Page 289 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

French collectors. Over this were moulded floral

designs, scrolls, and geometrical patterns in white slip,
Athe effect being at once rich and soft.
rarer vari-

ety has mazarine blue ground. In old porcelains of

the latter class the tone of the blue is rich and pure,

but in more modern pieces it passes into a species of

slate-colour, or greyish blue. Many examples of the
last variety are to be met with among the productions

of the Taou-kivang and subsequent eras. They are
generally coarse, clumsy porcelains, evidently manu-
factured for use rather than ornament. The white

slip fashion of decoration probably had its origin

about the close of the productive period of the Ming

dynasty ; that is to say, towards the end of the six-

teenth century. It is certain that glazes of light

golden brown or deep coffee colour were then in

vogue, and these, with white slip decoration, are to

be found on pieces that exhibit all the characteristics

of later Ming porcelain.

It would be a hopeless task to attempt the enumer-

ation of all the fashions developed by Chinese kera-

mists in the decoration of enamelled porcelains. The

principal types only have been mentioned above.

That Chinese decorative fashions were largely in-

fluenced by European intercourse from the Kang-hsi
era downwards is beyond question. In the " Annals

of Fu-liang," quoted in the Tao-lu the various enam-
y

els and ancient porcelains produced or imitated at

Ching-te-chen in the eighteenth century are cata-

logued. It is there recorded that the Chinese potters
" imitated European vases having figures chiselled or

moulded," and that "in the manner of painting, or

applying enamels to these vases as well as to other

pieces, they copied closely the European style of art."

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