Page 292 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

170 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

—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

iov famille verte colouring. Occasionally we find the enamels actually

painted over a powder blue or an ordinary blue glaze, but the com-

bination 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

Wanintegral part of the general design as in the 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 ex-

emplified by a pair of bottles in the Salting Collection which have blue

patterns on the neck and famille verte decoration on the body, con-

sisting of landscape panels surrounded by brocade patterns.^ 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.

There is one group of porcelain which combines the underglaze

blue with on-glaze enamels, and which deserves special notice if

* Similar bottles in the Drucker Collection have the " G " mark.