Page 231 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

to the fact that the porcelain originally came to

Japan from Canton, and was therefore supposed to

be the product of factories in or near that city. But

the ware had nothing to do with either Nankin or

Canton. It was manufactured at Ching-te-chen, not

in the imperial factories, however, but in those of the

people. Its special appellation in the West and in

Japan must not be taken as indicating radical dis-

similarity from ordinary blue-and-white porcelains.

The difference is merely an affair of quality. The

pate, though exceptionally thin, does not suggest the

idea of a fine manufacture the glaze is vitreous
;

rather than lustrous, and has no claim to solidity ;

the decoration, though elaborate and profuse, is of

the mechanical type, and the blue, if not impure, is

thin and shallow. In the case of much of this

" Nankin " ware the subjects chosen by the deco-

rators were evidently influenced by European sug-

gestion. Some of the designs closely resemble the

formal floral scrolls of Delft and Sevres, and others

display distinctly Indian or Persian features. The

disposition of the potter to construct pieces of poly-

gonal section and to break the surface by fluting or

convex panels, seems also a distinct reflection of for-

eign fashions. It is not likely that orders for blue-

and-white porcelain were often given by European

merchants in China during the last century. Enam-

elled wares would rather have been chosen. But

orders for the latter would of course have been exe-

cuted at the people's factories, not at those of the

Emperor, and the makers of blue-and-white porce-

lain may thus have been indirectly inspired. There

is no doubt, too, that during the reign of Kang-hsi

when the propagandists of Christianity possessed

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