Page 29 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

TRENCHARD BOWLS. 377

TRENCHAED BOWLS.

STARTING with ithe Trenchard bowls, Nos. 486, 487, probably
means commencing with the Hung-che (1488-1506) period, or
as near as can be the middle of the
Ming dynasty, although
it is, of course, just possible these bowls may belong to the
celebrated
Ching-hwa (1465-1488) period, so famous, according
to Chinese writers, for the of its decorations and the
drawing
coloured enamels employed ; the blue and white, however, not
being considered as good as that of the Seuen-tih (1426-1436)
The
period. Hung-che period seems to have been more noted
among the Chinese for a yellow ware, as also coloured enamels,
little or no mention
being made of blue and white, which is
the class the Trenchard bowls be seen
belong to, as will
from the
following description of them, kindly supplied by
Mr. Winthrop :
"About twenty-seven years ago, provided with an intro-
duction from my old friend, Colonel Pickard, V.C., I made
an to for the of the
expedition Weymouth purpose seeing
Oriental bowls referred to on xix. of
p. your work, which are,
undoubtedly, the earliest known pieces of Chinese porcelain
brought into England, since Bishop Warham's bowl at New
College, Oxford, may have been given any time between 1504
and 1532, while the Trenchard bowls are fixed at 1506. Mr.
Trenchard, of Greenhill House, a descendant of Sir Thomas
Trenchard, of Wolverton Castle, Dorset, to whom they were
given by Phillip of Austria, King of Castille, was then the
of these bowls, and he them at my
possessor kindly placed
disposal for inspection. I found them to consist of a pair of
7 or 8 inch bowls of decorated with
ordinary shape, similarly
blue under the
(in glaze) lightly sketched flowers at intervals,
connected by a meander of stem, with no other ornament,
unless it may have been a simple line. Inside, I think, there
were fish. The porcelain was rather greyish, and not of fine
One of the bowls bore this decoration
quality. very distinctly
traced in blackish cobalt (the flowers, perhaps, intended for
while the other bowl had a washed-out and faded
asters), very
The better bowl of the two was enclosed in a
appearance.
handsome mount of in the Eenaissance
silver-gilt strap-work
common in those with Moresco about it.
style days, nothing