Page 180 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

But in the Wan-li period, when four thousand flower-

vases of various shapes and sizes and five thousand jars
with covers appear in the imperial requisition at one
time, the manufacturers of hard-paste porcelain seem
to have frequently turned out pieces of imposing pro-
portions. Vases of huge dimensions had, indeed, been

manufactured at an earlier date. The Tao-lu states

that special kilns existed at Ching-te-chen for baking

monster bowls, vases, and jars, as much as six feet
high and having biscuit five inches thick. Some of

these were decorated with floral designs, but the ma-
jority had dragons among clouds or waves, a subject
repeated ad nauseam upon Chinese porcelains of all
periods. They were stoved one or two at a time, and
their baking occupied nine days. During the first
seven days a slow fire was kept up, with the object of

gradually expelling the moisture contained in the

porcelain mass. Then for two days and two nights

the furnace was raised to such a temperature that the
porcelain became perfectly red and afterwards white.
After this the fire was extinguished, and the aperture
of the kiln having been sealed, ten days were allowed

for the cooling process. Of these monster pieces

some survive in Chinese collections, but few have

found their way Westward. At what era their manu-

facture was first undertaken the records do not say,

but it appears to have been continued down to the

end of the Wan-li period (1619). Specimens of
smaller but still imposing dimensions dating from the
latter period are familiar to American and European

collectors. They are, for the most part, fish-bowls

and jars decorated with dragons ; their pate dense and

of medium quality, their glaze lustrous but lacking

purity, and the blue sous couverte of deep, purplish

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