Page 247 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

then esteemed, and that the number or pieces having
enamelled designs was small. In support of this

statement there is the evidence of the Imperial

Requisitions. Among the wares enumerated in the

Requisition for the year 1529 (translated by Dr.
Bushell), there is not one piece fairly belonging to

the Wu-tsai-ki class.

Another important style of decoration was of the

kind known to Western connoisseurs as " reserved."

The enamels used to depict the design were not super-
posed ; each was run to the edge of the other. Of
this variety the best known and not the least beauti-

ful had blue designs sous couverte surrounded by yellow
enamel, which covered the whole of the surface ex-

cept the part occupied by the design. Great skill

was needed to apply enamels in this manner. In

rarer cases the places of the two colours were inter-

changed ; the design being in yellow enamel and the

body of the vase blue. To manufacture such pieces

the potter must have contrived that after the stoving

au grandfeu by which the blue was developed

the design should emerge white, so as to receive the

yellow enamel, which was fused by a second stoving
Aau petit feu.
deep brown, or chocolate, enamel

was similarly employed in the spaces between yellow

or blue designs. Finally, white-slip decoration was

applied to the biscuit at the same time as blue (sous

and both were covered with colourless, trans-

couverte),

lucid glaze before stoving. The Imperial Requisition

for the year 1529 includes all these varieties with two

exceptions. It runs thus :

Rice Bowls with blue ground surrounding yellow phoe-
nixes flying through fairy flowers.

VOL. IX. 13 I 93