Page 295 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

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ENAMELS, ETC. 85

for the art of the decorator than porccLiin. The copper body,
however thin, gives out a metallic ring when struck, instead of the
clear musical note which distinguishes porcelain. The surface,
moreover, is rarely flawless, and the colours, brilliant as they may
be, have a garish quality, which make the copper enamels, they
ckclare, displeasing and appropriate only for the decoration of the
inner apartments. The author of the Wrn fang ssn k'ao, a well-
known book on the apparatus of a writer's study, published in
17S2, speaking of the Yang Tz'i'i, says :
" One often sees incense-urns and flower vases, wine-cups and saucers,
bowls, and dishes, ewers for wine, and round boxes for cakes and fruit, painted
in very brilliant colours ; but, although vulgarly called porcelain, these things
have nothing of the pure translucency of true porcelain. They are only fit
for use as ornaments of ladies' apartments—not at all for the chaste furniture
of the library of a simple scholar."
Enamel painting on copper was stigmatised from the first as a
foreign art by the Chinese, and it has never taken firm root in the
country. Even in Canton it has gradually died out so that nothing
of any importance has been produced since the reign of Ch'ien Lung,
which closed in 1795. All the specimens figured here may therefore
be taken to be prior to this last date.
The finest piece in the museum is the graceful wine pot, of square
section with indented corners, an upright handle and gold-tipped
cover, which is illustrated here in Fig. 98. It is decorated with a rose-
coloured rouge d'or ground brocaded with floral scrolls and butter-
flies, interrupted on the four sides and handle by panel pictures
delicately painted with flowers and butterflies on a white ground :
the curved spout is fashioned with a dragon's head pursuing a
flaming jewel.
The circular dish, in Fig. 99, is painted in the middle in a six-
lobed panel with a picture of the Taoist Goddess of Flowers, Hiia
Hsien, accompanied by two female attendants and a phoenix,
crossing the sea-waves on a dragon, which is pursuing a whirling
jewel ; the three carry on their shoulders baskets of flowers, the
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