Page 160 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

34 CHINESE ART.

Queen Elizabeth. The Ewer (Fig. 21), artistically painted in soft
blue with birds and flowers, is mounted with a silver-gilt base, six
bands formed as wreaths with cherubs' heads in relief, a band
round the neck, with lip and lid surmounted with three dolphins, and
a handle formed of a mermaid with a double-twisted tail, all in silver
gilt. The last of the four pieces, a bowl (Fig. 24), decorated with
floral sprays and imperial phcenixes pencilled in typical Ming style,
has the mark Wan Li (1573-1619) outlined under the foot in under-
glaze blue ; the rest are unmarked, but arc unmistakable examples
of the ceramic style of the same reign.
The decoration of Chinese porcelain in under-glaze cobalt blue,
as well as in under-glaze copper red, both colours of the grand feu,
was already in full vogue in the first half of the fifteenth century
during the reign of Hsiian Te. The adoption of enamels of the
muffle stove, identical with those used in cloisonne enamelling on
metal, was of somewhat later date. The enamel colours were first
employed as ground washes to relieve and heighten the blue, next
used in combination, till they gradually predominated in the scheme
of coloured decoration typical of the reign of Wan Li, and hence
generally known to the Chinese as that of the " Wan Li Five
Colours."
K'ang Hsi Period (1662-1722).
We have now reached the culminating epoch of the ceramic
art in China by common consent of all connoisseurs, eastern and
western. The brilliant renaissance of the art which distinguishes
the reign of K'ang Hsi is shown in every class ; in the single-coloured
glazes, la qualite maiiresse de la ct'ramiqtie ; in the painted decora-
tions of the grand feu, of the jewel-like enamels of the muffle-kiln,
and of their manifold combinations ; in the pulsating vigour of
every shade of blue in the inimitable " blue and white." Lang
T'ing-tso was Viceroy of the united provinces of Kiangsi and
Kiangnan in the lieginning of the reign, and his name has come