Page 482 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

3o6 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

have been indiscriminately added to later wares, the careful copies

and imitations of true Ming types are comparatively few. Among

the imitative triumphs of the Yung Cheng potters a few specialties

are named, such as blue and white of the Hsiian Te and the Chia

Ching periods, and the enamelled decoration of the Ch'eng Hua
and Wan Li, but reference has already been made to these in their

respective chapters. The modern Chinese potters make indifferent

reproductions of Ming types ; and the most dangerous are those
of the Japanese, who from the eighteenth century onward seem

to have taken the sixteenth century Chinese porcelains as their

model. The Chia Ching and Wan Li marks are common on these

reproductions, which often catch the tone and spirit of the Ming

Aware with disquieting exactitude. well-trained eye and a know-

ledge of the peculiarities of Japanese workmanship are the only

protection against this type of imitation.

The high esteem in which the K'ang Hsi porcelains are now

held has naturally invited imitation and fraud. The ordinary

modern specimen with a spurious K'ang Hsi mark is, as a rule,

feeble and harmless, and even the better class of Chinese and

Japanese imitations of the blue and white and enamelled porce-

lains of this period are, as a rule, so wide of the mark as to deceive
only the inexperienced. Many frauds, however, have been per-
petrated with French copies of famille verte, of famille rose " ruby-

back " dishes, and of vases with armorial decoration. These are

cleverly made, but the expert will see at once that the colours and

the drawing lack the true Oriental quality, and that the ware itself

is too white and cold. Clever copies of Oriental porcelain, especi-
ally of the famille rose, have also been made at Herend, in Hungary.

But perhaps the most dangerous Continental copies are some of the

French-made monochromes of dark blue and lavender colours,

with or without crackle, fitted with ormolu mounts in eighteenth

century style, which conceal the tell-tale base. Monochromes are,

as a rule, the most difficult porcelains to date, and the well-made

modern Chinese and Japanese sang de hoeuf, apple green, and peach

bloom are liable to cause trouble, especially when the surface has

been carefully rubbed and given the appearance of wear and usage.

The expert looks to the truth of the form, the finish of the base,

and the character of the clay exposed at the foot rim, and judges

if in these points the piece comes up to the proper standard.

But without doubt the most insidious of all the fraudulent wares