Page 407 - 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) 245

fine, and they are well worthy of the Imperial use to which they
were mostly destined.

The mention of a delicate greenish white enamel on these medal-
lion bowls reminds us that this colour is used with exquisite effect
for borders of floral design, or even for the main decoration of tea
and coffee wares ; and there is a little plate in the British Museum
with Ch'ien Lung mark on which it appears with a peculiar chilled
or shrivelled surface as a background for painted designs in iron

red.

There is a large class of enamelled porcelain, doubtless made
chiefly for export, which found its way into our country houses in

the last half of the eighteenth century. It is painted with panels of
figure subjects in which rose pink and iron red are uncompromisingly
blended, and the space surrounding the panels is filled with composite
designs of blue and white with passages of pink scale diaper or
feathery gilt scrolls broken by small vignettes in which a bird on
a bough, insects, growing plants or fragments of landscape are
painted in camaieu pink, red or sepia. In some cases the panels
are framed v/ith low, moulded reliefs, which extend into the border
spaces, and the groundwork in these parts is powdered with tiny

raised dots. The wares include large punch bowls, bottle-shaped
ewers with their basins, and sets of five vases, two of which are
beakers and three covered jars with lion knobs, ovoid or square,
and sometimes of eggshell thinness. Others again have their panels
enclosed by wreaths of flowers and foliage or " rat and vine pattern "
in full relief, and many of them have a glaze of lumpy, " orange
peel " texture. The name " Mandarin " has been given to these

wares because the central figure subjects usually contain person-
ages in official dress ; and the large punch bowls brought back by
the tea-merchants are included in this group, though the mandarin
figures in the panels are in this case often replaced by European

subjects.

Elaborately moulded and pierced ornament coloured in famille
rose enamels often appears on the table ware of this period, a familiar
example being the lotus services in which the motive of the pink
lotus flower is expressed partly by moulding and partly by paint-
ing, the tendrils and buds being utilised for feet and handles ; and
there are elegant famille rose teapots which have outer casings with
panels of prunus, bamboo and pine carved in openwork in the style

of the Yi-hsing pottery.