Page 296 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

86 CHINESE ART.

attendants being cloaked with lotus leaves and reeds ; the diapered
border is interrupted by foliated panels containing birds, flowers,
and butterflies, and encircled by a light rim of fret. The under
surface of this dish is painted with storks in a fir-tree, surrounded
by a diapered border with landscapes in compartments.
Another round dish, illustrated in Fig. loo, is enamelled in
colours with a picturesque landscape, a scene taken from the banks
of the Hsi Hu, the celebrated lake at Hangchou, one of the old
capitals of China, the Kingsai of Marco Polo. The hill upon an
island to the right is covered with the many halls and pavilions of a
Buddhist temple, including a pagoda and a tall stupa, and is ap-
proached by a raised causeway provided with bridges and arches
and two-storied buildings intended for the entertainment Of
pilgrims. Two visitors are approaching on mules, some more are cross-
ing the lake on boats, others resting awhile in the open t'inga.r& drink-
ing tea. The under border of the dish is painted with sprays of
bamboo and orchids, and, in the centre, the artist' s noin de plume,
"Hsi Ch'i," is written in a small oval panel, supported by an
archaic dragon.
The third round dish of painted enamel, illustrated in Fig. loi,
is decorated in the middle with a Chinese picture of a European
family in the costume of the eighteenth century, grouped under a
canopy which is stretched across the trees of a woodland scene. The
border is filled in with a diaper ground, interrupted by panels of
grotesque monsters, alternating with small dragon medallions. The
bottom of the dish, underneath, is decorated with a large four-
clawed dragon, and with five foliated panels of flowers round the
borders.
Chinese copies of European engravings, secular as well as religious
in character, are not uncommon on Canton enamels. The Canton
enamellers also laboured for clients in India, Persia, and other
countries of Western and Southern Asia, when not busy on European
commissions, inscribing their work with foreign script, more or less