Page 251 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

Perfume Boxes with fragrant flowers, carved in openwork
with fir-leaf brocades and with flowers of the seasons.

Jars with brocaded ground in round patterns, the flowers
of the four seasons, fruit, birds, and the eight precious

symbols.

Fan Boxes with dragons in clouds and arabesques.
Pencil Rests with mountain scenes in openwork.

Handkerchief Boxes with flowers emblematic of the four

seasons.

Slop Boxes with cloud dragons, arabesques, and flowers of

the four seasons.

Fish Bowls with dragons soaring into the clouds, ara-
besques, and fragrant plants.

The ubiquity of the dragon in the designs of this

period cannot fail to strike the reader. Figure sub-

jects also came into vogue, but they were not the
Mandarins and slender ladies familiar to Western col-

lectors : these belong to a later era. The Lung-ching

and Wan-li decorators chose the Taoist Immortals and
other mythical personages ; the " hundred boys at
play," or, in their historical scenes, warriors of fame.

Wares thus profusely decorated exhibited more of the
artisan than of the artist. Some small specimens pre-
sented technical features almost worthy of the dynasty's
best traditions, but in large pieces the pate was heavy
and coarse and the designs were clumsily executed.
The colours, however, were always not only rich and
full, but also combined and massed so to produce a
strong and harmonious effect. Immense quantities
of porcelain must have been produced. It is stated in

Dr. Bushell's " Chinese Porcelain before the Present
Dynasty," that " the imperial potteries were still at
Ching-te-chen, and it was the practice to appoint
eunuchs to superintend the manufacture and to bring

up the porcelain to Peking. They took with them

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