Page 445 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Porcelain Shapes in the Ch'ing Dynasty 273

the Chinese potters, but they were specially affected in the
archaising period of Ch'ien Lung.

In the Western judgment, however, which is unbiased by the

associations of these antique forms, the true pottery shapes, made

on the wheel, will appear far more attractive ; for nothing can
surpass the simple rounded forms which sprang to life beneath the

deft fingers of the Chinese thrower. Their simplicity, grace, and

perfect suitability for their intended uses have commended them

as models to the Western potter far more congenial than the cold

perfection of the Greek vases. Naturally they vary in quality with

the skill and taste of the individual, but a high level of manual
skill ruled among the Chinese potters, and their wheel-work rarely

fails to please.

It would be useless to attempt to exhaust all the varieties of

wheel- made forms. Many of them are due to slight alterations of

line according to the caprice of the thrower. It will be enough

to enumerate the principal types and to note a few of the more

significant changes which came in at ascertained periods. By com-

paring the illustrations in different parts of this book, and better

still, by comparing the specimens in some well classified collection,

the reader will soon learn to notice the periodical changes of shape.

To take the familiar bottle-shaped vases as an instance, there is

probably no shape on which more numerous changes have been

rung, nor one which is more susceptible to the individual touch
;

and yet the trained eye will generally distinguish the K'ang Hsi

bottle from the later forms, though the distinction is often more

subtle than that which separates the typical K'ang Hsi form

(Plate 123, Fig. 2) from that with depressed body and straight

wide neck (Plate 128, Fig. 3), which is characteristic of the Ch'ien

Lung period.

The K'ang Hsi bottles vary in themselves in length and slender-
ness of neck, and in the form of the body, which may be globular,

ovoid, barrel shaped or pear shaped. Again they are often of double
or even triple gourd shape, or plain with a bulbous swelling on
the upper part of the neck or actually at the mouth. The last variety
are called " garlic-shaped " bottles by the Chinese. The normal types
are used to hold a single spray or a flowering branch, but there are
others with slender necks tapering to a point which are designed

for sprinkling perfumes and are generally kno^^^l as sprinklers.

Of flower vases there are numerous varieties : egg-shaped vases
;

—II 2 J