Page 69 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

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POTTERY. II

are embossed with mouldings, impressed with delicate diapers,
or chiselled with decorative designs. Others, again, are painted
with enamel colours, applied with a brush in sensible relief, or
inlaid, as it were, in a ground previously worked for the purpose,
after the technique of a champlcv'e enamel on copper. The material
makes a charming background for a spray of flowers worked in
clear cobalt blue with a vitreous flux, or for a landscape lightly
pencilled in the soft greyish white afforded by arsenic. The decora-
tion in multiple colours is almost too elaborate, especially when
the piece is completely covered, so that none of the ground is
visible, and the nature of the excipient can only be detected by
examining the rim of the foot underneath.
All kinds of things usually made of porcelain in China are fabri-
cated at Yi-hsing of this peculiar faience, but it is considered most
suitable for small ohjets de luxe, and these are often very cunningly
and minutely finished. Miniature teapots and fruit and flowers
of natural design are adapted to hold water for the writer's palettes
scent bottles, rouge pots, powder boxes, saucers, and other nameless
accessories are provided for the toilet table ; flower vases, comfit
dishes, chopstick trays, and miniature winecups for the dining
board. The mandarin wears a thumb-ring, a tube for the peacock
feather in his hat, and has enamelled beads and other ornaments for
his rosary made of this material ; the Chinese exquisite carries a
snuff bottle, the tobacco smoker has a decorated water pipe, and the
opium devotee selects a bowl and muzzle for his bamboo pipe
artistically inlaid in soft vitrified colour at these kilns.
Two teapots of quaint form from the potteries of Yi-hsing are
illustrated in Fig. 3. The first, one of a pair, is moulded in brown
boccaro ware in the form of a shciig, or mouth-organ, of which tli£
blowing tube makes the spout of the teapot. The second, teapot
and cover, is made of buff-coloured stoneware in the shape of a
pomegranate, reversed, to which are attached various other fruits
and seeds in different coloured clays. The handle is the fruit of the
ami. G