Page 330 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

194 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

making with certainty that which chance has produced in this sohtary
case. This is the way they learnt to make porcelain with the brilliant
black glaze called ou kim {wu chin) ; the caprice of the kiln deter-
mined this research, and the result was successful."

It is interesting to read how this specimen of ftambe resulted
from the misfiring of a copper red glaze, no doubt a sang de hceuf
for in the most common type of flambe red (see Plate 123, Fig. 1)

passages of rich sang de bostif emerge from the welter of mingled
grey, blue and purple tints. The last part of d'Entrecolles' note
was prophetic, for in the succeeding reigns the potters were able
to produce the flambe glaze at will.

There are, besides, many other strangely coloured glazes which

can only be explained as misfired monochromes of the grand feu,
those of mulberry colour, slaty purple, and the like, most of which
were probably intended for maroon or liver red, but were altered
by some caprice of the fire. But it would be useless to enumerate
these erratic tints, which are easily recognised by their divergence
from the normal ceramic colours.

The French have always been partial to monochrome porcelains.
In the eighteenth century they bought them eagerly to decorate
their hotels and chateaux, and enshrined them in costly metal
mounts. But as the style of the mounting, rococo in the early part
of the century, neo-classical in the latter part, was designed to
match the furniture of the period, the oriental shapes were often
sacrificed to the European fashion. Dark blue and celadon green
were favourite colours, if we may judge by surviving examples,
and to-day enormous prices are paid for Chinese monochroines
fitted with French ormolu mounts by the Court goldsmiths, such as
Gouthiere, Caffieri, and the rest.^ But these richly mounted pieces
have more interest as furniture and metal work, and the ceramophile
regards them askance for their foreign and incongruous trappings,
which disturb the pure enjoyment of the porcelain.^

^ See M. Seymour de Ricci in the introduction to the Catalogue of a Collection of
Mounted Porcelain belonging to E. M. Hodgkins, Paris, 1911, -where much interesting
information has been collected on the subject of French mounts and their designers.
He quotes also from the Livre-journal de Lazare Duvaux marchand-bi/outier ordinaire
du Roy (1748-1758), which includes a hst of objects mounted for Madame de Pompa-
dour and others, giving the nature of the wares and the cost of the work.

* Persian, Indian, and occasionally even Chinese metal mounts are found on porcelain ;
and Mr. S. E. Kennedy has a fine enamelled vase of the K'ang Hsi period with spirited
dragon handles of old Chinese bronze.