Page 159 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

PORCELAIN.
33
Fig. 17 shows a Ming jar of early jamille verte style, painted
with flowers and symbols in the midst of rolling sea-waves, which
was bought in Persia, and is fitted with a cover and rim of Persian
brass work, pierced and chased.
Cobalt blue as an under-glaze colour was used in the decoration
of porcelain throughout the Ming dynasty, both in comliination
with other colours, and alone. In the general run of " blue and
white " three well-defined periods are to be distinguished from the
rest, (i.) The reign of Hsiian Te (1426-35), for a pale gray-blue
of pure tint, called at the time " Mohammedan blue," somewhat like
the later Japanese " blue and white " of Hirato ; pencilled under the
ordinary glaze or under a specially prepared finely crackled
;
"
glazj in the fore-runners of the so-called soft paste," which are
occasionally found with this mark attached. (2.) The reign of
Chia Ching {1522-66), for a dark full-toned blue of marvellous
depth and lustre. (3 ) The joint reigns of Lung Ch'ing and Wan Li
(1567-1619), for a gradually improving technique, especially in the
use of the cobalt as a ground wash, foreshadowing the greater
triumphs of the coming K'ang Hsi epoch. Our illustrations present
two characteristically solid jars, of which the second (Fig. 19), lately
bequeathed by Mrs. A. B. Woodcroft, is a typical example in style
of decoration and depth of colouring of the Chia Ching period
;
and a succession of blue and white pieces, the age of which is con-
firmed by their European mounts. The octagonal melon-shaped
wine pot in the Museum collection (Fig. 20), decorated with Chinese
boys pla3dng and conjiu^ing, is mounted in Elizabethan silver-gilt
with hall-marks of the year 1585. The other four interesting pieces,
also with Elizabethan mounts, belong to the Pierpont Morgan
Collection, and are now exhibited on loan at the museum. They
were shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1895, and are
described in the Catalogue of Blue and White Oriental Porcelain
printed at the time, as coming from Burghley House, where they
had been in the possession of the Cecil family from the time of