Page 289 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

ENAMliLS, ETC. 83

A box and cover, illustrated in Fig. 97, is one of a pair, of circular
form with lobed outline, cleverly and delicately repousse with floral
ornament. The floral scrolls, gilt, are relieved by a single-coloured
ground of dark blue enamel : the inside is enamelled turquoise
blue. " From the Summer Palace, Peking. Bought (Tayler Collec-
tion) yol. the pair."

P.-WNTED Enamels.
Painted enamels on copper are generally known to the Chinese
as Yang Tz'ii, literally " Foreign Porcelain," indicating the intro-
duction of the art from abroad. They are also often known as
" Canton enamels," the city of Canton being the great centre of
their manufacture. Porcelain as well as copper is decorated in the
workshops of Canton, being brought overland " in the white " from
Ching-te-chen, to he painted with the same palette of enamel colours,
but this, curiously, is not called Yang Tz' n ; it is known by the
distinctive name of Yang Ts'ai, literally " Foreign Colours," the word
porcelain being understood.
The technique of painted Chinese enamels on copper is precisely
similar to that of Limoges enamels in France, and of Battersea
enamels in England. Limoges enamels were actually taken to China by
the early French missionaries to be copied, and the motives of decora-
tion used in the Chinese enamels often betray signs of their influence.
The epoch alluded to is that of Louis XIV., contemporary with the
emperor K'ang Hsi : more especially from 1685 to 1719, the period
of the Compagnie de la Chine founded by Mazarin, when table
ser\'ices with the arms of France, de Penthievre, and others, and a
quantity of other objects, were ordered by the French and executed
at Canton. Many similar commissions were sent out about the same
time for services of " armorial china " and the like from England,
Holland, and other countries, which were executed with rare fidelity
by the Cantonese workmen, and brought to Europe by the ships of
the Dutch and English East India Companies. The objects were