Page 145 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Wan Li (1573-1619) 79

chi hung they would not admit it to an equality with the brilliant

reds of the fifteenth century.^ Where red is named in the lists of

Imperial porcelains we are left in doubt as to its nature, whether

under or over the glaze ; but there are two little shallow bowls in
the British Museum with a curious sponged blue associated with

indifferent underglaze red painting, which bear the late Ming mark

Ayii fang chia chH.^ bowl of lotus flower pattern, similar in form

to that described on p. 66, but deeper, and painted with similar

designs in pale underglaze red, though bearing the Ch'eng Hua

mark, seems to belong to the late Ming period.

The Wan Li polychromes will naturally include continuations

of the early Ming types, such as the large jars with decoration in

raised outline, pierced or carved and filled in with glazes of the

— —demi-grand feu turquoise, violet purple, green and yellow wares

with flat washes of the same turquoise and purple, incised designs

filled in with transparent glazes of the three colours {san ts'ai), green,

yellow and aubergine, and, what is probably more truly character-

Aistic of this period, combinations of the first and last styles. good

example of the transparent colours over incised designs is Fig. 1

of Plate 79, a vase of the form known as mei p'ing with green

Imperial dragons in a yellow ground and the Wan Li mark. All

three of the san ts'ai colours were also used separately as mono-

chromes with or without engraved designs under the glaze, a striking

example in the Pierpont Morgan Collection being a vase with dragon

handles and engraved designs under a brilliant iridescent green
glaze, " which appears like gold in the sunlight." ^ But though

these types persisted, they would no doubt be gradually super-

seded by simpler and more effective methods of pictorial decoration

in painted outline on the biscuit, filled in with washes of trans-

parent enamels in the same three colours. These softer enamels,

Avhich contained a high proportion of lead and could be fired at the

relatively low temperature of the muffle kiln, must have been used

to a considerable extent in the late Ming period, though their full

development belongs to the reign of K'ang Hsi, and there will

always be a difficulty in separating the examples of these two

^ A jar with vertical bands of ornament in a misty underglaze red of pale tint in

the Eumorfopoulos collection probably belongs to this period. Though technically un-
successful, the general effect of the bold red-painted design is most attractive.

2 See vol. i., p. 218.
3 Cat, J 16.