Page 446 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

274 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

baluster- shaped vases with spreading mouth ; high-shouldered
vases with small mouth, the mei p'ing of the Ming period ; beakers
(ku) with slender body, swelling belt in the middle and flaring mouth

;

the so-called yen yen vase with ovoid body and high neck with trumpet
mouth, ^ which is used for some of the choicest K'ang Hsi decorations

(Plate 101); the Kuan yin^ vase of ovoid form with short neck
and spreading mouth ; the cylindrical vase with short straight neck
and spreading mouth (Plate 103), called by the French rouleau
and by the Chinese " paper-beater " {chih ch'ui pHng), whence our

name " club-shaped." A smaller form of the same is known to

the Chinese as yu ch'ui pHng (oil-beater vase).
There is besides the wide oval jar or potiche with dome-shaped

cover {tsun), and the more slender form known as Van, which often
has a lion or cKi-lin on the cover serving as a knob ; the tall cylinder
to hold arrows and the low cylinder for brushes, and numerous pots
and jars for various uses.

Most of these rounded forms have counterparts among the square
and polygonal vases which are made in moulds or built up by the
difficult process of joining together flat bats of clay. The square
vases made by the latter method were a source of much trouble to
the potters owing to the danger of imperfect jointing or of warping
in the kiln. Fig. 1 of Plate 104 illustrates an effective type of

the square vase with gracefully tapering body, the four sides of
which are so often appropriately decorated with the flowers of the
four seasons. Occasionally the angles are flattened, giving an
irregular octagonal form. Another form selected for sumptuous
decoration is the square vase with pendulous body and two dragon
handles figured on Plate 97 ; and another is the arrow stand and
square tube with deeply socketed stand and railed border (Plate 118).

The pilgrim bottle supplies an effective model with a flattened
circular body, small neck and foot, and loops on the periphery to
carry a cord. These loops tended to disappear when the form had
lost its first significance and was only regarded as a vase.

The list of Imperial wares made in the reign of T'ung Chih includes
vases for divining rods of square form with low round neck and base,
ornamented with pa kua designs in relief ; vases with apricot medal-
lions and tubular handles like Fig. 1 of Plate 123. Other familiar
types are the bag-shaped vases with the mouth tied with silk, melon

A^ less usual variety has the ovoid body actually surmounted by a beaker.

= See Bushell, 0. C. A., p. 797.