Page 420 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

KEEN-LUNG.
428
No. 736. A pear-shaped, fluted bottle, with two small
on the neck. 17 inches. Mark, Keen-lung
cylinders Height,
seal. This piece is covered with a pearl-grey celadon glaze,
highly vitreous, as can be seen by the photograph. The
shoulder of the bottle, having evidently been one blaze of
has come out in colour than the base and neck,
light, lighter
on which the light did not fall in the same way. These
marked are of use when the can be relied
pieces great marking
upon, as they give us some idea as to the shapes, style of
workmanship, and colouring in vogue at the period stated.
This is in the collection.
piece Salting

Coral with Blue under the Glaze.
No. 737. Bottle. Height, 21 inches. Mark, Keen-lung.
Here we have five (five-claw) dragons in blue under the glaze,
on the
disporting themselves in waves of coral red, painted
white porcelain, while the two tiers at the base are in green
enamel. In nearly all these pieces we find green introduced
in limited This bottle, as far as decoration
quantity. goes,
is on all fours with the No. 269, and there would be no
jar
need to include it in this series were it not that it has the
advantage of being marked with what seems a reliable date.
The referred to is older than this bottle, and this
jar probably
of decoration, we have
particular style every reason to believe,
was known in the Kang-he period ; in fact, the mark in the
present case being in the ordinary character, instead of the
seal, as in No. 740, where the decoration is more modern,
the piece being enamelled all over, may perhaps betoken that
where the Chinese copied an old design, they put the mark in
the character used in the Kang-he and preceding reigns, but
when they followed the models of the day, they used the seal
character then in vogue for marking. Of course, in the ordinary
way, they would have marked this bottle Kang-he, or whatever
period they considered the style of decoration to belong to ;
but if this was for the
piece emperor's household, as the five
claws would seem to indicate, it would, we have
may suppose,
to bear his nien hao, and no other.
At the there is a border in blue under the a
top glaze,
variation of the and these seem to have
honeycomb diaper,