Page 72 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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32 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

medan blue if not sufficiently diluted with the native mineral cobalt.
The inscriptions are mainly pious Moslem texts, but on the cover

of the ink slab is the appropriate legend, " Strive for excellence
in penmanship, for it is one of the keys of livelihood," and on the

brush rest is the Persian word Khdma-ddn (pen rest). In the same
case are three cylindrical vases, apparently brush pots, decorated
in the same style but unmarked. One has dark INIohammedan
blue and probably belongs to the next reign. The other two, I
venture to think, are earlier. They are both of the same type of
ware, a fine white material, which takes a brow^nish red tinge in
the exposed parts, and the glaze, which is thick and of a soft green-
ish tint, has a tendency to scale off at the edges. The bases are
unglazed and show the marks of a circular support. The larger
piece is remarkably thick in the wall, and has a light but vivid
blue of the Mohammedan sort ; the smaller piece is not quite so
stoutly proportioned, but the blue is peculiarly soft, deep, and
beautiful, though it has run badly into the glaze, and where it has
run it has changed to a dark indigo.^ One would say that this
is the Mohammedan blue, almost pure ; and if, as I have suggested,
these two specimens are earlier types, they can only belong to the
Hsiian Te period.

Another blue and white example wdth Cheng Te mark in the
British Museum is of thinner make and finer grain ; but, as it is a
saucer-dish, this refinement was only to be expected. It is painted
in a fine bold style, worthy of the best Ming traditions, with dragons
in lotus scrolls, but the blue is duller and greyer in tone than on

the pieces just described.

Two specimens of Cheng Te ware are figured in Hsiang's Album,

one a tripod libation cup of bronze form and the other a lamp sup-
ported by a tortoise, and the glaze of both is " deep yellow, like
steamed chestnuts."

The Cheng Te mark is far from common, but it occurs persistently
on certain types of polychrome porcelain. One is a saucer-dish

with carved dragon designs under a white glaze, the depressions of
the carving and a few surrounding details being washed over with
light green enamel. The design consists of a circular medallion

1 A somewhat similar effect is seen on the little flask ascribed to the Hsiian TS period.

See p. 14.
» Op. cit,, Nos. 52 and 80. These are the latest specimens which are given by Hsiang

Yiian-p'ien.