Page 339 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Yung Cheng Period (1723-1735) 203

is easily distinguished from the Ming type, which is greener in tone
and has the appearance of melting snow by transmitted light.

The Yung Cheng period is not conspicuous for blue and white
porcelain. The perfection of the famille rose colours and the
growing demand for enamelled wares seem to have withdrawn
the attention of the potters from their old speciality. Marked
examples of Yung Cheng blue and white are so uncommon that

Ait is difficult to estimate the merits of the w^are from them.

saucer dish in the British Museum shows the familiar pattern of

a prunus spray reserved in white in a marbled blue ground but
;

though the ware itself preserves much of the K'ang Hsi character,
the blue is dull and grey, and wanting in the vivacity and depth
of the old models. One would say that little care had been spent
on the refining of the blue, and without the old perfection of material
the K'ang Hsi style, with its broad washes of colour, was doomed
to failure. Considerations of this sort may have led the painters
to abandon the washes in favour of pencilling in fine lines, a
method apparent on the armorial porcelain which can be dated to
this period. Such a treatment of the blue was admirably suited
to small objects. Indeed it was the usual style of decoration on
the steatitic porcelain, of which many excellent examples belonging
to this time are to be found among the snuff bottles, vermilion
boxes, and the small, artistic furniture of the writing table. On
large specimens the effect is thin and weak.

On the other hand the Yung Cheng potters, who excelled in re-

producing the antique, were most successful in their imitation of
the old Ming blue and whites. The Imperial list ^ includes such
items as " reproductions of the pale blue painted designs of Ch'eng

Hua," and of the dark blue of Chia Ching. An interesting example

of a Ming reproduction is a bowl in the British Museum, which is
painted on the exterior with the old design of ladies walking in a
garden by candle light. ^ In spite of its Yung Cheng mark this
piece is obviously a copy of a Ming model. The porcelain is
white and thick, and the glaze, which is of greenish tint, has a

peculiar soft-looking surface, while the blue design inside is of

characteristic Ming colour, though that of the exterior is scarcely

so successful.

1 See p. 225, Nos. 41 and 42.
2 Cf. p. 25, where "high-flaming silver candle lighting up rosy beauty" is explained

in this sense among the Ch'eng Hua designs.