Page 431 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Nineteenth Century Porcelains 263

tuous little vessels with richly carved and pierced outer casing as
finely tooled as Su Chou or Peking lacquer.

We have already seen that rice-grain decoration was effectively

used at this time, and no doubt many specimens of the kindred
" lace work " were also made. In fact in a general classification

of Chinese porcelain it would be almost superfluous to separate
the Chia Ch'ing from the Ch'ien Lung groups.

Tao Kuang jt^ (1821-1850)

The reign of Tao Kuang is the last period of which collectors of
Chinese ceramics take any account. It is true that the general
deterioration which was already remarked in the previous reign
became more and more conspicuous towards the middle of the

nineteenth century. It seemed as though the wells of iqspiration
in China had dried up and the bankrupt arts continued to exist only
by virtue of their past. Curiously enough the same wave of deca-
dence was felt all the world over at this period, and if we compare
the porcelain of Tao Kuang with the contemporary English and
Continental productions we must confess that the decadence of
China was Augustan beside the early Victorian art. The Tao

Kuang porcelain in the main is saved from utter banality by the
high traditions on which it was grounded and by the innate skill

of the Chinese potters. Indeed there are not a few out of the
numerous specimens of this period in our collections which have
a certain individuality and distinction entitling them to a place
beside the eighteenth-century wares.

But, speaking generally, the porcelain is a weak edition of the
Yung Cheng types. The forms are correct but mechanical, the
monochromes are mere understudies of the fine old colours, and the
enamels are of exaggerated softness and weak in general effect.

There are numerous marked specimens of all varieties in the
Franks Collection. These include a blue and white vase with bronze
designs of ogre heads, etc., in the K'ang Hsi style, but painted in
pale, lifeless grey blue, and a bowl with lotus designs and symbols
surrounding four medallions with the characters shan kao shui

ch'ang'^ neatly painted in the same weak blue and signed by Wen
Lang-shan in the year 1847. Among the monochromes is a

dignified vase of bronze form with deep turquoise glaze dated 1844,

1 " The mountains are high, the rivers long."