Page 198 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

Modern potters were not competent to produce suc-
cessful imitations of work requiring so much skill.

It is remarkable that only in recent years have the
merits and beauties of soft-paste blue-and-white porce-
lain obtained recognition outside China, or even from

foreign virtuosi residing in China. Many fine collec-
tions of various porcelains have been made by men

whose commercial, diplomatic, or consular duties
held them in China for a term of years, and whose
tastes led them to utilize the golden opportunity that
a sojourn in that country afforded two decades ago.
But in few, if any, of these collections did the prince

of blue-and-white porcelains hold a representative

place. Specimens of medium quality were indeed
present, but so small was their number and so slight

the consideration bestowed on them, that their pos-
sessors had evidently acquired them accidentally, and
without any real cognisance of their excellence.

This singular fact may have been due, in part, to the

comparatively high prices that specimens of Kai-pien-

yao always commanded in the Chinese market. A

native collector seldom thought of seeking any other
kind of blue-and-white ware. Hard-paste pieces, ex-
cept of the egg-shell type, had little attraction for

him : however fine their colour and rich their deco-

ration, they did not represent really choice porcelains,
according to the standards that he applied. But for
soft-paste porcelains of high quality and celebrated

eras, he was prepared to pay prices that would have
seemed quite extravagant to Western collectors in

their uninstructed days ; and, as a necessary conse-

quence, traffic in such ware was confined to the

Chinese themselves. But when closer and more in-

telligent scrutiny began to be directed to the subject,

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