Page 190 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

their s"hapdeecobreaitnigona.pparTenhtalty unsuited to the " Haw-
is a matter of
thorn taste,

however. In respect to quality, there is nothing

primarily to choose between the three kinds, jars,

pots and vases.

In many specimens of " Hawthorn " the surface is

broken by white medallions, within which are painted

formal designs, floral subjects, mythical animals or per-

sonages, in blue. In such cases trie surface decoration

is generally of the petal-cluster type, and the painting

within the panels is weak and mechanical.
Marks of date are not found on " Hawthorns " of

the Kang-hsi era or, if they occur, are so rare as
;

to be virtually non-existent for collectors' purposes.

Sometimes a leaf of the artemisia, a conventional

lotus, or a representation of the Che plant (silk-worm
oak) is painted on the bottom of such specimens.

The absence of a year-mark is partially explained by

the fact that in 1667 the Emperor prohibited this
manner of distinguishing porcelains, and at the same

time ordered that verses, or historical quotations, re-

cording the actions of great men, should not be used

in decorating ware, since inscriptions that deserved

reverence were thus condemned to share the fate of

the perishable substance on which they were painted.
There is no record to indicate that this prohibition
was removed at a subsequent period of the same
reign. Yet reasons exist for suspecting that such was

the case. On specimens of seventeenth-century manu-

facture the Kang-hsi year-mark Ta-Tsing Kang-hsi

nien chi certainly occurs much more rarely than

might be expected, having regard to the great activity
of the keramic industry at that epoch. But, on the

other hand, it occurs too often to permit the supposi-

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