Page 255 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

the Cheng-hiL-a fashions. The wares of both these

potters belong, therefore, to a category distinct, in

respect of style, from the characteristic Lung-ching and
Wan-li enamelled porcelains.

It has already been recorded that with the close
of the Wan-li era (1619) the porcelain manufacture

of the Ming dynasty ceased to flourish. Nor does it

seem to have sensibly recovered its previous prosperity
until the Tsing Tartars had occupied the throne for a
considerable time. In fact there is an interval of 42
years, from 1619 to 1661, concerning the keramic
productions of which little can be stated with cer-
tainty. Occasionally specimens of enamelled or
blue-and-white porcelains are found which strongly
resemble the Wan-li genre, having heavy, somewhat
coarse pate, and decoration of a brilliant but not over-
refined character. These pieces may, indeed, have
been produced at the Kang-hsi factories before the
latter had begun to develop the technical excellence
and artistic taste that made their chefs-d'oeuvre so
famous. But the probability is that they belong to

the last twenty-five years of the Ming dynasty, or
to the first era Shun-chih (16441661) of the
Tsing. The point is not of much importance. The

very rare surviving specimens of enamelled porcelain

that bear the Shun-chih mark show the era to be un-

worthy of special attention from a keramic point of

view.

With the accession of the great emperor Kang-hsi
(16621722) the imperial factories passed under the

direction of the celebrated Tang, and the manufac-

ture of enamelled porcelains, in common with that
of all other wares, received a great impulse. The

quality of the pate soon began to show an improve-

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