Page 28 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

face. Generally, they do not convey the lively impression of arrested movement or the depth of changing color
found in the best early Kangxi examples. 16
There is a range of sizes and shapes among the oxblood vessels; some are large and showy, others small-
er and more delicate. A few are known as individual works of art and through the decades of collecting have
acquired personal names, such as "The Flame" (1942.9.528) and "The Fire Cloud" (1942.9.527).
The glaze known in the West as peachbloom (and in China as jiangdou hong you) is more difficult to
produce than oxblood. Thinner and paler than oxblood, it is more clouded or mottled than streaked. The colors
of the glaze are uneven and patchy, varying from soft pink to rosy red, with occasional areas of mossy green. In
this ware, and in others in China's long ceramic history, various effects that appear random and accidental were
often actually planned. It is possible that the first peachbloom coloration was accidentally produced when the fir-
ing atmosphere fluctuated between oxidation and reduction. Later, the effects could be controlled using one of
several versions of the process. In one method, described by Rose Kerr, metallic copper was sandwiched between
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layers of colorless glaze. The wares were fired in both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres. The green color was
created when some of the copper migrated to the surface and was oxidized.
The peachbloom glaze was most often used on small pieces, in particular for accessories associated with
the scholar's desk, and hence, on the ware destined for the use of the literati as well as the imperial court.
Necessary adjuncts to the studio activities of Chinese scholars were pots to hold water for grinding ink and wash-
ing brushes, and boxes for red seal paste. In all there are eight so-called prescribed shapes. 18
These wares appear to have been made in a very strict manner, having little technical variation within
each shape. They display a consistency in the application of glaze, the manner of inscription of the Kangxi reign-
marks, and their dimensions. Delicate, refined in execution, without intricacy of form, subtle and quiet in color
variations, peachbloom vessels were meant for the discriminating taste of connoisseurs.
Apple-green glaze was produced by covering the white porcelain body with a high-fired pale gray base
glaze usually characterized as "Guan" or "Ge" type (crackled glazes traditionally ascribed to the Song dynasty).
The outside of the vessel was then coated with a semitransparent copper-lead glaze that was fixed by an addi-
tional low temperature firing. The brilliant emerald green, through which the darkened crackle of the base glaze
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shows, may have evolved from the darker mottled green enamels of the early Kangxi period. This ware was pop-
ular in China through the nineteenth century. 20
The copper oxide turquoise glaze was first introduced into China from Persia during the Yuan dynasty,
even though rare occurrences of a turquoise-colored glaze appeared as early as the eighth century in the Tang
dynasty. In West Asia the glaze had been used for several centuries. It appeared again in China in the late
fifteenth century after an unexplained hiatus of about one hundred years. With improved technology in the late
seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, the often unstable glaze was more easily controlled, so could be used
with greater frequency.

COBALT
As noted above, cobalt blue appeared among the low-fired glazes of the Tang dynasty and has persisted until
today. The perfection of cobalt oxide as a pigment for underglaze painted decoration occurred in the fourteenth
century, during the Yuan dynasty. Blue-and-white wares of the Ming dynasty earned a worldwide reputation.
Cobalt was used in monochrome glazes as well as in the background glaze of polychrome wares, as seen in the
four fish bowls from the Widener collection (1942.9.640-643). It was an expensive mineral, especially during cer-
tain periods when the finest ore was imported. Very small amounts were needed for effect, and the gradations of
color could easily be regulated. The blues produced ranged from pale to dark and muted to brilliant, depending
on the amount of pigment, the addition of various fluxing oxides, and the manner of application.

12 D E C O R A T I V E A R T S