Page 242 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

146 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

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. Some-
times 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 bceuf red, even dis-
playing occasional crackle ; on other pieces again a " peach bloom "
tint is developed.! On two of the best examples in the Franks Collec-
tion, 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 back-
ground 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
Cheng 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 Cheng 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

^ On exceptional examples the red seems to have turned almost black, and in some
cases it seems to have penetrated the glaze and turned brown.