Page 415 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

MILLE CERF. 425

began to fight. One of them was soon hit by the Emperor,
and the other, instead of running away, strove to finish his
dying rival, thus giving his Majesty the opportunity of killing
him also with the second shot. The sport lasts only about two
hours, as later in the day it would have no effect, and every
morning from five to ten stags were thus killed. This was a
in which the
sport Emperor Kang-hy indulged every year
in the months of September and October" (p. 83). "The
emperor could not remain long in the same place, and thus
after a few days he left Chan-choon-yuen for Pa-choo, another
mansion of enormous dimensions, with a park so abounding
with stags that they appear like flocks of sheep." From this
it seems clear that the stags on this vase are not exaggerated
in number, but that we may have truly represented one of the
with its herd of deer. In the list of
imperial parks designs
given by Dr. Bushell, taken from the Chiang hsi Ta chih for
the eighth year of Chia ching (A.D. 1529), we find mentioned
"
oval vases with propitious clouds, a hundred dragons, a
hundred storks, a hundred deer, in enamel colours, and the
' "
inscription 'Ever-preserving heaven and earth (p. 113).
Blue and White with
Copper-red.
Nos. 731, 732. A pair of conical-shaped vases. Height,
20^ inches. No mark. Decorated in blue and white, with
from under the nice
pink copper glaze ; exceptionally pieces
and excellent examples of Chinese freehand drawing. In No.
731 we have a cock standing on a rock seemingly ready to
do battle, while pseonies grow on one side and a magnolia tree
on the other. In No. 732 the decoration consists of two storks
standing among lotus, while there is a willow tree on the
other side. These vases have not the engraved band near the
base, but the figures of the storks are traced in the paste, and
they may date from close on the Yung ching period. There is
little bloom in the decoration, but the shade is
peach pink very
freely employed in the rocks, flowers, and plumage of the cock.
on must have
Painting porcelain presented many difficulties
to the Chinese who, accustomed to freehand no doubt
drawing,
found the application of enamels a very cramped and laborious
and it is therefore in decorated under the
process, pieces glaze
where the used were more like water colours that we
pigments
often find them at their best.