Page 55 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Hsuan Te (1426-1435) 21

member of the class under discussion, viz. decorated in enamels of

the muffle kiln applied to the biscuit. ^ In either case it proves
the knowledge of vitrifiable enamels at this period to all Avho
accept the evidence of Hsiang's Album.

Examples of Hslian Te polychrome porcelain enumerated in
the T^ao shuo included wine pots in the form of peaches, pomegranates,
double gourds, a pair of mandarin ducks and geese ; washing dishes
(for brushes) of " gong-shaped outline," with moulded fish and
water-weeds, with sunflowers and with lizards ; and lamp brackets,
"rain-lamps," vessels for holding bird's food, and cricket ^ pots

(see vol. i, p. 188).

Specimens of on-glaze painted porcelain with the Hsuan Te
mark are common enough, but I have not yet seen one which could

be accepted without reserve. Perhaps the nearest to the period

is a specimen in the Franks Collection, a box made of the lower
part of a square vase which had been broken and cut down. It
was fitted with a finely designed bronze cover in Japan, and it
is strongly painted in underglaze blue and the usual green, yellow,
red and purple on-glaze enamels. The mark is in a fine dark blue,
and the porcelain has all the character of a Ming specimen.

There is, in the same collection, a dish of a different type, but

with the Hsiian Te mark in Mohammedan blue and other evidences
of Ming origin. The glaze is of a faintly greenish white and of con-

siderable thickness and lustre, and the design consists of lotus scrolls
in gold. Painting in gold in the Hsiian Te period is mentioned
in the T^ao shuo^ in connection with the pots for holding the fighting

crickets alluded to above.

^ The application of these enamels in large washes puts them practically in the
category of glazes, but for the sake of clearness it is best to keep the terminology dis-

tinct. After all, the difference between a high-fired glaze which is applied to the biscuit

and a low-fired enamel applied in the same way is only one of degree, but if we use the
term enamel or enamel-glaze for the colours fired in the muffle kiln as distinct from those

fired in the porcelain kiln, it will save further explanations.

A* late Ming writer quoted in the T'ao lu (bk. viii., fol. 18) says, " At the present

day Hsiian ware cricket pots are still very greatly treasured. Their price is not less

than that of Hsuan Ho pots of the Sung dynasty."

» Bushell, op. cit., p. 140.