Page 612 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

TAOU-KWANG.
496

Canton Ware.
No. 889 illustrates a Canton plate. Diameter, 23 inches ;
height, 3^ inches. No mark. Made of a coarse grey porce-
lain, it is decorated with a hunting scene in gaudy colours
that lack the brilliancy of the early enamels, and is evidently
one of those large pieces that were made during the first halt
of the nineteenth century for shipment to Europe, when the
idea was to get as much as possible for as little money as
The scheme of the decoration is not at all bad, and
possible.
was probably copied from some old drawing that had done
duty in this way hundreds of times. This so-called Canton
ware is very often crackled, probably to make it look old.
The colouring, however, never seems to vary much crude
greens and rose tints playing the principal part, with blues,
browns, and yellows of like quality.

Blue and White.
Nos. 890, 891. Blue and white bowl. Diameter, 6 inches ;
height, 2j inches. Mark, Taou-kwang seal. The porcelain
here is the and
good, painting clearly carefully done, while if
the blue is not equal to that of Kang-he, still this is a piece
that would not discredit The decoration is divided
any reign.
into two groups by a willow tree and ornamental fence on one
side, and a like railing and flowering shrub on the other.
Between these, on one side, eight urchins with but scant
are themselves at a water-tank, while on the
clothing amusing
other presumably the same eight dressed out in gala-day
attire are mimicking one of these official processions in which
the Chinese delight so greatly. Inside there is no decoration
whatever.
No. 892. Blue and white flat dish. Diameter, 16 inches ;
height, If inch. Mark, Taou-kwang seal. The decoration
consists of two five-claw dragons among nebulae of fire, with
the usual ball or in the middle. At back the four
jewel
seasons are represented by the bamboo, pine, chrysanthemum,
and prunus, which, with sundry butterflies and outlined clouds,
pretty well cover the whole surface. The porcelain is of wavy
surface, and, but for the mark, might belong to any of these
later As time went on the dishes seem to have
reigns. got