Page 137 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Wan Li (1573-1619) 73

A freely drawn figure of a man or woman usually in garden sur-

roundings, 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 di-awings 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 Avith 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), ^ and a beau-

tiful specimen, also a bowl, with silver-gilt mount of about 1585,

is illustrated by Mr. Perzynski.^ The characteristic designs of this

ware are commonplace on the Persian pottery of the early seven-

teenth 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 pic-

^ See Franks Catalogue, No. 763.
" Burlington Magazine, March, 1913, p. 310. See also Hainliofer und der Kunst-
sclirank Gustav Adolfs, op. cit., Plate 69, where a set of dishes of India lacquer is
illustrated, each mounted in the centre with a roundel of this type of porcelain. These
dishes are mentioned in a letter dated 1628.

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