de la Chine et de
Saxe_, Paris, 1752), a certain ‘_spath alkalin_’ is mentioned as an
important element in Saxon porcelain, and this substance is identified
with the petuntse of the Père D’Entrecolles.
[156] If this colour is derived from the purple of Cassius, as seems
probable, it is an important instance of the early use of this pigment
upon porcelain.
[157] Above all the famous ‘Swan Service’ of 1736, Kändler’s
masterpiece.
[158] We had in England until lately an unrivalled collection of
these little groups--priceless specimens of the best period. They
were exhibited by their owner, Mr. Massey Mainwaring, for some time
at Bethnal Green. This collection has, however, now found its way to
America.
[159] On the other hand, as early as 1732 the Meissen ware was
finding its way to the East. Quantities of little coffee-cups (known
as _Türken Copjen_, corrupted into _Türken Köpfchen_) were sent to
Constantinople to be re-exported to other Mohammedan countries.
[160] We may remind the reader that it was a syndicate of Berlin
merchants who at an earlier date sought, it is said, to purchase from
Böttger his secret. There is little doubt, however, that the anecdotes
about Ringler, which abound in the notices on German porcelain,
are little more than ‘porcelain myths.’ Very similar anecdotes are
told of the early days at Vincennes, and in Japan, as we have seen,
such stories sometimes take a more tragical form. There is a strong
temptation, no doubt, in traversing the somewhat arid ground of German
ceramics, to fall back on such tales. At all events they belong to the
class of _tendenz Mährchen_, and illustrate the difficulties to be
overcome at that time in starting a new factory.
[161] Not but that we have proof of his interest in the subject, as
the following letter, dated Meissen, March 28, 1761, will show. It
is written to Madame Camas, his _chère Maman_, who was then with the
queen at Magdeburg:--‘I send you, my dear mamma, a little trifle,
by way of keepsake and memento. You may use the box for your rouge,
for your patches, or you may put snuff in it or bonbons or pills....
I have ordered porcelain for all the world, for Schönhausen, for my
sisters-in-law,--in fact I am rich in this brittle material only. And
I hope the receivers will accept it as current money: for the truth
is, we are poor as can be, good mamma. I have nothing left but my
honour, my coat, my sword, and my porcelain.’--Carlyle’s _Frederick
the Great_, Book xx. chap. vi. Marryat, who gives this letter in his
notes, mixes up Carlyle’s comments with the text.
[162] The Hohenzollern shield bears two sceptres in saltire _en
surtout_.
[163] Another account gives the credit to Von Löwenfinck, a porcelain
painter from Meissen.
[164] Politically, that is to say; for the town formed part of the
‘Pays d’Étrangers,’ and its commercial and social relations were still
rather with Germany than with France.
[165] I take these facts about the Hannong family from Sir A.
Wollaston Franks’s _Catalogue of Continental Porcelain_, 1896.
[166] In the same year we find Count Schimmelmann, who at a later date
interested himself in the Copenhagen factory, selling by auction at
Hamburg some of the vast stocks of Meissen china that Frederick had
thrown on the market.
[167] As a royal factory, however, it became extinct in 1864. See
chap. xxiii.
[168] Thus we have, during the Seven Years’ War, Frederick’s three
bitter opponents--Maria Theresa in Austria, Elizabeth in Russia, and
the Marquise de Pompadour in France--all taking an active interest
in promoting the manufacture of porcelain, and this rivalry may have
added to the zest of Frederick when he looted Meissen and sought to
make Berlin take its place as the metropolis of porcelain.
[169] An American writer has arranged the tests by which soft pastes
may be distinguished from true porcelains under six heads. 1. _The
file test._--Soft porcelain may be marked by a file. 2. _The foot
test._--In hard porcelain the foot is generally rough and unglazed.
This test is rather of value in distinguishing porcelain from fayence.
3. _The fire test._--Depending on the greater fusibility of the soft
pastes. 4. _Chemical test._ 5. _Colour test._--Soft paste is generally
mellow ivory by transmitted light, and this is especially true of
‘bone-ware.’ The hard paste tends to bluish shades. 6. _Fracture
test._--The fracture is glassy to vitreous, and the glaze passes into
the paste in the case of hard pastes (the subconchoidal splintery
fracture is rather the point to observe); dry and chalky, and the
glaze more or less separated from the paste in the case of soft
pastes.--E. A. Barber, _Pottery and Porcelain of the United States_,
New York, 1901.
[170] De Réaumur, we must remember, had made some kind of hard-paste
porcelain from Chinese materials. After that he fell back upon his
devitrified glass. Something very similar had been made by Tschirnhaus
many years before.
[171] These, I think, are almost the only instances in which a
distinctly seventeenth century decoration is to be found on porcelain.
[172] These _trembleuse_ saucers of the early eighteenth century have
a projecting ring into which the base of the teacup fits.
[173] The extreme limits for this mark are 1712-62, but Chaffers says
it was not used before 1730, according to another authority not before
1735. De Frasnay, in a note to his curious little poem in praise of
fayence (1735), says: ‘_le secret du beau rouge n’est guère connu
en France que d’un très petit nombre de personnes_.’ The point is
of interest in connection with the origin of the _famille rose_ in
China. We may here note that the minute quantity of gold--the source
of all these pink and purple colours--is not necessarily introduced in
the form of the tin salt, the purple of Cassius. But this difficult
question will be best treated in connection with the history of glass.
[174] Generally known as the Duc de Bourbon (1710-40). He was an
enthusiast for the art of the Far East. An important work on Chinese
art was published under his auspices in 1735. He imitated the painted
hangings of the East, and even attempted to make Japanese lacquer.
After his death, the two brothers Dubois, _épiciers à Chantilly_,
migrated to Vincennes, and the Chantilly works were for a time
neglected. See Gustave Macon, _Les arts dans la Maison de Condé_, 1903.
[175] Of the many European imitations of the ‘Kakiyemon’ style the
Chantilly is most successful, while the ‘Old Japan’ was best copied
at Chelsea. No European imitation in porcelain of the Chinese blue
and white approaches in brilliancy that made in Delft ware in the
seventeenth century.
[176] The porcelain of Saint-Cloud and Chantilly is well represented
in the Fitzhenry collection.
[177] Some twenty miles south of Paris, not far from Corbeil.
[178] The name is written ‘Sèves’ in English catalogues of the
eighteenth century, and the same form is found sometimes in
contemporary French writings. We may compare the favourite signature
‘Fédéric’ of the Prussian king.
[179] _Mémoire Historique pour la Manufacture, rédigé en 1781 par
Bachelier_, re-edited, with preface and notes, by G. Gouellain, Paris,
1878.
[180] See the note on p. 286. It would seem that the first successes
at Vincennes were, in a measure, dependent upon the temporary breaking
up of the factory at Chantilly on the death of the Duc de Bourbon in
1740.
[181] At a later time this man had a contract for the delivery of the
paste, the secret of which he preserved, at a fixed rate per pound. In
one year he is said to have received for this 800,000 livres!
[182] Such is my general impression, but M. Garnier, I see, speaks
highly of his artistic capabilities. Bachelier founded in 1763 a free
school of design, one of the few institutions of the old régime that
have survived the many changes of government. It still exists as the
_École Nationale des Beaux-Arts_.
[183] By this we get a hint as to the kind of ware made at Vincennes
at the commencement, when under the influence of Chantilly.
[184] The account-books of these sales are still preserved. M.
Davillier, in his little book on _Les porcelaines de Sèvres et Madame
du Barry_, quotes the record of purchases made (at a later date, for
the most part) by the royal family, by Madame du Deffand, and by M. de
Voltaire. The latter bought, for 120 livres, ‘_Deux bustes de mondit
Sieur, en biscuit_.’ Besides this, large sales were made yearly to the
trade.
[185] The above description is that given by the Prince de Ligne in
his memoirs. In the Johanneum at Dresden there is now to be seen a
‘bouquet’ which in every way corresponds to the prince’s account.
The Meissen works for long had the credit of this trophy, but it is
now acknowledged that it is identical with the present sent by the
dauphine, in 1748, to her father, the Elector of Saxony. M. Davillier
quotes a curious account from a contemporary memoir describing the
difficulties and expenses incurred in transporting this ‘bouquet’ from
Paris to Dresden. Are we, then, to regard it as the actual present
given by M. de Fulvi to the queen, or as a duplicate?
[186] See for this and other references to porcelain in the _chronique
scandaleuse_ of the day, the little book of M. Davillier quoted above.
[187] Some attention was paid to the housing and comfort of the
workmen at the new establishment, but Bachelier makes no mention of
‘the gardens, cascades, fruit-trees, groves, woods, and a small chase
for the artists, who enjoyed to hunt the stag and the wild boar none
the less for their sedentary lives in the art palace’ (Marryat, p.
414). On the contrary, we are told that in a few years the houses and
workshops were already threatening to fall down on the workmen’s heads.
[188] M. Bertin was himself a great collector of Chinese porcelain.
In the _avertissement_ of the catalogue of his collection which was
sold in Paris in 1815, we are told that through the medium of the Père
Amiot he obtained many choice specimens, some of them direct presents
from the Chinese emperor. We have already alluded to Kien-lung’s
interest in exotic wares, and to the influence of these upon the
native decoration.
[189] In the _fond lapis caillouté_ the deep blue ground is painted
with fine veins of gold, to imitate the pyrites which generally
accompanies the native stone (lapis lazuli). It was used as early as
1758 (see Wallace collection, Gallery XVIII., Case C.).
[190] As many as one hundred and sixty pieces, it is said, were
carried off during a fire at Tsarskoe Selo. Some of these were
afterwards repurchased by the Tsar Nicholas.
[191] Marryat quotes a passage to the following effect from a little
work published at Venice soon after the death of the favourite.
Praising the good taste of the ‘_Madame Marchesa_,’ the writer states
that this was, above all, manifested in the adornment of her table.
All the porcelain was expressly manufactured for her at Sèvres, and
was of _a rose colour mixed with gold_. The value amounted to 257,000
livres, and no sovereign possessed a service of equal beauty.
[192] It is found as a ground on pieces bearing the earliest
letter-marks, so that it is difficult to accept the statement that it
was first made by Xhrouet, a painter of landscapes, in 1757.
[193] Much of it found its way to England, and was there decorated in
the old Sèvres style, both in London and in the West.
[194] For a detailed description of these deposits and their
geological relations, see Brongniart’s great work.
[195] Napoleon at one time sent Daru to Sèvres to convey to
Brongniart, in the most lively terms, his dissatisfaction with what he
called the simplicity and tameness of the designs in use at Sèvres.
Every piece should, he protests, ‘_dire quelque chose_.’ Every plate
should record glorious deeds, the capture of the enemy’s towns, or the
triumphant return of the victors.
[196] We must, however, place some of these discoveries to the credit
of the staff of the Viennese factory, and Dihl again, the chemist of
the porcelain works in the Rue de Bondy, has a claim to others.
[197] The death of M. Garnier occurred since the above was written.
[198] The use of a bone-paste ware of the ‘Spode’ type is, however,
now prevalent not only in many parts of the continent, but porcelain
of this kind is now largely made in the United States.
[199] Unless it be in the catalogue drawn up by Sir A. W. Franks
for his collection of continental china. The ceramic collection in
the Hamburg Museum has also been very thoroughly catalogued by Dr.
Brinckmann.
[200] It is curious to find Venice at this time exporting porcelain to
the East, for at an earlier period it was through this town that so
much Oriental porcelain and fayence reached Europe.
[201] This Venetian china, either of hard paste or of the hybrid
class, must not be confused with the opaque glass, the _lattimo_,
or, more properly, _Latisuol_, ware, made about 1730 in imitation of
porcelain both at Murano, and also near Bassano.
[202] Compare with this the use of steatite, a magnesian rock, from
the Lizard, at Worcester, and at other West of England factories. The
Chinese have also at times made use of a steatitic rock.
[203] Marryat (p. 451) gives an interesting account of this
enterprising man. He was occupied also in the draining of marshes, the
improvement of agriculture, and the promotion of commerce.
[204] With this appointment we may perhaps connect the elaborate
trophy of white porcelain at South Kensington. The figures of slaves
on which this is supported are modelled after those of Tacca on the
celebrated monument at Leghorn. This piece is attributed, however, to
the Capo di Monte factory.
[205] The word ‘china’ is sometimes used in Spain in the same vague
sense as in England, but the name seems only to have come in with the
Staffordshire ware so largely imported in the last century. Note,
however, that the factory at Buen Retiro was known as La China.
[206] I quote this remarkable passage from Sir A. W. Franks’s paper on
the origin of the Chelsea porcelain works (_Archæol. Journal_, 1862).
Marryat misquotes and misinterprets the passage.
[207] One possible exception to this very general statement may be
found in a pamphlet quoted by Mr. Solon, _Instructions how to make
as good china as was ever sold by the East India Company_ by A.
Hill, London, 1716. According to this writer, fragments of Oriental
china were to be finely ground and mixed with fluxing and plastic
materials to form a paste. Now there is evidence that at a much later
date ‘potsherds’ were imported from China, and ground up to form an
ingredient of the porcelain, both at Bow and at Worcester.
[208] The memorandum-book of Duesbury, the future porcelain king,
begins in 1742. He was then working, on weekly wages, as an
‘enameller’ of china figures. But was the ware that he was decorating
at this time a true porcelain?
[209] Mr. Burton says that at the present day the Staffordshire
porcelain is composed of bone-ash 6 parts, china-stone 4 parts, and
kaolin 3½ parts.
[210] Mr. Willett, of Brighton, has a pair of ‘goat and bee’ jugs in
silver, with the hall-mark of 1739.
[211] There is an interesting series of these very early pieces in the
British Museum. A white ware salt-cellar, with crayfish in relief, has
the triangle mark. A jug, in the form of a grotesque Chinaman, is a
good specimen of the early paste. We notice the same waxy look in the
paste that we find in the Saint-Cloud ware. The surface, however, is
generally grayer.
[212] In 1758 we find an advertisement of a house to let in ‘China
Walk,’ Chelsea.
[213] Both Gouyn and his successor, Sprimont, were very likely
Walloons from the neighbourhood of Liége. In a contemporary work,
however, the latter is spoken of as ‘a French artist of great
abilities.’ Rouguet’s _Present State of the Arts_, 1755.
[214] Note the term ‘earthenware.’ As in a much earlier proclamation
of the time of Charles II. (forbidding the importation of painted
earthenware, except ‘those of China, and stone bottles and jugs’), the
word is used officially to include porcelain.
[215] Such a regulation would seem to show that in England the
enamel-painters were in the field earlier than the manufacturers of
porcelain.
[216] The later date is supported by the statement of Sprimont in his
‘Case,’ that ‘the ground flat of the manufacturer has gone on still
increasing,’ for we know that the works were enlarged in 1757. The
expression ‘crowned head’ applies better to the King of Prussia than
to the Elector of Saxony. In 1760, as we have seen, Count Schimmelmann
was at Hamburg selling, on behalf of Frederick, part of the vast
stocks accumulated at Meissen.
[217] In a London paper of December 4, 1763, appeared the following
statement--I quote from Mr. Nightingale’s book,--‘A few days since,
his R. Highness the Duke of Cumberland was at Mr. Sprimont’s
manufactory at Chelsea, and we are informed that his Highness will
shortly purchase the same, that so matchless an art should not be
lost.’ A week later, however, a formal contradiction of this report
appeared in another paper, in the form of a note at the end of an
advertisement of the sale of the contents of Sprimont’s factory. All
this has a very modern air. We have a skilful combination of the
_ballon d’essai_ and the puff preliminary.
[218] This collection has lately disappeared from its old home in the
Geological Museum, where it had been the delight of two generations of
collectors. Most of the specimens have, however, quite recently been
discovered at South Kensington.
[219] Much of the white ware at this time was decorated outside by
‘chamberers.’ Compare the memorandum-book of Duesbury quoted below.
[220] The advertisement of these sales in contemporary newspapers, and
many of the catalogues, have been collected together and reprinted by
the late Mr. J. E. Nightingale.
[221] Before this time the gold had been simply laid on with
japanner’s size and only gently heated. See Burton’s _English
Porcelain_, p. 46.
[222] There was a revival of the practice of mounting, or, to use
the old term, ‘garnishing’ porcelain in ormolu about this time. At
Boulton’s works at Soho, near Birmingham, famous, a little later, in
the history of the steam-engine, these metal mountings were largely
made, and Wedgwood began to apply them to some of his wares (see
Nightingale, p. xxxiv.).
[223] I can find no confirmation of the statement that Roubiliac
modelled figures for Sprimont. Certain statuettes bearing an R.
impressed on the paste have been attributed to him. There is no
reference to any such work in the life of the artist by M. Le Roy de
St. Croix (Lyons, 1886). Roubiliac, who died in 1762, was already
in 1750 at the height of his reputation, and fully employed in more
important work.
[224] Mr. Burton points out that it would be quite impossible to make
a translucent ware with the materials of the first patent. He doubts
also the use of bone-ash in the earlier porcelain of Bow, the paste
of which is distinctly of the Saint-Cloud type. I think, however,
that there can be little doubt but that the ‘virgin earth’ refers to
bone-ash, and the fragments from Bow in which this substance has been
found seem to be derived from an early ware.
[225] Specimens from this find may be seen at the British Museum,
at South Kensington, and in the late Jermyn Street collection.
An interesting and detailed account of the fragments, which were
excavated and arranged by Mr. Higgins of the adjacent match-works,
will be found in Chaffers’s _Marks_, pp. 908 _seq._
[226] This difficulty of making the decoration keep pace with the
outturn of the kilns was felt at this time at other kilns--from
King-te-chen to Sèvres and Worcester. Recourse was more and more had
to the outside enameller--the ‘chamberer’--on the one hand, and to
transfer-printing on the other.
[227] This document is exhibited at the British Museum by the side of
the punch-bowl.
[228] These figures are probably exaggerated. Sprimont, a little
earlier, says that he was employing at Chelsea ‘at least one hundred
hands.’
[229] ‘Printed teas and mugs’ are mentioned in Bowcocke’s
memorandum-book in 1756.
[230] See Nightingale’s _English Porcelain_, pp. li. _seq._, and
Bemrose’s _Bow, Chelsea, and Derby Porcelain_, pp. 153 _seq._
[231] The rococo vases, however, of this ware in the British Museum
seem to be of a somewhat later date, if we take Sprimont’s work at
Chelsea as a criterion.
[232] These ‘Darby figars’ may possibly have been of earthenware.
There are some richly painted statuettes of this material at South
Kensington, though these indeed seem to be of a somewhat later date.
[233] Mr. Bemrose, in his work on _Bow, Chelsea, and Derby Porcelain_,
gives photographic reproductions of several pages from Duesbury’s
work-book.
[234] These details I take from the notes of a man who had formerly
practical experience of such work--Mr. Haslem, in his _Old Derby China
Factory_.
[235] And yet the colours are sometimes brilliant and effective--for
example, on a large dish or tray of Spode ware at South Kensington
(see below, p. 373). This strange ‘breaking-down’ of the old Japanese
patterns may be compared to the scattered fragments of the original
Greek design that we see on the pre-Roman coins of Gaul and Britain.
[236] It appears from a correspondence that has been preserved that
in 1791 the second Duesbury was looking out for royal support. ‘A
gentleman about the court’ whom he consulted recommended him to seek
the patronage of the Duke of Clarence, for, said he, ‘the duke is the
_only prince that pays the tradespeople_.’ At that time there was
great jealousy of the Worcester works, where the king had lately made
large purchases.
[237] Why _Tonquin_, of all places? We should rather have expected to
find Nankin or Canton, as at Bow.
[238] See the engraving in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for August 1752.
This was in the nature of a puff. In the corner we read ‘A sale of the
Manufacture will begin at the Worcester Music Meeting on September
20th, with great variety of ware and, ’tis said, at a moderate price.’
Edward Cave, the originator of the _Gentleman’s Magazine_, and ‘the
father of parliamentary reporting,’ was an important shareholder of
the Worcester works.
[239] Steatite is essentially a silicate of magnesia. We have seen
that a soapy rock, probably of this nature, entered at times into the
composition of the porcelain made at King-te-chen. At a later time
silicate of magnesia, in various forms, has found its way into the
hybrid pastes of Italy and Spain.
[240] These two buildings may be probably traced back to the Temple of
Vespasian, in the Forum, and to the Pyramid of Cestius respectively.
Hancock must have got his materials from French and Italian engravings
after Claude and Pannini.
[241] Dr. Johnson was for a long time a close neighbour--his
well-known interest in the manufacture of porcelain must have brought
him into contact with the Baxter family. We find a Baxter mentioned in
Bowcocke’s notes as early as 1751. See Chaffers, p. 896.
[242] The teapot in the Schreiber collection with the mark ‘Allen,
Lowestoft,’ must be regarded as a _supercherie_. The painting on it
of a crucifixion is evidently by a Chinese hand. This teapot has,
however, been connected with an Allen of Lowestoft, a porcelain
enameller and amateur glass-stainer.
[243] Some recent discoveries of moulds make it, however, probable
that the early wares of Worcester and Bow were imitated at Lowestoft.
[244] We are told that the first three of these substances are _to be
fritted together_, but this would be manifestly impossible. The recipe
is curious as being an anticipation of the materials used by Spode
thirty years later. But we must receive most of these recipes that
have thus come down to us _cum grano_.
[245] This ‘soapy rock’ was at once identified with the steatite of
the Lizard. The other porcelain experts, from Worcester and from
Liverpool, who visited Cornwall about this time, seem to have devoted
their attention more especially to this substance. They were thus, to
some extent, on a false scent, for the Père D’Entrecolles probably
somewhat exaggerated the importance of this _Wha-she_, and, moreover,
as has been shown by later French investigation, most of the material
of soapy consistency employed at King-te-chen is no true steatite or
magnesian silicate, but rather a more fusible variety of the petuntse,
containing much mica.
[246] Was Frye, the painter of Bow, who first made use of the American
earth, also a quaker? Cookworthy and Champion, it appears, first
became acquainted with one another through the medium of one of the
Bristol Frys, and it is known that moulds and patterns from Bow were
used at Plymouth. It is at least remarkable that we should be indebted
for our knowledge of the constitution of Chinese porcelain, in the
first place, to a Jesuit father, and then to a member of the Society
of Friends; while, on the other hand, Böttger--like Cookworthy, a
druggist--was an adept in the dark arts.
[247] Besides the factory mentioned in this letter, we hear from the
diary of Dr. Pococke that as early as 1750 a white ware with reliefs
was made at the ‘Lowris China house’ with ‘soapy-rock from Lizard
Point.’ A sauce-boat marked ‘Bristoll’ is referred to these works in
the _Guide to English Pottery in the British Museum_, p. 109.
[248] Lauraguais (Comte de), Duc de Brancas, born 1733; died 1824.
[249] See p. 306. At Strawberry Hill was ‘Michael Angelo’s Bacchus,
made in the china of the Comte de Lauraguais, from the collection of
the Comte de Caylus’ (Walpole’s _Works_, ii. 405 _seq._).
[250] By Champion, at least, at a later time. The cross swords have
in some cases been subsequently obliterated (PL. E. 84). Mr. Owen
thinks that this was in consequence of a quarrel with the custom-house
authorities in 1775.
[251] And for tin also. The mark was adopted, no doubt, in honour
of the ‘premier’ product of Cornwall. It would, however, be more in
place on a ware with an opaque tin glaze, such as the soft paste of
Chantilly.
[252] So at Sèvres during the greater part of the last century the
glaze has consisted of pegmatite, a very similar material to the
Cornish growan-stone. The inconveniences of such a glaze have been
pointed out by Vogt and others.
[253] Of another workman employed by Champion, one Anthony Amatt, Mr.
Hugh Owen gives some particulars. At one time, attempting to cross
the Channel and find employment in France, he was arrested--at the
instigation, it is said, of Wedgwood--and confined for some time as a
State prisoner. Amatt died in 1851 at the age of ninety-two. Wedgwood
was very active in preventing the emigration of English potters, who,
he declared, were lured from their country by French and German agents
(Meteyard’s _Wedgwood_, ii. p. 475).
[254] There are also in existence some examples of undoubted Bristol
hard-paste porcelain, covered with a soft lead glaze.
[255] The porcelain made by Count Lauraguais, to judge by the analysis
given above, must have contained even more kaolin than the Bristol
ware.