Page 42 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

282 MING.

of the previous, this, and the tells us
writing following reigns, :
"
The Imperial potteries were still at Ching te Chen, and it
was the practice to appoint eunuchs to superintend the manu-
facture and bring up the porcelain to Peking. They took with
them the order for the to such an
Imperial quantity required
amount that several of the
extravagant pages Cliiang-lm ung
Cliih, which gives the statistics of the province, are filled with
the remonstrances of censors on the subject. According to one
of these, in 1571 no less than 105,770 pairs of things were
and vases of
ordered, including bowls, tea-cups, wine-cups,
red colour inside and and small
bright out, large dragon-
bowls for fish, and boxes of form. It was
painted rectangular
ordered to be sent to the capital in batches ; the first lot of
10,597 pairs by the ninth month of the same year, the second
of 10,750 before the twelfth month, the remainder in
eight
successive lots. The censor the difficult
explains production
of the large dragon fish-bowls, which were to be decorated with
ornaments in relief, and to have broad bases and bulging
bodies ; the great expense of the large fish-bowls to be painted
in enamel colours, and the fear of their being broken in the
kiln ; the too elaborate designs for the square boxes in three
tiers, which would require almost a lifetime to turn out. He
consequently begs for the substitution of fan Imng, peroxide
of iron red, prepared by incinerating green vitriol, for listen
silicate of
hiing, copper red, the diminution of the other things
referred to by one or two tenths, in order not to distress the
who were to the labour
people, expected, it appears, supply
and most of the materials, with little or no
payment." Page
101: "The lists of the things requisitioned by these three
" "
Emperors (1522 to 1619) are still extant, and are of some
interest as the of decoration, most of the
showing style subjects
being employed in ornamenting the Imperial porcelain down
to the The are said to have been
present day. designs prin-
cipally derived from brocaded satin and ancient embroidery."