Page 195 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

tion that the imperial veto held good throughout the

reign. Kang-hsi had only occupied the throne five

years when the prohibition in question was issued.

It is impossible to believe that the numerous and un-

doubtedly genuine surviving examples of porcelains

bearing the mark of the epoch were manufactured

during those five years. This observation applies,

however, to wares other than those decorated with

the Hawthorn Pattern. On them a year-mark is sel-

dom, if ever, found. In the great majority of cases

they are without a mark of any description, the bot-

toms being quite plain, or having only a blue ring

within the rim.

The " Hawthorn " is here placed first
Pattern

among the blue-and-white porcelains of the Kang-hsi

era, not because it is technically entitled to that rank,

but because of its merits from a decorative point of

view, the reputation it justly enjoys among European

and American collectors, and its special connection

with the p"erHiaowd.thoIrtnsma"ybbeelonsgafetloy asserted that all
era,
really fine the Kang-hsi

and that their manufacture virtually came to an end

at its close.

The master-piece of the time, in blue-and-white,

is the Kai-picn-yaO) or soft-paste craquele porcelain,

which now began to be produced again in all its for-
mer beauty. Of this charming ware so much has

been already said that a few words will suffice here.

The Kai-pien-yao of the Kang-hsi era is scarcely, if at

all, inferior to its predecessor of the Ming dynasty.
The only immediately perceptible difference is that
the pate of the former does not show the distinctly

red tinge peculiar to Hsuan-te and Cheng-hwa speci-

mens. It is evident that slightly different materials

VOL. IX. IO 145