WAN LI [chch 2] (1573–1619) AND OTHER REIGNS
The long reign of Wan Li, the last important period of the Ming
dynasty, is certainly the best represented in European collections, a
circumstance due to the ceramic activity of the time not less than to
its nearness to our own age. In the first year of the reign orders were
given that one of the sub-prefects of Jao-chou Fu should be permanently
stationed at Ching-tê Chên to supervise the Imperial factory. It
appears that he proved a stern taskmaster, and at the same time that
the potters were severely burdened by excessive demands from the
palace. The picture drawn by the censor in the previous reign of the
afflicted condition of the potters, and the story told elsewhere[146]
how they had made intercession daily in the temple of the god that the
Imperial orders might be merciful, are fitting preface to the tale of
the dragon bowls told as follows by T’ang Ying,[147] the director of
the factory in the first half of the eighteenth century.
“By the west wall of the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the spirit who
protects the potters is a dragon fish bowl (_lung kang_). It is
three feet in diameter and two feet high, with a fierce frieze of
dragons in blue and a wave pattern below. The sides and the mouth are
perfect, but the bottom is wanting. It was made in the Wan Li period of
the Ming. Previously these fish bowls had presented great difficulty in
the making, and had not succeeded, and the superintendent had increased
his severity. Thereupon the divine T’ung took pity on his fellow
potters, and served them by alone laying down his life. He plunged into
the fire, and the bowls came out perfect. This fish bowl was damaged
after it had been finished and selected (for palace use), and for a
long time it remained abandoned in a corner of the office. But when
I saw it I sent a double-yoked cart and men to lift it, and it was
brought to the side of the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the god, where it
adorns a high platform, and sacrifice is offered. The vessel’s perfect
glaze is the god’s fat and blood; the body material is the god’s body
and flesh; and the blue of the decoration, with the brilliant lustre of
gems, is the essence of the god’s pure spirit.”
The deification of T’ung was a simple matter to the Chinese, who
habitually worship before the tablets of their ancestors; but he seems
to have become the genius of the place, and in this capacity to have
superseded another canonised potter named Chao,[148] who had been
worshipped at Ching-tê Chên since 1425.
To add to the difficulties experienced by the potters in satisfactorily
fulfilling the Imperial demands, it had been reported in 1583 that
the supplies of earth from Ma-ts’ang were practically worked out, and
though good material was found at Wu-mên-t’o, which is also in the
district of Fu-liang, the distance for transport was greater, and as
the price was not correspondingly raised the supply from this source
was difficult to maintain. Consequently we are not surprised to learn
that in this same year another memorial was forwarded to the emperor by
one of the supervising censors, Wang Ching-min, asking for alleviation
of the palace orders, and protesting specifically against the demands
for candlesticks, screens, brush handles, and chess apparatus as
unnecessarily extravagant. It was urged at the same time that blue
decoration should be substituted for polychrome, and that pierced work
(_ling lung_) should not be required, the objection to both these
processes being that they were difficult to execute and meretricious in
effect.
It is stated in the _T’ao lu_[149] that the supply of Mohammedan blue
had ceased completely in the reign of Wan Li, and that on the other
hand the _chi hung_ or underglaze copper red was made, though it was
not equal in quality to the _hsien hung_ or _pao shih hung_[150] of
the earlier periods. Both these assertions are based on the somewhat
uncertain authority of the _T’ang shih ssŭ k’ao_, and though the
truth of the second is shown by existing specimens, the first is only
partially true, for there are marked examples of Mohammedan blue in the
British Museum and probably elsewhere. Either there were supplies of
the Mohammedan material in hand at the beginning of the reign, or they
continued to arrive for part at least of the period.
The lists of porcelain supplied to the Court of Wan Li may be consulted
with advantage, and the extracts from those of the previous reigns may
be supplemented by the following, which, though not necessarily new
forms and designs, do not appear in the Chia Ching and Lung Ch’ing
records:--
=Forms.=
Trays for wine cups (_pei p’an_).[151]
Beaker-shaped[152] vases (_hu p’ing_ [chch 2]).
Flat-backed wall vases in the form of a double gourd split vertically.
Chess boards (_ch’i p’an_).
Hanging oil lamps[2] (_ch’ing t’ai_ [chch 2]).
Pricket candlesticks (_chu t’ai_). See _Cat. B. F. A._, 1910, E 6: a
pricket candlestick with cloud and dragon designs in blue and the Wan
Li mark.
Jars for candle snuff (_chien chu kuan_).
Screens (_p’ing_).
Brush handles (_pi kuan_).
Brush rests (_pi chia_).
Brush pots (_pi ch’ung_). Apparently the cylindrical jars usually
known as _pi t’ung_.
Fan cases (_shan hsia_).
Water droppers for the ink pallet (_yen shui ti_).
Betel-nut boxes (_pin lang lu_).
Handkerchief boxes (_chin lu_).
Hat boxes (_kuan lu_).
Cool seats (_liang tun_), for garden use in summer.
=Motives for Painted Decoration.=
_Floral, etc.:_
Lily flowers (_hsüan hua_).
Hibiscus (_kuei_) flowers on a brocade ground.
Round medallions of season flowers.
Flower designs broken by medallions of landscape.
Marsh plants.
Sections of water melons (_hsi kua pan_).
Foreign pomegranates; sometimes tied with fillets.
The sacred peach.
Medallions of peach boughs with the seal character _shou_
(longevity).
Apricot (_hsing_) foliage.
Pine pattern brocade.
Ginseng (_hsien_).
Hemp-leaved (_ma yeh_) Indian lotus.
Borders of bamboo foliage and branching prunus.
Grape-vine borders.
_Animals, etc.:_
Monsters: variously described as _hai shou_ (sea monsters) and
_i shou_ (strange monsters).
Nine blue monsters in red waves.
Strange monsters attending the celestial dragon.
Sea horses.
Full-faced dragons (_chêng mien lung_). See Plate 66.
Medallions of archaic dragons (_ch’ih_) and tigers.
Ascending and descending dragons.
Couchant, or squatting (_tun_) dragons.
Flying dragons.
The hundred dragons.
The hundred storks.
The hundred deer. (As in the “Hundred Shou Characters” and other
similar phrases, the “hundred” is merely an indefinite numerative
signifying a large number.)
Elephants with vases of jewels (of Buddhistic significance).
Water birds in lotus plants.
Six cranes, “symbolising the cardinal points of the universe” (_liu
ho ch’ien k’un_).
Phœnixes among the season flowers.
Bees hovering round plum blossom.
_Human:_
Men and women (_shih nü_).
Medallions with boys pulling down (branches of) cassia (_p’an kuei_).
The picture of the Hundred Boys.
_Fu_, _Lu_, _Shou_ (Happiness, Rank, and Longevity). It is not stated
whether the characters only are intended, or, as is more probable, the
three Taoist deities who distribute these blessings.
=Emblematic Motives and Inscriptions.=
The eight Buddhist emblems, bound with fillets (_kuan t’ao_).
_Ju-i_ sceptres bound with fillets.
_Ju-i_ cloud borders (_ju i yün pien_).
Midsummer holiday symbols (_tuan yang chieh_). Explained by Bushell as
sprigs of acorns and artemisia hung up on the fifth day of the fifth
moon.
Emblems of Longevity (_shou tai_), e.g. gourd, peach, fungus, pine,
bamboo, crane, deer.
The “monad symbol” (_hun yüan_), which is apparently another name
for the _yin yang_, and the Eight Trigrams. See p. 290.
Lozenge symbols of victory (_fang shêng_).
“The four lights worshipping the star of Longevity” (_ssŭ yang p’êng
shou_).
Spiral (_hui_ [chch 1]) patterns.
Sanskrit invocations (_chên yen tz’ŭ_). See Plate 93.
Ancient writings found at Lo-yang (_lo shu_). Lo-yang (the modern
Honan Fu) was the capital of the Eastern Han (25–220 A.D.).
Inscriptions in antique seal characters (_chuan_).
Dragons holding up the characters [chch 4] _yung pao wan shou_ (ever
insuring endless longevity); and [chch 6] _yung pao hung fu ch’i t’ien_
(ever insuring great happiness equalling Heaven).
Borders inscribed [chch 4] _fu ju tung hai_ (happiness like the
eastern sea); and [chch 8] _fêng t’iao yü shun t’ien hsia t’ai p’ing_
(favouring winds and seasonable rain: great peace throughout the
empire).
“A symbolical head with hair dressed in four puffs”[153] bearing the
characters [chch 4] _yung pao ch’ang ch’un_ (ever insuring long spring).
Taoist deities holding the characters [chch 8] _wan ku ch’ang ch’un
ssŭ hai lai ch’ao_ (through myriads of ages long spring; tribute
coming from the four seas); or the same sentiment with _yung pao_ (ever
insuring) in place of _wan ku_.
Dragons in clouds holding the characters [chch 2] _shêng shou_, the
emperor’s birthday.
=Miscellaneous.=
Representations of ancient coins (_ku lao ch’ien_).
Landscapes (_shan shui_).
Necklaces (_ying lo_ [chch 2]).
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.
[Illustration: Plate 75.--Ming Porcelain.
Fig. 1.--Tripod Bowl with raised peony scrolls in enamel colours.
Wan Li mark. Height 5¾ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 2.--Blue and white Bowl, Chia Ching period. Mark, _Wan ku
ch’ang ch’un_ (“A myriad antiquities and enduring spring!”).
Height 3 inches. _Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin._
Fig. 3.--Ewer with white slip _ch’i-lin_ on a blue ground.
Wan Li period. Height 9 inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 4.--Gourd-shaped Vase with winged dragons and fairy flowers,
raised outlines and coloured glazes on the biscuit. Sixteenth
century. Height 8¾ inches. _Salting Collection._]
Of these, the most interesting personality was Hao Shih-chiu,[156]
scholar, painter, poet, and potter, who signed his wares with the
fanciful name _Hu yin tao jên_[157] (Taoist hidden in a tea pot), to
show that he “put his soul” into the making of his pots. He lived, we
are told,[158] in exaggerated simplicity, in hut, with a mat for a
door and a broken jar for a window; but he was so celebrated as a man
of talent and culture that his hut was frequented by the _literati_,
who capped his verses and admired his wares. The latter were of great
refinement and exquisitely beautiful, and his white “egg shell”[159]
wine cups were so delicate as to weigh less than a gramme.[160] No less
famous were his red wine cups, bright as vermilion, the colour floating
in the glaze like red clouds. They were named _liu hsia chan_[161]
(_lit._ floating red cloud cups), which has been poetically rendered
by Bushell as “dawn-red wine cups” and “liquid dawn cups,” and were
evidently one of the reds of the _chi hung_ class produced by copper
oxide in the glaze, like the beautiful wine cups with clouded maroon
red glaze of the early eighteenth century. All these wares were eagerly
sought by connoisseurs throughout the Chinese empire. “There were
also elegantly formed pots (hu), in colour pale green, like Kuan and Ko
wares, but without the ice crackle, and golden brown[162] tea pots with
reddish tinge, imitating the contemporary wares of the Ch’ên family at
Yi-hsing, engraved underneath with the four characters, _Hu yin tao
jên_.”
The “red cloud” cups are eulogised by the poet Li Jih-hua in a verse
addressed to their maker as fit to be “started from the orchid pavilion
to float down the nine-bend river.”[163]
[Illustration: Plate 76.--Blue and White Porcelain. Sixteenth
Century.
Fig. 1.--Vase with monster handles, archaic dragons. Height 10⅞
inches. _Halsey Collection._
Fig. 2.--Hexagonal Bottle, white in blue designs. Mark, a hare.
Height 11½ inches. _Alexander Collection._
Fig. 3.--Bottle with “garlic mouth,” stork and lotus scrolls,
white in blue. Height 11 inches. _Salting Collection._
Fig. 4.--Vase (_mei p’ing_), Imperial dragon and scrolls.
Wan Li mark on the shoulder. Height 15 inches. _Coltart
Collection._]
The two other potters of this period whose names have survived are
Ou of Yi-hsing fame (vol. i., p. 181) and Chou Tan-ch’üan, whose
wonderful imitations of Sung Ting ware have been described in vol.
i., p. 94. Many clever imitations of this latter porcelain were
made at Ching-tê Chên in the Wan Li period, and a special material,
_ch’ing-t’ien_[164] stone, was employed for the purpose; but the
followers of Ch’ou Tan-ch’üan were not so successful as their master,
and their wares are described as over-elaborate in decoration and quite
inferior to Ch’ou’s productions. There was one type, however, which
is specially mentioned, the oblong rectangular boxes made to hold
seal-vermilion. These are described in a sixteenth-century work[165] as
either pure white or painted in blue, and usually six or seven inches
long. They are accorded a paragraph in the _T’ao shuo_[166] under
the heading of _fang ting_ or “imitation Ting ware,” and they were
probably of that soft-looking, creamy white crackled ware to which
Western collectors have given the misleading name of “soft paste.”[167]
Another private manufacture specially mentioned in the _T’ao lu_[168]
was located in a street called _Hsiao nan_ [chch 2] where, we are told,
“they made wares of small size only, like a squatting frog, and called
for that reason frog wares (_ha ma[169] yao_). Though coarse, they were
of correct form; the material was yellowish, but the body of the ware
was thin; and though small, the vessels were strong. One kind of bowl
was white in colour with a tinge of blue (_tai ch’ing_), and decorated
in blue with a single orchid spray or bamboo leaves; and even those
which had no painted design had one or two rings of blue at the mouth.
These were called “white rice vessels” (_pai fan ch’i_). There were,
besides, bowls with wide mouths and flattened rims (_p’ieh t’an_)[170]
but shallow, and pure white, imitating the Sung bowls. All these wares
had a great vogue, both at the time and at the beginning of the present
(i.e. the Ch’ing) dynasty.”
Out of the comparatively large number of Wan Li porcelains in
European collections the majority are blue and white. This is only
to be expected, having regard to the preponderance of this style
of decoration in the Imperial lists, and also to the fact that it
was found easiest of all processes to execute. In fact, the censor
pleading on behalf of the potters in 1583 asks that this style may be
substituted for the more exacting polychrome and pierced work. It has
already been mentioned that the supplies of Mohammedan blue apparently
came to an end early in the reign, but there are enough examples of
this colour associated with the Wan Li mark to show that it was used
for part at least of the period. One of these is a well-potted bowl
of fine white porcelain, entirely covered with Sanskrit characters
(_chên yen tz’ŭ_), in the British Museum; and another piece* is a
dish moulded in the form of an open lotus flower with petals in relief,
and in the centre a single Sanskrit character. Both are painted in a
clear and vivid Mohammedan blue, and have the Wan Li mark under the
base. A dark violet blue, closely akin to the typical Chia Ching colour
but with a touch of indigo, occurs on two dishes,* decorated with a
pair of fishes among aquatic plants and bearing the four characters of
the Wan Li mark surrounding a cartouche, which contains the felicitous
legend, “Virtue, culture, and enduring spring” (see vol. i., p. 225).
An intense but more vivid violet blue, which betrays something of the
Mohammedan blend, is seen on a ewer* of Persian form, decorated with a
_ch’i-lin_ reclining before a strangely Italian-looking fountain.
The ware of this piece, though thick, is of fine grain, and the glaze
has a faint greenish tinge, and its mark, a hare,[171] (see vol. i., p.
227) occurs on several other examples of varying quality, but all of
late Ming character.
Another group of marked Wan Li ware, comprising bowls and dishes
with trim neat finish and obviously destined for table use, has a
soft-looking glaze, often much worn, but, even in the less used parts,
with a peculiar smoothness of surface which is, no doubt, largely due
to age. There are three examples of this group in the British Museum,
all painted in the same soft, dark indigo-tinged blue. One is a bowl
with baskets of season flowers round the exterior, insects, and a
border of dragon and phœnix pattern; while inside is a blue medallion
with a full-face dragon reserved in white. The other two are dishes
with figure subjects and gourd vine borders, which are interesting
because the painting shows signs of a transition state, part being
in flat Ming washes, and part showing the marbled effect which was
afterwards characteristic of the K’ang Hsi blue and white.
In striking contrast with this smooth, soft-surfaced ware is a vase* of
square, beaker shape, and details which indicate a form derived from
bronze. Though evidently an Imperial piece, it is of strong, heavy
build, with a hard thick glaze of greenish tinge, so full of minute
bubbles as to spread in places a veritable fog over the blue decoration
beneath. The design, consisting of a dragon and phœnix among sprays of
(?) lily, with rock and wave borders, is repeated in all the spaces,
and below the lip in front is the Wan Li mark extended in a single
line. A similar vase,* but with polychrome decoration, illustrated
on Plate 81, will serve to show the form and design. Both are fine,
decorative objects, in a strong, rugged style, which takes no account
of small fire-flaws and slight imperfections in the glaze. The same
strong, hard body and glaze is seen again on three flat, narrow-rimmed
dishes,* which are conspicuous for unusual borders, two having a large
checker and the third a chevron pattern, in addition to a thin blue
line on either side of the edge. Sand adhering to the foot rim and
faint radiating lines scored in the base are indications of rough
finish, and they are clearly all the work of a private factory perhaps
catering for the export trade.
A variety of boxes figured in the Imperial lists, destined for holding
incense, vermilion, chess pieces, handkerchiefs, caps, sweetmeats,
cakes, etc. A fair number of these have survived and found their way
into Western collections. Round, square, oblong with rounded ends,
and sometimes furnished with interior compartments, they are usually
decorated with dragon designs in dark blue, occasionally tricked out
with touches of iron red; but miscellaneous subjects also occur in
their decoration, as in a fine example exhibited at the Burlington Fine
Arts Club in 1910,[172] which has figure subjects on the cover and a
landscape with waterfall, probably from a picture of the celebrated
mountain scenery in Szechuan. Sometimes the covers of these boxes are
perforated as though to allow some perfume to escape. Other interesting
late Ming porcelains in the same exhibition were a pricket candlestick
with cloud and dragon ornament and the Wan Li mark; a curious perfume
vase (Plate 68, Fig. 1), which illustrates the design of lions sporting
with balls of brocade, an unmarked piece which might even be as
early as Chia Ching; and a wide-mouthed vase lent by the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford, with the familiar design of fantastic lions moving
among peonies and formal scrolls on the body and panels of flowers
separated by trellis diaper on the shoulder. The last is a type which
is not uncommon, but this particular example is interesting because it
belonged to one of the oldest collections in England, presented to the
Oxford Museum by John Tradescant, and mostly collected before 1627.
The export trade with Western Asia was in full swing in the reign of
Wan Li, and the Portuguese traders had already made their way to the
Far East and brought back Chinese porcelain for European use. That it
was, however, still a rare material in England seems to be indicated
by the sumptuous silver-gilt mounts in which stray specimens were
enshrined. Several of these mounted specimens still exist, and seven
of them were seen at the Burlington Fine Arts Exhibition, 1910,[173]
the date of the mounts being about 1580–1590. Taken, as they may
fairly be, as typical specimens, they show on the whole a porcelain
of indifferent quality, with all the defects and virtues of export
ware--the summary finish of skilful potters who worked with good
material but for an uncritical public, and rapid, bold draughtsmanship
in an ordinary quality of blue usually of greyish or indigo tint. The
most finished specimen was a bowl from the Pierpont Morgan Collection,
with a design of phœnixes and lotus scrolls finely drawn in blue of
good quality. Unlike the others, it had a reign mark (that of Wan Li),
and probably it was made at the Imperial factory. A bottle mounted
as a ewer from the same collection had a scale pattern on the neck,
flowering plants and birds on the body, and a saucer dish was painted
in the centre with a typical late Ming landscape, with mountains, pine
trees, pagoda, a pleasure boat, and sundry figures. The blue of this
last piece was of fair quality but rather dull, and it had a double
ring under the base void of mark. Another bowl had on the exterior
panel designs with deer in white reserved in a blue ground, in a style
somewhat similar to that of the bottle illustrated on Plate 76, Fig.
3. There is a bowl in the British Museum, mounted with silver-gilt
foot and winged caryatid handles of about 1580 (Plate 69, Fig. 1).
The porcelain is of fine white material with thick lustrous glaze of
slightly bluish tint and “pinholed” here and there; and the design
painted in blue with a faint tinge of indigo consists of a vase with a
lotus flower and a lotus leaf and three egrets, in a medallion inside
and four times repeated on the exterior. This is clearly an early Wan
Li specimen, if, indeed, it is not actually as old as Chia Ching.
The most remarkable collection of Chinese export porcelain is
illustrated by Professor Sarre[174] from a photograph which he was
able to make of the _Chini-hane_ or porcelain house attached to the
mosque of Ardebil, in Persia. Ranged on the floor are some five
hundred specimens--jars, vases, ewers, and stacks of plates, bowls
and dishes, many of which had formerly occupied niches in the walls
of the building erected by Shah Abbas the Great[175] (1587–1628).
Unfortunately, the conditions were not favourable to photography, and
the picture, valuable as it is, only permits a clear view of the nearer
objects, the rest being out of focus and represented by mere shadows
of themselves. They are, we are told, mainly blue and white, but with
a sprinkling of coloured pieces, and it is clear from the picture that
they belong to various periods of the Ming dynasty, mostly to the later
part. They include, no doubt, presents from the Chinese Court,[176]
besides the porcelains which came in the ordinary way of trade, and
we recognise a large vase almost identical with the fine Chia Ching
specimen on Plate 72: a small-mouthed, baluster-shaped vase, similar in
form and decoration to a marked Wan Li specimen in the Pierpont Morgan
Collection[177]; a bowl with lotus scrolls in blotchy blue, recalling
the style of Plate 67, Fig. 4; a ewer with the curious fountain design
described on p. 67; besides a number of the ordinary late Ming export
types and some celadon jars and bulb bowls of a slightly earlier
period. Some of the pots, we are told, are almost a metre in height.
Among the tantalising forms in the indistinct background are some large
covered jars with a series of loop-handles on the shoulders, such as
are found in Borneo and the East Indies (see vol. i., p. 189).
One of the most attractive types of late Ming export porcelain, and at
the same time the most easily recognised, consists of ewers, bowls,
and dishes of thin, crisp porcelain with characteristic designs in
pale, pure blue of silvery tone; see Plate 77, Fig. 1. The ware is of
fine, white, unctuous material with a tendency (not very marked) to
turn brown at the foot rim and in parts where the glaze is wanting.
The glaze partakes of the faintly greenish tinge common to Ming wares,
but it is clear and of high lustre. Here, again, a little sand or grit
occasionally adhering to the foot rim and radiating lines lightly
scored in the base indicate a summary finish which detracts from
the artistic effect no more than the obviously rapid though skilful
brushwork of the decoration. Sharply moulded forms and crinkled
borders, admirably suited to this thin crisp material, give additional
play to the lustrous glaze, and the general feeling of the ware is well
expressed by Mr. F. Perzynski[178] in his excellent study of the late
Ming blue and white porcelains, in which he remarks that “the artists
of this group have used thin, brittle material more like flexible metal
than porcelain.”
The designs as shown in the illustration are typical of the ware.
[Illustration: PLATE 77
Two examples of Ming Blue and White Porcelain in the British
Museum
Fig. 1.--Ewer of thin, crisp porcelain with foliate mouth and
rustic spout with leaf attachments. Panels of figure subjects and
landscapes on the body: “rat and vine” pattern on the neck and a
band of hexagon diaper enclosing a cash symbol. Latter half of
the sixteenth century. Height 7 inches.
Fig. 2.--Octagonal stand perhaps for artist’s colours. On the
sides are scenes from the life of a sage; borders of _ju-i_
pattern and gadroons. On the top are lions sporting with brocade
balls. Painted in deep Mohammedan blue. Mark of the Chia Ching
period (1522–1566). Diameter 4¾ inches.]
A freely drawn figure of a man or woman usually in garden surroundings,
standing before a fantastic rock or seated by a table and a
picture-screen often form the leading motive, though this is varied by
landscape, floral compositions, spirited drawings of birds (an eagle
on a rock, geese in a marsh, a singing bird on a bough), or a large
cicada on a stone among plants and grasses. The borders of dishes and
the exteriors of bowls are divided into radiating compartments (often
with the divisions lightly moulded) filled with figures, plant designs,
symbols, and the like, and separated by narrow bands with pendent
jewels and tasselled cords, which form perhaps the most constant
characteristics of the group. Small passages of brocade diapers with
swastika fret, hexagon and matting patterns, are used to fill up the
spaces. The finer examples of this group are of admirable delicacy both
in colour and design; but the type lasted well into the seventeenth
century and became coarse and vulgarised. It appears in a debased
form in the large dishes which were made in quantity for the Persian
and Indian markets, overloaded with crudely drawn brocade diapers and
painted in dull indigo blue, which is often badly fired and verges on
black. The central designs on these dishes, deer in a forest, birds in
marsh, etc., usually betray strong Persian influence.
I am not aware of any specimens of this group, either of the earlier
or the more debased kinds which bear date-marks, but still a clear
indication of the period is given by various circumstances. A bowl in
the National Museum at Munich is credibly stated to have belonged to
William V., Duke of Bavaria (1579–1597),[179] and a beautiful specimen,
also a bowl, with silver-gilt mount of about 1585, is illustrated
by Mr. Perzynski.[180] The characteristic designs of this ware are
commonplace on the Persian pottery of the early seventeenth century,
and a Persian blue and white ewer in the British Museum, which is dated
1616, clearly reflects the same style. The shallow dishes with moulded
sides are frequently reproduced in the still-life pictures by the Dutch
masters of the seventeenth century, from whose work many precious hints
may be taken by the student of ceramics. To give one instance only,
there are two such pictures[181] in the Dresden Gallery from the brush
of Frans Snyders (1579–1657).
We shall have occasion later on to discuss more fully another kind of
blue and white porcelain for which the Chinese and American collectors
show a marked partiality, and which has received the unfortunate
title, “soft paste,” from the latter. It has an opaque body, often
of earthy appearance, and a glaze which looks soft and is usually
crackled, and the ware is usually of small dimensions, such as the
Chinese _literatus_ delighted to see in his study, and beautifully
painted with miniature-like touches, every stroke of the brush clear
and distinct. Ming marks--Hsüan Tê, Ch’êng Hua, etc.--are not uncommon
on this ware, and there is no doubt that it was in use from the early
reigns of the dynasty, but the style has been so faithfully preserved
by the potters of the eighteenth century that it is wellnigh impossible
to distinguish the different periods. A dainty specimen with the Wan Li
mark illustrated in Fig. 2 of Plate 93 will serve to show the delicacy
and refinement of this exquisite porcelain. At the same time it should
be mentioned that the imitation Ting wares described on p. 96, vol. i.,
when painted in blue, are included in this group.
[Illustration: Plate 78.--Porcelain with pierced (_ling
lung_) designs and biscuit reliefs. Late Ming.
Fig. 1.--Bowl with Eight Immortals and pierced swastika fret.
Diameter 3¾ inches. _S. E. Kennedy Collection._
Fig. 2.--Bowl with blue phœnix medallions, pierced trellis work
and characters. Wan Li mark. Height 2¼ inches. _Hippisley
Collection._
Fig 3.--Covered Bowl with blue and white landscapes and biscuit
reliefs of Eight Immortals. Height 6½ inches. _Grandidier
Collection._]
Two interesting kinds of decoration mentioned in the Wan Li list[182]
are frequently found in combination with blue and white; these are
relief (_ting chuang_ or _tui hua_) and pierced work (_ling lung_).
Though both have been seen in various forms on the earlier wares,
they occur at this period in a fashion which challenges special
attention. I allude particularly to the small bowls with or without
covers, decorated on the sides with unglazed (or “biscuit”) figures
in detached relief, or with delicately perforated fretwork, or with
a combination of both. The catalogue[183] of the Pierpont Morgan
Collection illustrates two covered bowls of the first type with the
Eight Immortals in four pairs symmetrically arranged on the sides,
and a “biscuit” lion on the cover doing duty for a handle. A similar
bowl, formerly in the Nightingale Collection, had the same relief
decoration and painted designs in the typical grey blue of the Wan
Li period; and Fig. 3 of Plate 78 represents an excellent example
from the Grandidier collection. The Chinese were in the habit of
daubing these biscuit reliefs (just as they did the unglazed details
of statuettes) with a red pigment which served as a medium for oil
gilding, but as neither of these coatings was fired they have worn away
or been cleaned off in the majority of cases. In the Rijks Museum,
Amsterdam, is a picture[184] by Van Streeck (1632–1678), which shows
one of these covered bowls with the biscuit reliefs coloured red, and
Mr. Perzynski[185] alludes to another in a still-life by Willem Kalf
(1630–1693) in the Kaiser Frederick Museum, Berlin, with the figures
both coloured[186] and gilt. An excellent example of the second kind
of decoration is illustrated by Fig. 2 of Plate 78, one of a set of
four bowls in the Hippisley Collection, with phœnix medallions and
other decoration in a fine grey blue, the spaces filled with perforated
designs of the utmost delicacy, veritable “devil’s work,” to borrow a
Chinese term for workmanship which shows almost superhuman skill. The
small pierced medallions contain the characters _fu_, _shou_, _k’ang_,
_ning_[187] (happiness, longevity, peace, and tranquillity), and under
the base are the six characters of the Wan Li mark. A line cut in the
glaze (before firing) at the lip and on the base-rim seems to have
been designed to give a firm hold to a metal mount, a use to which it
has been actually put in one case; and in another the glazing of the
mark under the base has been omitted with the result that it has come
from the kiln black instead of blue. The third kind which combines the
reliefs and the pierced ornament is illustrated by Fig. 1 of Plate 78.
The reliefs of these medallions are small and very delicately modelled,
and the subjects are various, including human and animal figures, birds
and floral compositions; the borders are often traced in liquid clay,
which is left in unglazed relief. An example in the British Museum
has an interior lining washed with blue to serve as a backing for the
pierced work, and it is painted inside with dragon designs in Wan Li
grey blue. It bears a mark which occurs on other late Ming porcelains,
_yü tang chia ch’i_ (beautiful vessel for the Jade Hall).[188]
Examples of this same pierced and relief work in white, without the
supplementary blue designs, though rare, are yet to be seen in several
collections. If marked at all they usually bear the apocryphal date of
Ch’êng Hua, but an example in the Marsden Perry collection, Providence,
U.S.A., has the T’ien Ch’i (1621–1627) date under the base, which no
doubt represents the true period of its manufacture. This intricate
_ling lung_ work, which the Wan Li censor deprecated as too difficult
and elaborate, has been perpetuated, though it was probably never more
beautifully executed than in the late Ming period. The later examples
are mostly characterised by larger perforations, which were easier
to manage. There are several references to the pierced and relief
decorations in the lists of porcelain supplied to the Court of Wan
Li, e.g. “brush rests with sea waves and three dragons in relief over
pierced designs, and landscapes,” “landscape medallions among pierced
work,” and “sacred fungus carved in openwork, and figures of ancient
cash.” In the finer examples of pierced work the most frequent design
is the fret or key pattern often interwoven with the four-legged
symbol known as the swastika, which commonly serves in Chinese for
the character _wan_ (ten thousand), carrying a suggested wish for
“long life,” as expressed in the phrase _wan sui_ (Jap. _banzai_), ten
thousand years. The pierced patterns are carved out of the porcelain
body when the ware has been dried to a “leather-tough” consistency, and
the manipulative skill exercised in the cutting and handling of the
still plastic material is almost superhuman. Similar _tours de force_
distinguish the Japanese Hirado porcelain, and Owen’s work in our own
Worcester ware exhibits extraordinary skill, but I doubt if anything
finer in this style has ever been made than the _ling lung_ bowls of
the late Ming potters.
Another form of decoration which, if not actually included in the _ling
lung_ category, is at any rate closely allied to it, is the fretwork
cut deeply into the body of the ware without actually perforating it,
the hollows of the pattern being generally left without glaze. This
ornament is used in borders or to fill the spaces between blue and
white medallions after the manner of the pierced fretwork, and it was
evidently contemporaneous with the latter, viz. dating from the late
Ming period onwards (Plate 68, Fig. 3).
It will be convenient here to consider another type of decoration
which was probably in use in the early periods of the Ming dynasty,
certainly in the reign of Wan Li, and which has continued to modern
times. This is the decoration in white clay varying in thickness from
substantial reliefs to translucent brush work in thin slip or liquid
clay, which allows the colour of the background to appear through
it. The designs are painted or modelled in white against dark or
light-coloured grounds of various shades--lustrous coffee brown (_tzŭ
chin_), deep blue, slaty blue, lavender, celadon, plain white, and
crackled creamy white--and they are usually slight and artistically
executed. The process, which is the same in principle as in the modern
_pâte sur pâte_, consisted of first covering the ground with
colouring matter, then tracing the design in white slip (i.e. liquid
clay) or building it up with strips of clay modelled with a wet brush,
and finally covering it with a colourless glaze. In this case the
white design has a covering of glaze. When a celadon green ground is
used the design is applied direct to the biscuit and the celadon glaze
covers the whole, but being quite transparent it does not obscure the
white slip beneath. Sometimes, however, as in Fig. 3 of Plate 75, the
design is unglazed and stands out in a dry white “biscuit.” Elaborate
and beautiful examples of slip decoration were made in the K’ang Hsi
and later periods, and Pére d’Entrecolles, writing in 1722, describes
their manufacture, stating that steatite and gypsum were used to form
the white slip.[189] The Ming specimens are usually of heavier make
and less graceful form, and distinguished by simplicity and strength
of design, the backgrounds being usually lustrous brown or different
shades of blue. They consist commonly of bottles, jars, flower pots,
bulb bowls, dishes, and narghili bowls, and many of them were clearly
made for export to Persia and India, where they are still to be found.
On rare examples the slip decoration is combined with passages of blue
and white.
There is little to guide us to the dating of these wares, and marks
are exceptional.[190] There is, however, a flower pot in the British
Museum with white design of _ch’i-lin_ on a brown ground which has
the late Ming mark _yü t’ang chia ch’i_[191]; and a specimen with an
Elizabethan metal mount was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts
Club in 1910.[192] These are, no doubt, of Ching-tê Chên make; but
there is a curious specimen in the British Museum which seems to be
of provincial manufacture. It is a dish with slaty blue ground and
plant designs with curious feathery foliage traced with considerable
delicacy. The border of running floral scroll has the flowers outlined
in dots, and the whole execution of the piece is as distinctive as
the strange coarse base which shows a brown-red biscuit and heavy
accretions of sand and grit at the foot rim. The same base and the same
peculiarities of design appeared on a similar dish with celadon glaze
exhibited by Mrs. Halsey at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910,[193]
and in the British Museum there are other dishes clearly of the same
make, but with (1) crackled grey white glaze and coarsely painted blue
decoration, and (2) with greenish white glaze and enamelled designs
in iron red and the Ming blue green. It is clear that we have to deal
here with the productions of one factory, and though we have no direct
clue to its identity, it certainly catered for the export trade to
India and the islands; for the enamelled dishes of this type have been
found in Sumatra. Mrs. Halsey’s dish came from India, and fragments
of the blue and enamelled types were found in the ruins of the palace
at Bijapur,[194] which was destroyed by Aurungzebe in 1686. Probably
the factory was situated in Fukien or Kuangtung, where it would be
in direct touch with the southern export trade, and the style of
the existing specimens points to the late Ming as the period of its
activity.
The process of marbling or “graining” has been tried by potters all the
world over, and the Chinese were no exceptions. The effect is produced
either by slips of two or more coloured clays worked about on the
surface, or by blending layers of clays in two or more colours (usually
brown and white) in the actual body. Early examples of this marbling
occur among the T’ang wares, and Mr. Eumorfopoulos has examples of the
Ming and later periods. One of these, a figure with finely crackled
buff glaze and passages of brown and white marbling in front and on the
back, has an incised inscription, stating that it was modelled by Ch’ên
Wên-ching in the year 1597.[195]
The use of underglaze red in the Wan Li period has already been
mentioned (p. 59), and though Chinese writers classed it as _chi hung_
they would not admit it to an equality with the brilliant reds of the
fifteenth century.[196] Where red is named in the lists of Imperial
porcelains we are left in doubt as to its nature, whether under or over
the glaze; but there are two little shallow bowls in the British Museum
with a curious sponged blue associated with indifferent underglaze red
painting, which bear the late Ming mark _yü t’ang chia ch’i_.[197] A
bowl of lotus flower pattern, similar in form to that described on p.
66, but deeper, and painted with similar designs in pale underglaze
red, though bearing the Ch’êng Hua mark, seems to belong to the late
Ming period.
The Wan Li polychromes will naturally include continuations of the
early Ming types, such as the large jars with decoration in raised
outline, pierced or carved and filled in with glazes of the _demi-grand
feu_--turquoise, violet purple, green and yellow--wares with flat
washes of the same turquoise and purple, incised designs filled in
with transparent glazes of the three colours (_san ts’ai_), green,
yellow and aubergine, and, what is probably more truly characteristic
of this period, combinations of the first and last styles. A good
example of the transparent colours over incised designs is Fig. 1 of
Plate 79, a vase of the form known as _mei p’ing_ with green Imperial
dragons in a yellow ground and the Wan Li mark. All three of the _san
ts’ai_ colours were also used separately as monochromes with or without
engraved designs under the glaze, a striking example in the Pierpont
Morgan Collection being a vase with dragon handles and engraved designs
under a brilliant iridescent green glaze, “which appears like gold in
the sunlight.”[198] But though these types persisted, they would no
doubt be gradually superseded by simpler and more effective methods
of pictorial decoration in painted outline on the biscuit, filled in
with washes of transparent enamels in the same three colours. These
softer enamels, which contained a high proportion of lead and could be
fired at the relatively low temperature of the muffle kiln, must have
been used to a considerable extent in the late Ming period, though
their full development belongs to the reign of K’ang Hsi, and there
will always be a difficulty in separating the examples of these two
periods, whether the colours be laid on in broad undefined washes, as
on certain figures and on the “tiger skin” bowls and dishes, or brushed
over a design carefully outlined in brown or black pigment. There is
one species of the latter family with a ground of formal wave pattern
usually washed with green and studded with floating plum blossoms,
in which are galloping sea horses or symbols, or both, reserved and
washed with the remaining two colours, or with a faintly greenish flux,
almost colourless, which does duty for white. This species is almost
always described as Ming; and with some reason, for the sea wave and
plum blossom pattern is mentioned in the Wan Li lists as in polychrome
combined with blue decoration. But the danger of assuming a specimen to
be Ming because it exhibits a design which occurred on Ming porcelain
is shown by an ink pallet in the British Museum, which is dated in the
thirty-first year of K’ang Hsi, i.e. 1692. This important piece (Plate
94, Fig. 2) is decorated in enamels on the biscuit over black outlines
with the wave and plum blossom pattern, the same yellow trellis diaper
which appears on the base of the vase in Plate 97, and other diaper
patterns which occur on so many of the so-called Ming figures. This
piece is, in fact, a standing rebuke to those careless classifiers who
ascribe all on-biscuit enamel indiscriminately to the Ming period, and
I am strongly of opinion that most of the dishes,[199] bowls, ewers,
cups and saucers, and vases with the wave and plum blossom pattern and
horses, etc., in which a strong green enamel gives the dominating tint,
belong rather to the K’ang Hsi period. The same kind of decoration is
sometimes found applied to glazed porcelain, as on Fig. 3 of Plate 79,
a covered potiche-shaped vase in the British Museum with the design
of “jewel mountains and sea waves,” with floating blossoms, and _pa
pao_[200] symbols in green, yellow and white in an aubergine ground,
supplemented by a few plain rings in underglaze blue. The style of this
vase and the quality of the paste suggest that it really does belong to
the late Ming period.
[Illustration: Plate 79.--Wan Li Polychrome Porcelain.
Fig. 1.--Vase (_mei p’ing_) with engraved design, green in a
yellow ground, Imperial dragons in clouds, rock and wave border.
Wan Li mark. Height 15 inches. _British Museum._
Fig. 2.--Bottle with pierced casing, phœnix design, etc., painted
in underglaze blue and enamels; cloisonné enamel neck. Height 23
inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 3.--Covered Jar, plum blossoms and symbols in a wave pattern
ground, coloured enamels in an aubergine background. Height 15½
inches. _British Museum._]
The use of enamels over the glaze was greatly extended in the Wan Li
period, though practically all the types in vogue at this time can
be paralleled in the Chia Ching porcelain, and, indeed, have been
discussed under that heading. There is the red family in which the
dominant colour is an iron red, either of curiously sticky appearance
and dark coral tint or with the surface dissolved in a lustrous
iridescence. Yellow, usually a dark impure colour, though sometimes
washed on extremely thin and consequently light and transparent,
and transparent greens, which vary from leaf tint to emerald and
bluish greens, occur in insignificant quantity. This red family is
well illustrated by a splendid covered jar in the Salting Collection
(Plate 80), and by three marked specimens in the British Museum, an
ink screen, a bowl, and a circular stand. It also occurs on another
significant piece in the latter collection, a dish admirably copying
the Ming style but marked _Shên tê t’ang po ku chih_[201] (antique
made for the Shên-tê Hall), a palace mark of the Tao Kuang period
(1821–1850). It should be added that this colour scheme[202] is
frequently seen on the coarsely made and roughly decorated jars and
dishes with designs of lions in peony scrolls, etc., no doubt made in
large quantities for export to India and Persia. They are not uncommon
to-day, and in spite of their obvious lack of finish they possess
certain decorative qualities, due chiefly to the mellow red, which are
not to be despised.
But the characteristic polychrome of the period, the _Wan Li wu
ts’ai_, combines enamelled decoration with underglaze blue, and
this again can be divided into two distinctive groups. One of these is
exemplified by Plate 81, an Imperial vase shaped after a bronze model
and of the same massive build as its fellow in blue and white, which
was described on p. 67. Here the underglaze blue is supplemented by the
green, the impure yellow and the sticky coral red of the period, and
the subject as on the blue and white example consists of dragons and
phœnixes among floral scrolls with borders of rock and wave pattern.
The object of the decorator seems to have been to distract the eye
from the underlying ware, as if he were conscious of its relative
inferiority, and the effect of this close design, evenly divided
between the blue and the enamels, is rather checkered when viewed from
a distance. But both form and decoration are characteristic of the
Wan Li Imperial vases, as is shown by kindred specimens, notably by a
tall vase in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, of which the design is
similar and the form even more metal-like, having on the lower part
the projecting dentate ribs seen on square bronze and cloisonné beakers
of the Ming dynasty. Two other marked examples of this colour scheme,
from which the absence of aubergine is noteworthy, are (1) a ewer
in the British Museum with full-face dragons on the neck supporting
the characters _wan shou_ (endless longevity) and with floral
sprays on a lobed body, and (2) a straight-sided box with moulded
six-foil elevation, painted on each face with a screen before which
is a fantastic animal on a stand, and a monkey, dog and cat in garden
surroundings.
The second--and perhaps the more familiar--group of _Wan Li wu ts’ai_
is illustrated by Fig. 1 of Plate 82, on which all the colours,
including aubergine, are represented in company with the underglaze
blue. There is no longer the same patchy effect, because the blue
is more evenly balanced by broader washes of the enamel colours,
particularly the greens. The design of this particular example is a
figure subject taken from Chinese history (_shih wu_), supplemented
by a brocade band of floral scroll work on the shoulder and formal
patterns on the neck and above the base. The former and the latter
positions are commonly occupied in these vases by a band of stiff
leaves and a border of false gadroons, both alternately blue and
coloured. The stiff leaves in this instance are replaced by floral
sprays, and the coloured designs are outlined in a red brown pigment.
The mark under the base is the “hare,” which has already been noticed
on examples of late Ming blue and white.[203] Another late Ming mark,
_yü t’ang chia ch’i_,[204] occurs on a dish in the British Museum, with
design of the Eight Immortals paying court to the god of Longevity (_pa
hsien p’êng shou_), painted in the same style but with a predominance
of underglaze blue.
[Illustration: PLATE 80
Covered Jar or potiche. Painted in iron red and green enamels,
with a family scene in a garden, and brocade borders of
_ju-i_ pattern, peony scrolls, etc. Sixteenth century.
Height 17½ inches.
_Salting Collection_ (_Victoria and Albert Museum_).]
But it is not necessary to multiply instances, for the type is well
known, and must have survived for a long period. Indeed, many competent
authorities assign the bulk of this kind of porcelain to the Yung
Chêng period (1723–1735); and it is undoubtedly true that imitations
of Wan Li polychrome were made at this time, for they are specifically
mentioned in the Yung Chêng list of Imperial wares.[205] But I am
inclined to think that the number of these late attributions has been
exaggerated, and that they do not take sufficiently into account the
interval of forty-two years between the reigns of Wan Li and K’ang
Hsi. It was a distracted time when the potters must have depended
largely upon their foreign trade in default of Imperial orders, and it
is probable that much of this ware, characterised by strong, rather
coarse make, greyish glaze and boldly executed decoration in the Wan Li
colour scheme, belongs to this intermediate period. The vases usually
have the flat unglazed base which characterises the blue and white of
this time.[206] Two handsome beakers, with figure subjects and borders
of the peach, pomegranate and citron, and a beautiful jar with phœnix
beside a rock and flowering shrubs, in the British Museum, seem to
belong to this period, but there are numerous other examples, many of
which are coarse and crude, and obviously made wholesale for the export
trade.
Among the various examples of Wan Li polychrome exhibited at the
Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910, there was one which calls for
special mention, a box[207] with panels of floral designs surrounded by
fruit and diaper patterns in the usual colours of the _wu ts’ai_, with
the addition of an overglaze blue enamel. It is true that this blue
enamel was clearly of an experimental nature and far from successful,
but its presence on this marked and indubitable Wan Li specimen is
noteworthy. For it has long been an article of faith with collectors
that this blue enamel does not antedate the Ch’ing dynasty, being,
in fact, a characteristic feature of the K’ang Hsi _famille verte_
porcelain. The rule still remains an excellent one, and this solitary
exception only serves to emphasise its general truth, showing as
it does that so far the attempts at a blue enamel were a failure.
But at the same time the discovery is a warning against a too rigid
application of those useful rules of thumb, based on the generalisation
from what must, after all, be a limited number of instances.
Marked examples of Wan Li monochromes are rarely seen, but we may
assume that the glazes in use in the previous reigns continued to be
made--blue, lavender, turquoise, violet and aubergine brown, yellow in
various shades, leaf green, emerald green, apple green, celadon, coffee
brown, and golden brown--besides the more or less accidental effects
in the mottled and _flambé_ glazes. The plain white bowls of the
period had a high reputation,[208] and a good specimen in the British
Museum, though far from equalling the Yung Lo bowl (Plate 59), is
nevertheless a thing of beauty. The white wares of the Ting type made
at this time have been already discussed.[209] The monochrome surfaces
were not infrequently relieved by carved or etched designs under the
glaze, but it must be confessed that monochromes are exceedingly
difficult to date. Particular colours and particular processes
continued in use for long periods, and the distinctions between the
productions of one reign and the next, or even between those of the
late Ming and the early Ch’ing dynasties, are often almost unseizable.
At best these differences consist in minute peculiarities of form and
potting, in the texture of the body and glaze, and the finish of the
base, which are only learnt by close study of actual specimens and
by training the eye to the general character of the wares until the
perception of the Ming style becomes instinctive. But something further
will be said on this subject in the chapter on Ming technique.
[Illustration: PLATE 81
Beaker-shaped Vase of bronze form, with dragon and phœnix designs
painted in underglaze blue, and red, green and yellow enamels:
background of fairy flowers (_pao hsiang hua_) and borders
of “rock and wave” pattern. Mark of the Wan Li period (1573–1619)
in six characters on the neck. An Imperial piece. Carved wood
stand with cloud pattern.
Height 18½ inches.
_British Museum._]
THE LAST OF THE MINGS
_T’ai Ch’ang_ [chch 2] (1620)
_T’ien Ch’i_ [chch 2] (1621–1627)
_Ch’ung Chêng_ [chch 2] (1628–1643)
Chinese ceramic history, based on the official records, is silent
on the subject of the three last Ming reigns, and we are left to
infer that during the death struggles of the old dynasty and the
establishment of the Manchu Tartars on the throne work at the Imperial
factory was virtually suspended. The few existing specimens which bear
the marks of T’ien Ch’i and Ch’ung Chêng (the T’ai Ch’ang mark is
apparently unrepresented) are of little merit. A barrel-shaped incense
vase with floral scrolls and a large bowl with four-clawed dragons
of the former date in the British Museum are painted the one in dull
greyish blue, and the other in a bright but rather garish tint of
the same colour; both have a coarse body material with blisters and
pitting in the glaze, and the painting of the designs is devoid of any
distinction. Similarly, a polychrome saucer dish with the same mark
and in the same collection, decorated with an engraved dragon design
filled in with purple glaze in a green ground, carries on the early
tradition of that type of Ming polychrome, but the ware is coarse,
the design crudely drawn, and the colours impure.[210] From the
same unflattering characteristics another dish in the British Museum,
with large patches of the three on-biscuit colours--green, yellow and
aubergine--may be recognised as of the T’ien Ch’i make. This is a
specimen of the so-called tiger skin ware, of which K’ang Hsi and later
examples are known--a ware which, even in the best-finished specimens
with underglaze engraved designs, is more curious than beautiful. On
the other hand, one of the delicate bowls with biscuit figures in high
relief, already described (p. 75), proves that the potters of the T’ien
Ch’i period were still capable of skilful work when occasion demanded.
A pair of wine cups in the British Museum, with freely drawn designs of
geese and rice plants in pale greyish blue under a greyish glaze, are
the solitary representatives of the Ch’ung Chêng mark.
In the absence of Imperial patronage, and with the inevitable trade
depression which followed in the wake of the fierce dynastic struggle,
it was fortunate for the Ching-tê Chên potters that a large trade with
European countries was developing. The Portuguese and Spanish had
already established trading connections with the Chinese, and the other
Continental nations--notably the Dutch--were now serious competitors.
The Dutch East India Company was an extensive importer of blue and
white porcelain, and we have already discussed one type of blue and
white which figures frequently in the Dutch pictures of the seventeenth
century.
There is another group of blue and white which can be definitely
assigned to this period of dynastic transition, between 1620–1662. A
comparative study of the various blue and white types had already led
to the placing of this ware in the middle of the seventeenth century,
and Mr. Perzynski, in those excellent articles[211] to which we have
already alluded, has set out the characteristics of this ware at some
length, with a series of illustrations which culminate in a dated
example. There will be no difficulty in finding a few specimens of
this type in any large collection of blue and white. It is recognised
by a bright blue of slightly violet tint under a glaze often hazy with
minute bubbles, which suggested to Mr. Perzynski the picturesque simile
of “violets in milk.” Other more tangible characteristics appear in
the designs, which commonly consist of a figure subject--a warrior or
sage and attendant--in a mountain scene bordered by a wall of rocks
with pine trees and swirling mist, drawn in a very mannered style and
probably from some stock pattern. Other common features are patches of
herbage rendered by pot-hook-like strokes, formal floral designs of a
peculiar kind, such as the tulip-like flower on the neck of Fig. 4 of
Plate 82; the band of floral scroll work on the shoulder of the same
piece is also characteristic. In many of the forms, such as cylindrical
vases and beakers, the base is flat and unglazed, and reveals a good
white body, and European influence is apparent in some of the shapes,
such as the jugs and tankards.
As for the dating of this group, an early example of the style of
painting in the Salting Collection[212] has a silver mount of the
early seventeenth century, and a tankard of typical German form in the
Hamburg Museum has a silver cover dated 1642.[213] There is, besides, a
curious piece in the British Museum, the decoration of which has strong
affinities to this group. It is a bottle with flattened circular body
and tall, tapering neck, with landscape and figures on one side and
on the other a European design copied from the reverse of a Spanish
dollar, and surrounded by a strap-work border. The dollar, from a
numismatic point of view, might have been made equally well for Philip
II. (1556–1598), Philip IV. (1621–1665), or Charles II. (1665–1700),
but there can be little doubt from the style of the ware that it
belonged to one of the two earlier reigns.
A comparison of the ware and the blue of this group leads to the
placing of the fairly familiar type illustrated by Figs. 3 and 5
of Plate 82 in the same intermediate period, and similarly certain
specimens of polychrome, with underglaze blue and the usual enamels,
display the characteristic body and blue painting, and even some of the
decorative mannerisms. These specimens, particularly when of beaker
form, are often finished off with a band of ornament engraved under the
glaze.
[Illustration: Plate 82.--Late Ming Porcelain.
Fig. 1--Jar of Wan Li period, enamelled. Mark, a hare. Height 9
inches. _British Museum._ Fig. 2. Bowl with Eight Immortals
in relief, coloured glazes on the biscuit. Height 3¼ inches.
_Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Figs. 3, 4 and 5.--Blue and white porcelain, early seventeenth
century. Height of Fig. 5, 17 inches. _British Museum._]
[Illustration: Plate 83.--Vase
With blue and white decoration of rockery, phœnixes, and
flowering shrubs. Found in India. Late Ming period. Height 22
inches. _Halsey Collection._]