Page 408 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

246 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

Gilding was, of course, freely employed, and, to a lesser extent,
silvering. Elaborate gilt patterns are found covering dark blue,
powder blue, lustrous black, bronze green, pale celadon, and iron
red monochrome grounds ; and the finer enamelled vases and bowls
are often finished off with gilt edging, which does not seem to have

been much used before this period, though traces of gilding are some-
times seen on the lustrous brown edges of the older plates and

bowls.

The manual dexterity of the Ch'ien Lung potters is shown in
openwork carving and pierced designs on lanterns, perfume boxes,
insect cages, spill vases, etc., but more especially on the amazing

vases with free-working belts, revolving necks, or decorated inner
linings which can be turned round behind a pierced outer casing,
chains with movable links, and similar tours de force.

There are, beside, two types of ornament dating from this period
which demand no little manual skill. These are the lacework and
rice grain. In the former the design is deeply incised in the body
and the whole covered with a pale celadon green glaze, and it is
usually applied to small vases and tazza-shaped cups, the pattern
consisting of close and intricate Ch'ien Lung scrollwork. The
resultant effect is of a very delicate green lace pattern, which appears
as a partial transparency when held to the light (Plate 128, Fig. 2).
The rice-grain ornament carries the same idea a step farther, for
the incised pattern is cut right through the body, leaving small
perforations to be filled up by the transparent glaze. Only small
incisions could be made, and these generally took the lenticular
form which the French have likened to grains of rice (Plate 128,
Fig. 1). The patterns made in this fashion are naturally limited.
Star-shaped designs or flowers with radiating petals are the com-
monest, though occasionally the transparencies are made to conform
to the lines of painted decoration and even of dragon patterns.

Both ordinary and steatitic porcelain are used for this treat-
ment ; and the ware is either plain white or embellished with
underglaze blue borders and designs, and occasionally with enamels.
The effect is light and graceful, especially when transmitted light
gives proper play to the transparencies.

As to the antiquity of this decoration in China, I can find no

evidence of its existence before the eighteenth century, and I am

inclined to think it was even then a late development. There are
two cups in the Hippisley Collection with apocryphal Hsiian Te