Page 182 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

are the instances of potters putting their own names

on their works. Thus there is no hope of identify-
ing the maker of a piece, and the fact that such and

such great artists lived at such and such eras, possesses

only historic interest.

With the close of the Wan-li era (1619), the pro-
duction of Ming porcelains may be said to have
terminated. The dynasty continued to occupy the

throne until 1644, but its last two decades were so

disturbed by struggles with the Tartars that the

keramic industry was virtually deprived of imperial

patronage, as well as of the custom of the upper

classes. It is, however, mentioned in the Tao-lu that

during these years of comparative inactivity there

were produced, at the factories in Siao-nan street,

Ching-te-chen, various porcelains of small size. They
"
were called Siao-nan-yao" after the place of their

manufacture, but sometimes also Hia-moh-yaoy or
"
frog-sized wares," in allusion to their tiny, squat

form. Their pate had a yellow tinge ; they were
thin, but very solid, and in such of them as had blue

decoration sous couverte, the designs were limited to

flowers and leaves of the epidendrum (Chinese, Lan^
a plant that has always been highly esteemed by

Chinese and Japanese or to one or two circles

round their outer rim. Specimens of this insignificant

character do not redeem the general unproductive-

ness of the era as to blue-and-white porcelain.

The dynasty of Tsing Tartars, now ruling in China,

was established at Peking in 1644. During the first

reign, Shun-chih (16451661), no marked revival of
Aart industries seems to have taken place.
certain

quantity of blue-and-white hard-paste porcelain was,

however, manufactured. Such specimens as survive

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