K’ANG HSI POLYCHROME PORCELAINS
Broadly speaking, the polychrome porcelains of the Ming and K’ang
Hsi periods are the same in principle, though they differ widely
in style and execution. The general types continued, and the first
to be considered is that in which all the colours are fired in the
high temperature of the large kiln, comprising underglaze blue and
underglaze red, and certain slips and coloured glazes. Conspicuous
among the last is a pale golden brown commonly known as Nanking
yellow, which is found in narrow bands or in broad washes, dividing
or surrounding blue designs, and is specially common on the bottles,
sprinklers, gourd-shaped vases, and small jars exported to Europe in
the last half of the seventeenth century. The golden brown also darkens
into coffee brown, and in some cases it alternates in bands with buff
crackle and pale celadon green.
A deep olive brown glaze is sometimes found as a background for
ornament in moulded reliefs which are touched with underglaze blue and
red. A fine vase of this type is in the Salting Collection, and a good
example was given by Mr. Andrew Burman to the British Museum. Both seem
to be designed after bronze models.
But the central colour of this group is undoubtedly the underglaze
red. Derived from copper it is closely akin to the red of the _chi
hung_ glaze, and both were conspicuous on the Hsüan Tê porcelain,
both fell into disuse in the later Ming periods, and both were revived
in the reign of K’ang Hsi.
I have seen two examples of this colour in combination with underglaze
blue bearing the hall mark _chung-ho-t’ang_, and cyclical dates
corresponding to 1671 and 1672 respectively. In neither of these
pieces, however, was the red very successful, and probably the better
K’ang Hsi specimens belong to a later period of the reign. It was,
however, always a difficult colour to fire, and examples in which the
red is perfectly developed are rare. As a rule, it tends to assume a
maroon or dark reddish brown tint.
Nor is the method of its application always the same. Sometimes it is
painted on in clean, crisp brush strokes; at others it is piled up in
thick washes which flow in the firing and assume some of the qualities
and the colour of _sang de bœuf_ red, even displaying occasional
crackle; on other pieces again a “peach bloom” tint is developed.[295]
On two of the best examples in the Franks Collection, where a deep
blood red is combined with a fine quality of blue, it is noteworthy
that the surface of the white glaze has a peculiar dull lustre. This,
I understand, is due to “sulphuring” in the kiln, a condition which,
whether accidental or intentional, is certainly favourable to the red
colour. It is also noticeable that the red is particularly successful
under a glaze which is faintly tinged with celadon green such as is
often used on imitations of Ming porcelains, and it was no doubt this
consideration which led to the frequent use of celadon green in this
group. The celadon is used either as a ground colour for the whole
piece or in parts only of the design, and the addition of white slip
further strengthened the palette. With these colours some exquisite
effects have been compassed in such designs as birds on prunus boughs
and storks among lotus plants, the main design being in blue, the
blossoms in white slip slightly raised and touched with red, and the
background plain white, celadon green (Plate 115), and sometimes pale
lavender blue. The celadon and pale lavender vases with this decoration
were favourites with the French in the eighteenth century, and many
sets of vases and beakers in this style have been furnished with
sumptuous ormolu mounts by the French goldsmiths.
The painting in underglaze red, which was revived in the K’ang Hsi
period, continued with success in the succeeding reigns of Yung Chêng
and Ch’ien Lung (indeed it has not ceased to this day), but the bulk
of the finer examples in our collections seem to belong to the late
K’ang Hsi and the Yung Chêng periods. The underglaze red is used alone
as well as in combination, and some of its most successful effects are
found on small objects like colour boxes and snuff bottles.
The black or brown pigment used for outlining designs under the
softer enamel colours such as green and yellow, though in one sense an
underglaze colour, does not belong to this group.
From this group of polychrome porcelain we pass to another in which the
colour is given by washes of various glazes. A few of the high-fired
glazes are employed for this purpose, especially blue in combination
with celadon green and white, and a few clay slips, of which the
commonest is a dressing of brown clay applied without any glaze and
producing an iron-coloured surface. The most familiar members of this
group are small Taoist figures of rough but vivacious modelling with
draperies glazed blue, celadon and white,[296] and the base unglazed
and slightly browned in the firing. Collectors are tempted to regard
these figures as late or modern productions, but examples in the
Dresden collection prove that this technique was employed in the K’ang
Hsi period. In the same collection there are numbers of small toy
figures, such as monkeys, oxen, grotesque human forms, etc., sometimes
serving as whistles or as water-droppers. They are made of coarse
porcelain or stoneware with a thin dressing of brown ferruginous clay,
and touches of high-fired glazes. The appearance of these, too, is so
modern that we realise with feelings of surprise that they formed part
of the collection of Augustus the Strong.
The polychrome porcelain coloured with glazes of the _demi-grand
feu_ (i.e. glazes fired in the more temperate parts of the large
kiln) has been discussed in the chapters on the Ming period.[297]
The group characterised by green, turquoise and aubergine violet,
semi-opaque, and minutely crackled is not conspicuous among K’ang
Hsi porcelains; indeed it seems to have virtually ceased with the
Ming dynasty. The individual colours, however, were still used as
monochromes; in combination they are chiefly represented by aubergine
violet and turquoise in broad washes on such objects as peach-shaped
wine pots, Buddhist lions with joss-stick holders attached, parrots,
and similar ornaments.
The other three-colour group, composed of transparent green, yellow
and aubergine purple glazes, usually associated with designs finely
etched with a metal point on the body, were freely used in the K’ang
Hsi and Yung Chêng periods in imitation of Ming prototypes. Such
specimens are often characterised by extreme neatness of workmanship
and technical perfection of the ware. The best-known examples are thin,
beautifully potted rice bowls, with slightly everted rim, and a design
of five-clawed Imperial dragons traced with a point and filled in with
a colour contrasting with that of the ground, e.g. green on yellow, or
green on aubergine, all the possible changes being rung on the three
colours. Being Imperial wares these bowls are usually marked with the
_nien hao_ of their period, but such is the trimness of their make
that collectors are tempted to regard them as specimens of a later
reign. But here again the Dresden collection gives important evidence,
for it contains a bowl of this class with dragons in a remarkable
purplish black colour (probably an accidental variety of the aubergine)
in a yellow ground. It bears the mark of the K’ang Hsi period.
The application of similar plumbo-alcaline glazes to a commoner type of
porcelain is described by Père d’Entrecolles[298]:--“There is a kind
of coloured porcelain which is sold at a lower rate than the enamelled
ware just described.... The material required for this work need not
be so fine. Vessels which have already been baked in the great furnace
without glaze, and consequently white and lustreless, are coloured by
immersion in a bowl filled with the colouring preparation if they are
intended to be monochrome. But if they are required to be polychrome
like the objects called _hoam lou houan_,[299] which are divided
into kinds of panels, one green, one yellow, etc., the colours are
laid on with a large brush. This is all that need be done to this
type of porcelain, except that after the firing a little vermilion
is applied to certain parts such as the beaks of birds, etc. This
vermilion, however, is not fired, as it would evaporate in the kiln,
and consequently it does not last. When the various colours have been
applied, the porcelain is refired in the great furnace with the other
wares which have not yet been baked; but care is taken to place it at
the bottom of the furnace and below the vent-hole where the fire is
less fierce; otherwise the great heat would destroy the colours.”
[Illustration: PLATE 95
Two examples of Porcelain painted with coloured enamels on the
biscuit, the details of the designs being first traced in brown.
K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722)
Fig. 1.--One of a pair of Buddhistic Lions, sometimes called Dogs
of Fo. This is apparently the lioness, with her cub: the lion has
a ball of brocade under his paw. On the head is the character
_wang_ (prince) which is more usual on the tiger of Chinese
art. Height 18 inches. _S. E. Kennedy Collection._
Fig. 2.--Bottle-shaped Vase and Stand moulded in bamboo pattern
and decorated with floral brocade designs and diapers. Height 8¾
inches. _Cope Bequest_ (_Victoria & Albert Museum_).]
In this interesting passage, written in 1722, we have a precise
account of the manufacture of one of the types of porcelain which
have been indiscriminately assigned to the Ming period. This on-biscuit
polychrome was undoubtedly made in the Ming dynasty, but in view of
d’Entrecolles’ description it will be safe to assume that, unless
there is some very good evidence to the contrary, the examples in our
collections are not older than K’ang Hsi. The type is easily identified
from the above quotation, and there is a little group of the wares in
the British Museum, mostly small figures and ornaments with washes
of green, brownish yellow and aubergine purple applied direct to the
biscuit, and on some of the unglazed details the unfired vermilion
still adheres. These coloured glazes are compounded with powdered
flint, lead, saltpetre, and colouring oxides, and the porcelain
belongs to the comprehensive group of _san ts’ai_ or three-colour
ware, although the three colours--green, yellow and aubergine--are
supplemented by a black formed of brown black pigment under one of the
translucent glazes and a white which d’Entrecolles describes[300] as
composed of ⅖ ounce of powdered flint to every ounce of white lead.
This last forms the thin, iridescent film often of a faintly greenish
tinge, which serves as white on these three-colour porcelains. In rare
cases also a violet blue enamel is added to the colour scheme.
A characteristic of this particular type is the absence of any painted
outlines. The colours are merely broad washes bounded by the flow of
the glaze, and this style of polychrome is best suited to figures and
moulded ornamental pieces, in which the details of the design form
natural lines of demarcation for the glazes. On a flat surface this
method of coloration is only suited to such patchy patterns as the
so-called tiger skin and the tortoiseshell wares.
The Dresden collection is peculiarly rich in this kind of _san
ts’ai_, but though two or three of the specimens (Plate 71, Figs. 1
and 2) differing considerably from the rest, are clearly of the Ming
period, the great majority are undoubtedly contemporaneous with the
forming of the collection, viz. of the K’ang Hsi period. The latter
include numerous figures, human and animal, and ornaments such as the
junk on Plate 98, besides some complicated structures of rocks and
shrines and grottos, peopled with tiny images and human figures. To
this group belong such specimens as the “brinjal bowls,” with everted
rim and slight floral designs engraved in outline and filled in with
coloured glaze in a ground of aubergine (brinjal) purple. There are
similar specimens with green ground, and both types are frequently
classed with Ming wares. Some of them may indeed belong to the late
Ming period,[301] but those with finer finish are certainly K’ang Hsi.
They are usually marked with rough, undecipherable seal marks in blue,
which are commonly known as shop marks.
Some of the figures of deities, birds and animals, besides the
small ornamental objects such as brush-washers in the form of lotus
leaves and little water vessels for the writing table are of very
high quality, skilfully modelled and of material far finer than that
described by d’Entrecolles. Fig. 2, Plate 99, a statuette of Ho
Hsien-ku, one of the Eight Immortals, is an example. The flesh is in
white biscuit, showing the fine grain of the porcelain, white to-day,
though possibly it was originally coloured with unfired pigment and
gilt as was often the case. The glazes on this finer quality of ware,
especially the green and the aubergine, are peculiarly smooth and
sleek, and the yellow is fuller and browner than on the kindred ware,
enamelled on the biscuit, which we now proceed to investigate.
The French term, _émaillé sur biscuit_, is used somewhat broadly to
cover the coloured glazes just described, as well as the enamels proper
of the muffle kiln. We shall try to confine the expression, “on-biscuit
enamels,” to the softer, verifiable enamels which are fired at a lower
temperature and in a smaller kiln or muffle. These are, in fact, the
same enamels as are used in the ordinary _famille verte_ porcelain
painted over the finished glaze, but when applied direct to the biscuit
they have a slightly darker and mellower tone, the background of
biscuit reflecting less light than the glittering white glaze.
[Illustration: PLATE 96
Vase of baluster form painted in coloured enamels on the biscuit.
The design, which is outlined in brown, consists of a beautifully
drawn prunus (_mei hua_) tree in blossom and hovering birds,
beside a rockery and smaller plants of bamboo, etc., set in a
ground of mottled green. Ch’êng Hua mark but K’ang Hsi period
(1662–1722)
Height 16¾ inches. _British Museum._]
Though the colour scheme of this group is substantially the same as
that of the _san ts’ai_ glazes, and though the enamels when used in
wide areas are not always easily distinguished from the glazes, the
former do, in fact, differ in containing more lead, being actually
softer and more liable to acquire crackle and iridescence, and in some
cases there are appreciable differences in tint. The yellow enamel,
for instance, is as a rule paler, and even when of a dark tint it has
a muddy tone wanting in the fullness and strength of the yellow glaze;
the green enamel varies widely in tone from the glaze, and includes,
besides, several fresh shades, among which is a soft apple green
of great beauty; and the aubergine is less claret coloured and often of
a decidedly pinkish tone.
But perhaps the most distinctive feature of this _san ts’ai_ of
the muffle kiln is the careful tracing of the design in a brown black
pigment on the biscuit. The transparent enamels are washed on over
these black outlines, and give appropriate colours without obscuring
the design which is already complete in itself.[302] The same brown
black pigment[303] is also used over wide areas, laid on thickly and
washed with transparent green to form the fine green black which is so
highly prized. Like so much of the porcelain with coloured ornament
applied to the biscuit this large group has been indiscriminately
assigned to the Ming dynasty. The lack of documentary evidence has
made it difficult to combat this obvious fallacy, obvious because
the form and style of decoration of the finest specimens are purely
K’ang Hsi in taste and feeling; but, while fully recognising that the
scheme of decoration was not a new one, but had been in use in the
Ming porcelains, I would point a warning finger again[304] to the ink
slab in the British Museum with its design of aubergine plum blossoms
on conventional green waves, its borders of lozenge and hexagon
diaper, all enamelled on the biscuit, and in the characteristic style
habitually described as Ming in sale catalogues, but actually dated
1692. Another consideration is the quantity of these pieces in the
Dresden collection which consists mainly of K’ang Hsi wares, and the
presence of several examples (e.g. bamboo vases such as Fig. 2 of Plate
95) in the rooms of the Charlottenburg Palace, which were furnished
mainly with presents made by the British East India Company to Queen
Sophia Charlotte (1668–1705).
Marks are rare on this group, as a whole, though they occur fairly
frequently on the large vases, the commonest being the date mark of the
Ch’êng Hua period. No one would, however, seriously argue a fifteenth
century date from this mark which is far more common than any other on
K’ang Hsi porcelain; and I have actually seen the K’ang Hsi mark on
one or two specimens which appeared to be perfectly genuine. Curiously
enough the K’ang Hsi mark is more often a sign of a modern imitation,
but this in view of the perverse methods of marking Chinese porcelain
is in itself evidence that the modern copyist regards the reign of
K’ang Hsi as the best period of manufacture for this style of ware.
[Illustration: PLATE 97
Square Vase with pendulous body and high neck slightly expanding
towards the top: two handles in the form of archaic lizard-like
dragons (_chih lung_), and a pyramidal base. Porcelain
painted with coloured enamels on the biscuit, with scenes
representing Immortals on a log raft approaching Mount P’êng-lai
in the Taoist Paradise. K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722)
Height 20½ inches. _British Museum._]
The noblest examples of this group, and perhaps the finest of all
Chinese polychromes, are the splendid vases with designs reserved
in grounds of green black, yellow or leaf green. Plates 96, 97 and
Frontispiece will serve to illustrate the colours and at the same
time some of the favourite forms[305] of these sumptuous pieces, the
baluster vase, and the square vase with pendulous body, pyramidal
base, and two handles usually of archaic dragon form. The favourite
design for the decoration of these forms is the flowering prunus tree,
beside a rockery with a few bright plumaged birds in the branches, one
of the most familiar and at the same time most beautiful of Chinese
patterns (see Plate 96). The flowers of the four seasons--peony, lotus,
chrysanthemum and prunus--form a beautiful decoration for the four
sides of another favourite form, a tall vase of square elevation with
sides lightly tapering downwards, rounded shoulders, arid circular
neck, slightly flaring at the mouth. The specimens illustrated are in
the British Museum, but there is a wonderful series of these lordly
vases in the Salting Collection, and in the Pierpont Morgan and Altmann
Collections in New York. To-day they are rare, and change hands at
enormous prices. Consequently all manner of imitations abound, European
and Oriental, the modern Chinese work in this style being often highly
successful. But the most insidious copies are the deliberate frauds
in which old K’ang Hsi vases are stripped of a relatively cheap
form of decoration, the glaze and colour being removed by grinding,
and furnished with a cleverly enamelled design in colours on the
biscuit. The actual colours are often excellent, and as the ware seen
at the base is the genuine K’ang Hsi porcelain even the experienced
connoisseur may be deceived at first, though probably his misgivings
will be aroused by something in the drawing which betrays the copyist,
and a searching examination of the surface will reveal some traces of
the sinister treatment to which it has been subjected or the tell-tale
marks, such as black specks or burns, left on the foot rim by the
process of refiring. There is much truth besides in the saying that
things “look their age,” and artificial signs of wear imparted by
friction and rubbing with sand or grit are not difficult for the
experienced eye to detect.
As already noted, the black of the precious black-ground vases, the
_famille noire_ as they are sometimes called, is formed by
overlaying a dull black pigment with washes of transparent green
enamel. The result is a rich greenish black, the enamel imparting life
and fire to the dull pigment; and as the green is fluxed with lead it
tends to become iridescent, giving an additional green _reflet_
to the black surface. The modern potters have learnt to impart an
iridescence to their enamels, and one often sees a strong lustre on
specimens which are clearly “hot from the kiln”; but these enamels
have a sticky appearance differing widely from the mellow lustre which
partial decay has spread over the K’ang Hsi colours. It will be found,
besides, that the shapes of the modern copies are wanting in the grace
and feeling of the originals.
This type of porcelain enamelled on the biscuit is particularly well
suited to statuettes and ornamental objects of complex form. The
details of the biscuit remain sharp and clear, and there is no thick
white glaze to soften the projections and fill up the cavities, for the
washes of transparent enamel are too slight to obscure the modelling.
Consequently we find in this style of ware all the familiar Chinese
figures, the Buddhist and Taoist deities, demigods, and sages, which,
like our own madonnas and saints, mostly conform to well established
conventions, differing mainly in their size, the quality of their
finish, the form of their bases or pedestals, and the details of the
surface colouring. Of these the figures of Kuan-yin[306] are the most
frequent and the most attractive, the compassionate goddess with
sweet pensive face, mounted on a lotus pedestal or a rocky throne
and sometimes canopied with a cloak which serves as a hood and a
covering for her back and shoulders. She has moreover a long flowing
robe open at the neck, and displaying a jewelled necklace on her bare
bosom. There are, besides, the god of Longevity: the Eight Immortals:
Tung-fang So with his stolen peaches: the star-gods of Longevity, Rank,
and Happiness: the twin genii of Mirth and Harmony: Kuan-ti, the god
of War, on a throne or on horseback: Lao-tzŭ on his ox: the demon-like
Kuei Hsing, and the dignified Wên Ch’ang, gods of Literature; and all
the throng. There are a few animal forms such as the horse, the ox, the
elephant, the mythical _ch’i-lin_, and most common of all the Buddhist
lions (sometimes called the dogs of Fo), usually in pairs, one with a
cub, and the other playing with a ball of brocade, mounted on an oblong
base, to which is attached, in the smaller sizes at any rate, a tube
for holding incense sticks. Other familiar objects are four-footed
or tripod stands for manuscript rolls, boxes for brushes colours,
etc., ink screens, water pots of fanciful shape for the writing
table, picture plaques (Plate 100), supper sets made up of a number
of small trays which fit together in the form of a lotus flower[307]
or a rosette, perforated boxes and hanging vases for fragrant flowers
(Fig. 2 of Plate 98), “butterfly cages,” and “cricket boxes.” Another
well-known specimen represents the famous T’ang poet, Li T’ai-po, the
Horace of China, reclining in drunken stupor against a half overturned
wine jar, the whole serving as a water vessel for the writing table.
Instances of the combination of on-glaze and on-biscuit enamels in the
same piece also occur. Thus on the splendid black-ground potiche in
the Franks Collection (Frontispiece) passages of white glaze have been
inserted to receive the coral red colour which apparently could not
be applied to the biscuit. And conversely in the ordinary _famille
verte_ decoration on the glaze there are sometimes inserted small
areas of on-biscuit enamels on borders, handles, base ornaments,
etc. Such combinations give an excellent opportunity for observing
the contrast between the softer, fuller tints on the biscuit and the
brighter, more jewel-like enamels on the white glaze. In rare instances
we find passages of blue and white decoration associated with the
on-biscuit enamels as on the curious ewer illustrated by Fig. 1 of
Plate 94. Blue and white is similarly combined with decoration in
coloured glazes on the biscuit in a late Ming jar in the Victoria and
Albert Museum (Case 9, No. 4396–57).
[Illustration: Plate 98.--K’ang Hsi Porcelain with on-biscuit
decoration.
_Dresden Collection._
Fig. 1.--Teapot in form of a lotus seed-pod, enamels on the
biscuit. Height 2¾ inches.
Fig. 2.--Hanging Perfume Vase, reticulated, enamels on the
biscuit. Height 3½ inches.
Fig. 3.--Ornament in form of a junk, transparent _san ts’ai_
glazes. Height 11½ inches.]
[Illustration:
Plate 99.--K’ang Hsi Porcelain with on-biscuit decoration.
Fig. 1.--Ewer with black enamel ground, lion handle. Height 8¾
inches. _Cope Bequest_ (_V. & A. Museum_).
Fig. 2.--Figure of the Taoist Immortal, Ho Hsien Ku, transparent
_san ts’ai_ glazes. Height 10⅛ inches. _S. E. Kennedy
Collection._
Fig. 3.--Vase and Stand, enamelled on the biscuit. Height 8¾
inches. _Cope Bequest._]
[Illustration: Plate 100.--Screen with Porcelain Plaque, painted
in enamels on the biscuit.
Light green background. K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722). Total
height 22½ inches.
_In the Collection of the Hon. E. Evan Charteris._]
[Illustration: Plate 101.--Vase with panels of landscapes and
_po ku_ symbols in _famille verte_ enamels
In a ground of underglaze blue trellis pattern. K’ang Hsi period
(1662–1722). Height 32 inches. _Dresden Collection._]
[Illustration: Plate 102.--Two Dishes of _famille verte_
Porcelain in the _Dresden Collection_. K’ang Hsi period
(1662–1722).
Fig. 1.--With birds on a flowering branch, brocade borders.
Artist’s signature in the field. Diameter 16 inches.
Fig. 2.--With ladies on a garden terrace. Diameter 21 inches.]
The familiar phrase, _famille verte_, was first used by Jacquemart as a
class name for the enamelled porcelains on which green plays a leading
part. According to this definition it should include the _Wan li wu
ts’ai_, the Ming enamelled porcelain, as well as much of the on-biscuit
enamelled wares, in addition to the typical K’ang Hsi enamelled
porcelain to which usage has specially consecrated the term. A direct
descendant of the _Wan li wu ts’ai_, the _famille verte_ includes
the combinations of underglaze blue with the translucent on-glaze
enamels green, yellow, and aubergine, and the coral red (derived from
iron), the French _rouge de fer_, which is so thin that it
resembles a pigment rather than a vitreous enamel. Add to these the
brown black pigment, which is used to trace the outlines of the design
and with a covering of green to form the green black, and we have one
type of _famille verte_ which differs in no essential from the Wan
Li prototype. It is, in fact, no easy matter to find the line which
divides the two groups. The nature of the ware and the style of the
painting are the best guides; and the study of the K’ang Hsi blue and
white will be a great help in this delicate task.
But the real K’ang Hsi _famille verte_, which we might call the _K’ang
hsi wu ts’ai_, is distinguished by the addition of an overglaze blue
enamel which enhanced the brilliancy of the colour scheme, and at the
same time removed the necessity of using underglaze and overglaze
colours together.[308] It is not to be supposed, however, that the
underglaze blue disappeared entirely from the group. The old types
were always dear to the Chinese mind, and there were frequent revivals
of these in addition to the special wares,[309] such as the “Chinese
Imari,” in which this kind of blue was essential. There are indeed
examples of both blues on the same pieces.
The history of this overglaze blue enamel has already[310] been
partially discussed, and evidence has been given of its tentative
use in the Wan Li porcelain. A passage in the second letter of Père
d’Entrecolles[311] actually places its invention about the year 1700,
but the worthy father’s chronology (based no doubt chiefly on hearsay)
is often at fault. It is fairly certain, however, that the blue enamel
was not used to any extent before the Ch’ing dynasty, owing no doubt to
the fact that it had not been satisfactorily made until that date.
A beautiful enamel of violet blue tone, it is an important factor of
the _famille verte_ decoration, and the merits of a vase or dish are
often decided on the purity and brilliance of this colour alone. There
is, however, something in the nature of the enamel which seems to
affect the surrounding glaze; at any rate, it is often ringed about
by a kind of halo of dull lustre, reflecting faint rainbow tints to a
distance of perhaps an inch from the edge of the blue. It is as though
an exhalation from the blue enamel deposited a thin film of lustre on
the glaze, and it is a very frequent occurrence, though not always in
the same conspicuous degree. Collectors who are ever looking for a sign
have been tempted to hail its presence as a sure proof of antiquity.
But it is by no means constant on the old _famille verte_, and it has
yet to be proved that the same enamel will not produce a similar effect
on the modern glaze.
In view of the appreciation of _famille verte_ porcelain at the
present day a contemporary criticism will be of interest. D’Entrecolles
in his first letter,[312] referring to “porcelain painted with
landscapes in a medley of almost all the colours heightened with
gilding,” says: “They are very beautiful, if one pays a high price, but
the ordinary wares of this kind are not to be compared with blue and
white.” And again,[313] following an exact description of painting with
enamel colours on the finished glaze and of the subsequent refiring of
the ware, we read: “Sometimes the painting is intentionally reserved
for the second firing; at other times they only use the second firing
to conceal defects in the porcelain, applying the colours to the faulty
places. This porcelain, which is loaded with colour, is not to the
taste of a good many people. As a rule one can feel inequalities on the
surface of this kind of porcelain, whether due to the clumsiness of the
workmen, to the exigencies of light and shade in the painting, or to
the desire to conceal defects in the body of the ware.”
The tenor of these criticisms will not be endorsed by the modern
collector of K’ang Hsi porcelain. _Famille verte_ porcelain is
enthusiastically sought, and even indifferent specimens command a
high price, while the really choice examples can only be purchased
by the wealthy. As to the inequalities on the surface, the second of
the three reasons hazarded by d’Entrecolles is nearest the truth. The
enamels used by the Chinese porcelain painter contain a remarkably
small percentage of colouring oxide, and one of the characteristics
of _famille verte_ colours is their transparency. To obtain full
tones and the contrast between light and shade (even to the limited
extent to which the Chinese use this convention) it was necessary
to pile up the layers of colour at the risk of unduly thickening the
enamel. But the connoisseur of to-day finds nothing amiss in these
jewel-like incrustations of colour, so long as the enamels are pure and
bright, and have not scaled off or suffered too severely from the wear
to which their prominent surface is exposed.
It seems[314] that when the porcelain was destined to receive on-glaze
enamels (without any underglaze blue) a special glazing mixture was
used in which only one part of the softening element[315] was combined
with thirteen of the ordinary glazing fluid. This glaze was very white
and strong, and too opaque to do justice to an underglaze blue.
There is a reference in the first letter of Père d’Entrecolles to
a white colour which was used on the “porcelain painted in various
colours.” It was fluxed with lead like the other enamel colours, and
it was also used mixed with the latter to modify their tint. In fact
there can be little doubt that it was arsenical white, an opaque white
familiar on the Yung Chêng and Ch’ien Lung porcelains, and prominent in
the _famille rose_ palette, but not usually suspected of such an
early appearance as 1712, the date of the letter in question.
The designs of the _famille verte_ porcelain, like those on the blue
and white, are first traced in outline and then filled in with washes
of colour. The outlines are in a dry dull pigment of red or brown black
tint, inconspicuous in itself, but acquiring prominence when covered
with transparent enamel. M. Grandidier tried to formulate certain rules
for these outlines which, if reliable, would simplify greatly the task
of dating the porcelains. On Ming ware, he said, the outlines were
blue; on K’ang Hsi wares the face and body outlines were red, those of
the vestments and other objects black. Unfortunately the first of these
generalisations is wholly wrong, and the second pointless, because only
partly right.
Omitting the underglaze blue as foreign to this particular group of
_famille verte_ under discussion, the colours consist of dark leaf
green often of a mottled appearance, a beautiful light apple green,
which is characteristic of the K’ang Hsi wares just as the blue green
is of the sixteenth century polychrome, an aubergine colour (derived
from manganese) which varies from purple brown to rosy purple, a yellow
of varying purity and usually of brownish tone, a green black formed
of the brown black pigment under washes of transparent green, a blue
enamel of violet tone, and the thin iron red. The blue enamel and the
red are sometimes omitted, leaving a soft harmony of green, aubergine
and yellow in which green plays the chief part. A little gilding is
often used to heighten parts of the design.
As for the shapes of the _famille verte_ porcelain, they are
substantially the same as those of the blue and white and call for
no further comment. The designs, too, of the painted decoration are
clearly derived from the same sources as those in the blue and white,
viz. books of stock patterns, pictures, illustrations of history
and romance, and of such other subjects as happened to be specially
appropriate or of general interest.
To take a single instance of a pictorial design, the familiar rockery
and flowering plants (peony, magnolia, etc.) and a gay-plumaged
pheasant lends itself to effective treatment in enamel colours. It
is taken from a picture, probably Sung in origin, but there are many
repetitions of it in pictorial art, one of which by the Ming painter
Wang-yu is in the British Museum collection.[316] The original is said
to have been painted by the Emperor Hui Tsung in the beginning of the
twelfth century. Another familiar design--quails and millet--is reputed
to have been painted by the same Imperial artist.
A good instance of the kind of illustrated book which supplied the
porcelain decorator with designs is the _Yü chih kêng chih t’u_
(Album of Ploughing and Weaving, compiled by Imperial order),
which deals with the cultivation of rice and silk in some forty
illustrations. It was first issued in the reign of K’ang Hsi, and
there are copies of the original and of several later editions in the
British Museum. A specimen of _famille rose_ porcelain in the
Franks Collection is decorated with a scene from this work, and in the
Andrew Burman Collection there are two _famille verte_ dishes with
designs from the same source. In the Burdett Coutts Collection, again,
there is a polygonal bowl with subjects on each side representing
the various stages of cotton cultivation, evidently borrowed from an
analogous work.
[Illustration: PLATE 103
Club-shaped (_rouleau_) Vase finely painted in _famille
verte_ enamels with panel designs in a ground of chrysanthemum
scrolls in iron red; brocade borders. Last part of the K’ang Hsi
period (1662–1722)
Height 17 inches. _Salting Collection_ (_Victoria and
Albert Museum_).]
Signatures and seals of the artist usually attached to a stanza
of verse, or a few phrases which allude to the subject, are often
found in the field of the pictorial designs. Fig. 1 of Plate 102,
for instance, belongs to a series of beautiful dishes in the Dresden
collection, which display the same seal--apparently[317] _wan
shih chü_ (myriad rocks retreat), the studio name not, I think, of the
porcelain painter but of the artist whose picture was copied on the
porcelain. There are numerous examples of similar seals in the field
of the design, and we shall return to the subject later in a place
where important issues turn on the solution of the problem which it
raises.[318]
The types of _famille verte_ porcelain are extremely numerous, almost
as varied as those of the blue and white (p. 136). Like the latter they
include much that was obviously made for European consumption, and most
of the groups which were singled out from the mass of blue and white
for special description can be paralleled in the _famille verte_. The
thin, crisp, moulded ware with petal-shaped panels and lobed borders,
the group with the “G” mark, and many other types are found with the
same peculiarities of paste and glaze, and even the same design painted
in on-glaze enamels. As in the case of the blue and white, the quality
of this export ware varies widely, and the individual specimens will
be judged by the drawing of the designs and the purity and fire of the
enamels.
A few of the more striking types are illustrated on Plates 103 and 104.
Perhaps the most sumptuous effects of this colour scheme are displayed
in the vases decorated with panel designs surrounded by rich diapers
borrowed from silk brocades. A favourite brocade pattern consists of
single blossoms or floral sprays woven into a ground of transparent
green covering a powder of small brown dots. This dotted green ground
is commonly known as “frog’s spawn,” and another diaper of small
circles under a similar green enamel is easily recognised under the
name of “fish roe.” But the variety of these ground patterns is great,
and in spite of their prosaic nomenclature they render in a singularly
effective manner the soft splendour of the Chinese brocades.
In dating the _famille verte_ porcelains the collector will find
his study of the blue and white of great assistance. There is, for
instance, the well-known type of export ware--sets of vases with
complex moulding, and dishes and plates, etc., with petal-shaped lobes
on the sides or borders. The central design of the decoration commonly
consists of _ch’i lin_, and phœnix, sea monsters (_hai shou_), storks
or ducks beside a flowering tree or some such familiar pattern; and
the surrounding petal-shaped panels are filled each with a growing
flower, or a vignette of bird and plant, plant and insect, or even a
small landscape. These bright but often perfunctorily painted wares
are paralleled in the early K’ang Hsi blue and white. They are among
the first Chinese polychrome porcelains to be copied by the European
potters. See Plate 107.
In the purely native wares the early Ch’ing _famille verte_ is
distinguished by strong and rather emphatic colouring, the energy
of the drawing and the breadth of design which recall the late Ming
polychromes. The zenith of this style of decoration was reached about
1700, say between 1682 and 1710. This is the period of the magnificent
vases with panel designs in brocaded grounds, or with crowded figure
subjects, Court scenes, and the like, filling large areas of the
surface, such vases as may be seen in the splendid series of the
Salting Collection or in the Grandidier Collection in the Louvre. They
are probably children of the great renaissance which began under the
auspices of Ts’ang Ying-hsüan. Dated examples are extremely rare, and
consequently the square vase on Plate 104 assumes unusual importance on
account of the cyclical date which occurs in the long inscription, “the
29th day of the 9th moon of the _kuei mo_ year,” which we can hardly
doubt is 1703. Incidentally another side of this vase illustrates the
celebrated scene of the wine cups started from the “orchid arbour to
float down the nine-bend river.”[319]
Another example with a cyclical date (the year _hsin mao_, and no
doubt 1711) is a globular water bottle “of the highest quality and
technique, decorated with transparent luminous enamels of great beauty
and delicacy,” in the Pierpont Morgan Collection.[320] But in this case
the date is attached to a verse in the field of the decoration, and it
may belong to the design rather than to the porcelain.
[Illustration: Plate 104.--Three Examples of K’ang Hsi _famille
verte_ Porcelain.
Fig. 1.--Square Vase with scene of floating cups on the river;
inscription with cyclical date 1703 A.D.; _shou_ characters
on the neck. Height 18⅜ inches. _Hippisley Collection._
Fig. 2.--Lantern with river scenes. Height 13¾ inches. _Dresden
Collection._
Fig. 3.--Covered Jar of _rouleau_ shape, peony scrolls in
iron red ground, brocade borders. Height 22 inches. _Dresden
Collection._]
[Illustration: Plate 105.--Covered Jar painted in _famille
verte_ enamels
With brocade ground and panel with an elephant (the symbol of
Great Peace). Lion on cover. K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722). Height
21¼ inches. _Dresden Collection._]
[Illustration: Plate 106.--K’ang Hsi _famille verte_
Porcelain. _Alexander Collection._
Fig. 1.--Dish with rockery, peonies, etc., birds and insects.
Diameter 16¼ inches.
Fig. 2.--“Stem Cup” with vine pattern. Height 5¾ inches.]
[Illustration: Plate 107.--_Famille verte_ Porcelain made
for export to Europe. K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722). _British
Museum._
Fig. 1.--Vase with “sea monster” (_hai shou_).
Fig. 2.--Dish with basket of flowers. Mark, a leaf. Diameter 11
inches.
Fig. 3.--Covered Jar with _ch’i-lin_ and _fêng-huang_
(phœnix).]
The lateness of this latter date and the use of the word “delicacy”
in the description of the piece lead us naturally to that peculiarly
refined type of late _famille verte_ in which the ware is of eggshell
thinness, the painting extremely dainty and delicate, and the
colours rather pale but of perfect purity. Such are the well-known
“birthday plates” with the reign mark of K’ang Hsi on the back and the
birthday salutation in seal characters on the border: _wan shou wu
chiang_--“a myriad longevities without ending!” They are reputed to
have been made for the Emperor’s sixtieth birthday which fell in the
year 1713, but the story is supported by no evidence of any kind, and
they would have been equally appropriate for any Imperial birthday. The
character of these wares is more suggestive of the Yung Chêng period,
and it is probable that they belong to the extreme limit of the long
reign of K’ang Hsi. To this period then we shall assign these and the
whole group of kindred porcelains, the plates with designs similar
to those of the “birthday plates,” but without the inscribed border,
the small eggshell plates with one or two figures painted in the same
delicate style, others with a single spray of some flowering shrub
almost Japanese in its daintiness, and occasional bowls and vases with
decoration of the same character. See Plate 113.
For extreme delicacy of treatment is by no means a feature of the K’ang
Hsi _famille verte_ in general, in which the Ming spirit with its
boldness and vigour still breathed. It is rather a late development in
the decadence of the ware, heralding the more effeminate beauty of the
_famille rose_, and were it not for the evidence of the birthday plates
I believe many connoisseurs would be tempted to ascribe these delicate
porcelains to a much later reign.
Such, however, is the evolution of the _famille verte_ during the sixty
years of the K’ang Hsi period, from the strong colours and forceful
Ming-like designs of the earlier specimens to the mature perfection
of the splendid wares made about 1700, and thence by a process of
ultra-refinement to the later types in which breadth of treatment gives
place to prettiness and the strong thick enamels to thinner washes of
clear, delicate tints. These thin transparent colours continued in use;
indeed, they are a feature of a special type of enamelling which will
be discussed with the Yung Chêng wares; but the pure _famille verte_
may be said to have come to an end with the last years of the reign
of K’ang Hsi. Later reproductions of course exist, for no style of
decoration is ever wholly extinct in Chinese art, but they are merely
revivals of an old style, which even before the end of the K’ang Hsi
period had reached the stage of transition to another family. The
opaque enamels of the _famille rose_ palette had already begun to
assert themselves. Timid intruders at first--a touch of opaque pink,
a little opaque yellow and arsenical white breaking in upon the old
harmony of transparent tints--they gradually thrust the _famille verte_
enamels into a subsidiary position, and in the succeeding reigns rose
pinks entirely dominate the field.
A word must be said of the use of the _famille verte_ painting in
combination with other types of decoration, in the subordinate position
of border patterns or more prominently in panel designs. Exquisite
effects are obtained by the latter in a ground of coral red, or
where a brilliant powder blue field is broken by shapely panels with
flowering plants and birds and other familiar vehicles for _famille
verte_ colouring. Occasionally we find the enamels actually painted
over a powder blue or an ordinary blue glaze, but the combination
is more peculiar than attractive; for the underlying colour kills
the transparent enamels, and the enamels destroy the lustre of the
blue ground. Indeed, it is probable that in many cases these freak
decorations were intended to hide a faulty background.
A similar painting over the crackled green _lang yao_ glaze has already
been described, and it occurs over the grey white crackles, and rarely
but with much distinction, over a pale celadon glaze. But perhaps
the most effective combination of this kind is that in which a pale
lustrous brown or Nanking yellow is the ground colour. The quiet and
refined effects of this union are well exhibited by a small group of
vases, bowls, and dishes in the Salting Collection.
Something has already been said of the use of underglaze blue in
combination with _famille verte_ enamels. The blue is either an
integral part of the general design as in the Wan Li “five colour”
scheme, or it forms a distinct decoration by itself, apart from the
enamels, though sharing the same surface. The latter use is exemplified
by a pair of bottles in the Salting Collection which have blue patterns
on the neck and _famille verte_ decoration on the body, consisting
of landscape panels surrounded by brocade patterns.[321] But the great
drawback to this union of underglaze and overglaze colours is usually
apparent. The blue was liable to suffer in the subsequent firings
necessitated by the enamels, even though those firings took place at
a relatively low temperature. Probably the potter would not expose
his finest blue to such risks, but at any rate the blue of this mixed
decoration is rarely of first-rate quality.
[Illustration: PLATE 108
Dish painted in underglaze blue and _famille verte_ enamels.
In the centre, a five-clawed dragon rising from waves in pursuit
of a pearl. Deep border in “Imari” style with cloud-shaped
compartments with chrysanthemum and prunus designs in a blue
ground, separated by close lotus scrolls reserved in an iron
red ground in which are three book symbols. K’ang Hsi period
(1662–1722)
Diameter 19½ inches. _Alexander Collection._]
There is one group of porcelain which combines the underglaze blue
with on-glaze enamels, and which deserves special notice if only
because it has been recently favoured with particular attention by
collectors. This is what we are pleased to call “Chinese Imari.”
Our ceramic nomenclature has never been noted for its accuracy, and
like good conservatives we hold firmly to the old names which have
been handed down from days when geography was not studied, and from
ancestors who were satisfied with old Indian china, or Gombroon ware,
as names for Chinese porcelain. So Meissen porcelain is still Dresden,
the blue and white of Ching-tê Chên is Old Nanking, Chinese export
porcelain painted at Canton with pink roses is Lowestoft, and the ware
made at Arita, province of Hizen, in Japan, is Imari, because that is
the name of the seaport from which it was shipped. In fact, there are
many shops where you cannot make yourself understood in these matters
unless you call the wares by the wrong name.
The Arita porcelain in question, this so-called Imari, was made from
the middle of the seventeenth century onwards, and it must have
competed seriously with the export wares of Ching-tê Chên. At any
rate, it was brought to Europe in large consignments by the Dutch
traders, who enjoyed the privilege of a trading station on the island
of Deshima, after the less politic Portuguese had been driven out of
Nagasaki in 1632. For the moment we are specially concerned with two
types of Arita ware. The first is distinguished by slight but artistic
decoration in vivid enamels of the _famille verte_, supplemented
by gilding and occasionally by underglaze blue. Favourite designs are
a banded hedge, prunus tree, a Chinese boy and a tiger or phœnix; two
quails in millet beside a flowering prunus; simple flowering sprays
or branches coiled in circular medallions; or only a few scattered
blossoms. Whatever the nature of the design, it was artistically
displayed, and in such a manner as to enhance without concealing
the fine white porcelain. This is what the old catalogues call the
_première qualité coloriée de Japon_, and a very popular ware it
was in eighteenth century Europe, when it was closely copied on the
early productions of the St. Cloud, Chantilly, Meissen, Chelsea, and
other porcelain factories. To-day it is commonly known as Kakiemon
ware, because its very distinctive style of decoration is traditionally
supposed to have been started by a potter named Kakiemon, who, with
another man of Arita, learned the secret of enamelling on porcelain
from a Chinese merchant about the year 1646.
The second type was made entirely for the European trade, and it
is distinguished by large masses of dark, cloudy blue set off by
a soft Indian red (derived from oxide of iron) and gilding. These
colours are supplemented by touches of green, yellow, and aubergine
enamels, and occasionally by a brownish black. The ware itself is
heavy, coarse and greyish, but its rough aspect is well concealed by
irregular and confused designs of asymmetrical panels surrounded by
mixed brocade patterns. The panels often contain Chinese figures,
phœnixes, lions, floral designs of chrysanthemums, peony and prunus,
a basket of flowers, rough landscapes or garden views. They are
medleys of half-Chinese, half-Japanese motives, a riot of incoherent
patterns, but not without broad decorative effect thanks to the bold
masses of red, blue and gold. Such is the typical “Old Imari.” There
is, however, a finer and more Japanese variety of the same group
which is distinguished by free use of the chrysanthemum rosette, and
the Imperial kiri (paulonia imperialis), and by panels of diaper
pattern and floral designs alternating and counter-changed in colour,
the grounds now red, now blue, and now gold. The same colour scheme
prevailed in this sub-group, and the dark blue was usually netted over
with gold designs.
It was no doubt the success which these wares met in European commerce
that induced the Chinese to take a lesson from their pupils, and to
adopt the “Imari” style. At any rate, they did copy all these types,
sometimes very closely, sometimes only in part. Thus in some cases the
actual Japanese patterns as well as the colour scheme are carefully
reproduced, in others the Japanese colour scheme is employed on Chinese
patterns or vice versa, and, again, there are cases in which passages
of Japanese ornament are inserted in purely Chinese surroundings. But
whether pure or diluted the Japanese style is unmistakable to those who
have once learnt to know its peculiarities, of which masses of blue
covered with gilt patterns and the prominence of red and gold are the
most conspicuous.
There will, of course, always be a few specimens the nationality of
which will be difficult to decide, but to anyone familiar with Chinese
and Japanese porcelain the distinction between the Chinese “Imari”
and its island prototype is, as a rule, a simple matter. The Chinese
porcelain is thinner and crisper, its glaze has the smooth oily sheen
and faintly greenish tint which are peculiar to Chinese wares, and the
raw edge of the base rim is slightly browned. The Japanese porcelain,
on the other hand, is whiter in the Kakiemon ware, greyer and coarser
in the “Old Imari,” and the glaze in both cases has the peculiar
bubbled and “muslin-like” texture which is a Japanese characteristic.
The Japanese underglaze blue is dark and muddy in tone, the Chinese
bright, and purer, and the other colours differ, though not perhaps so
emphatically. The iron red of the Chinese, for instance, is thinner and
usually lighter in tone than the soft Indian red or thick sealing-wax
colour of the Japanese; and to those who are deeply versed in Oriental
art there is always the more subtle and less definable distinction, the
difference between the Chinese and Japanese touch and feeling.
Plate 108 is a fine specimen which shows the blend of Chinese motives
and the Japanese colouring.
The general character of the Chinese “Imari” is that of the K’ang Hsi
period, to which most of the existing specimens will be assigned; but
it is clear that the Chinese continued to use Japanese models in the
succeeding reign, for the last three items in the Imperial list of
porcelain made in the Yung Chêng period comprise wares “decorated in
gold and in silver in the style of the Japanese.”[322]