Page 386 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

234 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

specks (due to excess of iron), and in the best examples clouded
with passages of deep red. But these are only two examples of
skill displayed by the Ch'ien Lung potters in imitating artistic
effects in other materials. Special success was attained in repro-

ducing the many tints of old bronze and its metallic surface. Bright-

coloured patina was suggested by touches of flambe, and the effects
of gilding or gold and silver inlay were rendered by the gilder's
brush. The appearance of inlaid enamels was skilfully copied.
" In fact," to quote from the T'ao shuo,^ " among all the works
of art in carved gold, embossed silver, chiselled stone, lacquer,
mother-of-pearl, bamboo and wood, gourd and shell, there is not
one that is not now ^ produced in porcelain, a perfect copy of
the original piece." Nor is this statement much exaggerated, for
I have seen numerous examples in which grained wood, red lacquer,
green jade, bronze, and even mille fiori glass have been so closely
copied that their real nature was not detected without close

inspection.

Reverting to T'ang's achievements, we find special mention
made of the reproductions of Chiin yao which have been already
discussed in detail,'^ and of the revived manufacture of the large
dragon fish bowls. The latter are the great bowls which caused

such distress among the potters in the Wan Li period. They are

described in the T'ao lu ^ as being fired in specially constructed
kilns, and requiring no less than nineteen days to complete their

baking. The largest size is said to have measured 6 ft.^ in height,
with a thickness of 5 in. in the wall, one of them occupying an
entire kiln. The old Ming dragon bowl found by T'ang Ying ^ at
the factory was one of the smaller sizes, and measured 3 ft. in
diameter and 2 ft. in height. They were intended for the palace
gardens for keeping goldfish or growing water-lilies, and the usual
decoration consisted of Imperial dragons. They are variously
described as lung kang (dragon bowls), yu kang (fish bowls), and
ta kang (great bowls).

^ See Bushell's translation, op. cit., p. 6.
2 The T'ao shuo was published in 1774.
3 See vol. i., p. 119.
* See Julian, op. cit., p. 101, under the heading lung kang yao (Ifilns for the dragon

jars).

5 The Chinese foot as at present standardised is about two inches longer than the
English foot, and the Chinese inch is one-tenth of it.

6 See p. 58.