Page 263 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

parent green glaze. Until recently this spectacular ware had an
enormous vogue among foreign collectors, and, like certain other
Ch'ing enamels, still commands prices out of all proportion to its
aesthetic worth. Examples of both famille verte and famille noir
were sometimes adorned with Ch'eng-hua reign marks to show
how highly their makers regarded them. Toward the end of the
K'ang-hsi period, the robust vigour of the famille verte began to
yield to a new style dominated by a delicate rose-pink, which is
known in Europe as famille rose and which the Chinese call yang-
19$ Teapot. Famille verte porcelain with
ts'ai ("foreign colour"). It had been invented, about 1650, by An- enamels in Ku-yuek-hsuan style. Ch'ing
Dynasty, Ch'icn-lung period (1736-
dreas Cassius of Leyden, who succeeded in producing a rose-red
from gold chloride. A saucer dish in the Percival David Founda-
tion dated 1 72 1 must be one of the earliest Chinese examples of the
use of this colour, which was probably introduced by the Jesuits.
Thefamille rose came to its full flowering with the appointment of YUNG-CHENG
PERIOD WARES
Nien Hsi-yao as director of the imperial factories in 1726. Nien's
directorship is chiefly famous for its "imitation of the antique and
invention of novelties." As a typical example of the former we
have his exquisite copies of classical Sung wares, so perfect that a
Ju ware bottle now in the Percival David Foundation was for
many years accepted as a genuine Sung piece by the Palace Mu-
seum authorities, until its carefully concealed Yung-chcng mark

296 Bottle, copy ofJu ware. Porcelain
coveted with bluish-grey crackled glaze.
Ch'ing Dynasty, Yung-chcng period
(I71J-I73S)