Page 201 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

Another class of hard-paste porcelain decorated with

blue sous couverte, numerous and beautiful examples of

which were manufactured during the Kang-hsi era, is

that known to Western collectors as souffle, and called
in China Chui-ching-yao. The colouring matter was

applied by blowing it through a tube covered with

gauze. Thus the surface became covered with

speckles of colour, more or less minute and close,

showing a charming play of light and shade. M.
d'Entrecolles describes the process thus: "The

blue is fully prepared. Then a tube is taken, one

orifice of which has very fine gauze stretched over it.

The end of this tube is lightly dipped in the colour-

ing solution so that the gauze becomes saturated,

whereupon the workman blows through the tube

against the porcelain, of which the surface becomes

covered with little blue specks. This species of ware

is dearer and rarer than that not having its colour

because the execution of the process is very

souffle,

difficult if the requisite proportions are preserved."

Sometimes the piece received no other decoration

than this souffle blue, in which case it ranked as a

monochrome, and depended entirely upon the bril-

liancy and depth of its colour. In other instances

floral designs, landscapes, or figure subjects, were

sketched in gold upon the surface of the glaze. This

addition cannot be called a happy inspiration, es-

pecially as the gold, being inperfectly fixed at a low

temperature, and sometimes not fired at all, suggested

the idea of an accidental adjunct, and very soon dis-

appeared under friction, leaving only unsightly traces

of its presence. The fashion had descended from

the Ming dynasty, for in the imperial requisition

of the eighth year of Chia-ching (1529) it appears