Page 23 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

INTRODUCTION. 273

ceramic industry received fresh vigour, although, no doubt, it
took some years to arrive at that standard of excellence for
which this is noted. It is celebrated for the
period chiefly
fine of
quality its "blue and white" and "famille verte,"
which latter belongs almost exclusively thereto; while, in
" " "
addition to blue and the
powdered famille noire," great
attention was to the of with various
paid covering porcelain
coloured glazes, those known as "sang de bceuf" and "peach
"
bloom discovered towards the end of this Great
being reign.
improvements were made in all descriptions of porcelain, and
we are told that up to the last one success followed another at
King-te-chin, so that the later productions are in every way
superior to the early.
Sixty years of progress had not exhausted the upward
movement, and perhaps in some ways the finest china belongs
to the Yung-ching period (1723-1736), many of the pieces
showing a very high technique, while, perhaps owing to the
introduction of the rose shades more than anything else, the
of decoration underwent an entire and continued
style change,
on somewhat similar lines during the reign of Keen-lung,
so that these two periods (1723-1796) are generally classed
and of as the " rose In addition to
together, spoken period."
the advent of the rose tints, the Yung-ching period is a most
one ; new for the first time,
interesting graceful shapes appear
as well as new colours in fact, fine workmanship and delicate
colouring may be said to be the characteristics of this reign.
The centre one of the three noted 19 from 1661
periods, covering
to 1796, it falls in the middle of the era of Chinese
great
ceramic art, which lasted for some hundred and odd
thirty
years, during which time most of the fine china we possess was
made, and the nearer it comes to the Yung-ching period the
better the At 418 Mr. " the
quality. p. Hippisley says : During
seventy-five years between 1698 and 1773 comprising roughly
the latter half of the whole of
K'ang-hsi's reign, Yung-cheng's,
and rather more than half that of the manufac-
Chien-lung
ture and decoration of in China attained a
porcelain degree
10
These three noted periods of Chinese ceramic it is interesting
art,
to observe, coincide with, and are covered by, the of French art
periods
popular with art lovers of to-day, viz. Louis XIV., the Regency, Louis XV.,
Louis XVI. and the Directoire. T. J. L.