Page 425 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

YELLOW ENAMEL WITH BLUE. 429

been used about this time, see Nos. 354 and 777 to
belonging
this
period.
Most of these bottles seem to date from about this
big
time.
Slue and White with Peach-bloom.
In No. 738 we have another instance of a in
reproduction
imitation of the A bottle
Yung-Ching period. gourd-shaped
(height, 17^ inches. No mark), decorated in blue and red
under the the latter colour in one of those shades
glaze, being
that it seems to define, but in this instance some-
impossible
where between
orange and claret colour. The decoration con-
sists of four on the lower and two on the bulb
dragons upper
in the midst of scroll-work ; the red on the
fungus showing
dragons and flower of the fungus.
Yellow Enamel ivitli Blue under the Glaze.
Nos. 739, 740, 741. Bottle, covered with lemon-coloured
enamel. Height, 20^ inches. Mark, Keen-lung (seal). This
piece illustrates a style of decoration that was not uncommon
about this A certain amount of the as was
period. design,
often the case in earlier times, seems to have been in
applied
blue under the and after the first the was
glaze, firing piece
again taken in hand, and the decoration completed chiefly
in green enamel with thin, dull-coloured reds, the remaining
uncovered then coated with enamel.
porcelain being yellow
The green, in places being over the blue, has a bluish shade,
and the whole has a soft, subdued, pleasing effect. On one
side, as seen in No. 739, a mulberry-tree in blue under the
runs the bottle
glaze right up ; on a bend of the trunk stands
a with a second at the back, each a in
phoenix, holding fungus
its mouth, the whole combination life with
picturing long peace
and
plenty ; while, on the other side (No. 741), is a fir-tree,
chiefly in green, with two of the same birds, holding in their
mouths a peacock's feather, thus symbolizing long life and
rank. Between these two trees the second of honour is
place
occupied by two storks (No. 740), emblems of long life ; while
on the branches of the trees rows of and other
perch parrots
birds, each of which, to the Chinese mind, conveys some hidden
meaning.