Page 26 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

276 INTRODUCTION.

painted in the south. Coming to the common or trade section,
we have the large vases, such as are to be seen in the windows
of tea-dealers, dinner services, tea sets, bedroom sets, etc., made
of a coarse and decorated with flowers and
greenish porcelain,
butterflies in before and the
gaudy colours, imported during
first half or more of the nineteenth in these are
century ;
exhibited the everyday work of Canton for more than a hundred
back. the this is not the
years Although principal, only type
for which Canton was noted. The light-coloured blue and
white, where the blue is put on in thin washes of indifferent
shade, which belongs to the end of the eighteenth and begin-
of the nineteenth is known as " Canton blue and
ning century,
white," because it was shipped from that port ; but where it
was manufactured and decorated it is difficult to
really say,
"
probably at Shaou-king Foo, to the west of Canton. Abbe
in 1774, mentions this and states that the
Eaynal, factory,
known in France under the name of '
porcelain porcelaine
des Indes' was made there. It is probably, therefore, from
these two factories and Shaou-king Foo), and
(King-te-chin
from the latter, that the numerous services
especially proceeded
from the
for dinner and tea, differing altogether appliances
"
of the same kind used in China In this
(Franks, p. 92).
Indian china or trade section it is often difficult to
very say
whether a was made and decorated in the north
given piece
or the south.
With regard to the porcelain made and decorated at King-
te-chin, it is usually considered that the pieces properly
marked with nien-liao were issued by the Imperial factory,
but whether the unmarked came from private kilns or not
there seems to show all
nothing ; be that as it may, beyond
doubt some of the finest to be met with are un-
specimens
marked. It would reasonable to that at the
appear suppose
works none other than the name of the
Imperial reigning
emperor would be allowed to be used, in which case the pieces
with the false Ming nien-hao must be the produce of private
manufactories ; but in China you can never be sure of anything.
Nearly all the fine china we possess seems to have been made
and decorated at and it is
King-te-chin or its neighbourhood,
not until the mandarin that we hear doubts as to
period any
the decoration Cantonese.
perhaps being