Page 32 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

4 CHINESE PORCELAIN.

"
of which took its name, from the hill
granite, lofty ridge,"
where it was found ; while the other was white, hard, fusible
that had to be in mortars worked water-
quartz pounded by
Both substances had to be washed and reduced
power. by
suspension and settlement in water to a paste, which was
moulded into cakes or bricks for conveyance to the potteries.
The kaolin is said to have been worked by four different
families, whose names were stamped on their respective cakes.
On arrival at the manufactory, these cakes had again to be
ground up with water, so that the kaolin and pe-tun-tse might
be mixed in to the
proportions according paste required. Soap-
stone and other substitutes are said to have been used at times,
probably with a view to reducing cost more than anything else.
The glaze, we are told, was obtained by mixing the ashes of a
fern that grew in the neighbourhood with pounded pe-tun-tse,
thus forming a silicate of flint and alkali. The Emperor Keen-
sent an artist from to make of the whole
lung Peking drawings
process of the manufacture of porcelain as conducted at King-
te-chin. These, twenty in number, commenced with the pro-
of kaolin and as also the of the
curing pe-tun-tse, preparing
fern-ash and other ingredients for making the glaze. Forming
the ware by lathe or mould was shown, as also the examination
of the paste before firing, all inequalities being removed by
hand, and the pieces so taken off being pounded and worked
into a milky consistence, to be mixed by the painters with
their enamel colours. Then came the painting of the pieces in
all its details. The earthen cases for baking the ware in, as
and closed, were illustrated, and
also the furnaces, open
finally,
the ware with straw and it in tubs for
binding packing ready
sale, the series ending with the ceremony of the feast of the god
of the furnaces, whose legend is as follows : Several models were
sent from Peking to be copied at King-te-chin, but the shapes
and sizes were such that they defied all the efforts of the work-
men to reproduce them. The more the failures the greater was
the desire of the then emperor to possess the pieces ordered, so
rewards were promised and punishments freely administered,
but all to no Reduced to one of the workmen
purpose. despair,
threw himself into the furnace and was consumed therein, but
the ware then in course of baking came out perfect as required
so the unfortunate workman became the of
by the palace, god