Page 393 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Ch'ien Lung (1736-1795) 239

lavender and turquoise. And among the blue enamels which were
sometimes used as monochromes at this time is an opaque deep

blue of intense lapis lazuli tone.

Among the yellows, in addition to the transparent glazes of

the older type, there are opaque enamels, including the lemon
yellow with rough granular texture, the waxen ^ sulphur yellow
which often displays lustrous patches, and the crackled mustard

yellow.

Among the pmples and browns there are few changes to note,
though much of the greenish brown crackle probably belongs to

this time ; and there is little to be said about the white wares except
that both the true porcelain, whether eggshell or otherwise, and
the opaque crackled wares of the Ting yao type were still made
with exquisite refinement and finish. The uneven glaze surface,
happily compared to " orange peel," was much affected on the

Ch'ien Lung whites in common with many other wares of the time.
But there were many new enamel monochromes formed by blend-

ing the famille rose colours, shades of opaque pink, lavender, French
grey, and green, which are sometimes delicately engraved with close
scroll patterns all over the surface, a type which is known by the
clumsy name of graviata. These enamel grounds are often inter-
rupted by medallions with underglaze blue or enamelled designs,
as on the vase illustrated in Plate 125, Fig. 4, and on the so-called
Peking bowls ; or, again, they are broken by reserved floral designs
which are daintily coloured in famille rose enamels. But we are
already drifting from the monochromes into the painted porcelains
of the period, and we shall return to the Peking bowls presently.

With regard to the Ch'ien Lung blue and white, little need be
added to what was said of this kind of ware in the last chapter.
It was still made in considerable quantity, and T'ang Ying, in his
twenty descriptions of the manufacture of porcelain, supplies a
commentary to three pictures ^ dealing with the "collection of the
blue material," " the selection of the mineral," and " the paint-
ing of the round ware in blue." From these we learn that large
services were made in blue and white, and the decoration was still

rigidly subdivided, one set of painters being reserved for the out-

^ Possibly the tint named in the T'ao shuo (Bushel!, op. cit., p. 5). " They are
coloured wax yellow, tea green, gold brown, or the tint of old Lama books," in

reference to incense burners of this period.

2 Nos, 8, 9 and 11. See Bushell, Tao shuo, op. cit., pp. 16-19.