Page 71 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Cheng Te (1506-1521) 31

of this type straying into collections of Chinese porcelain. ^ Con-
versely, the Persian taste is strongly reflected in some of the Chinese
decorations, not only where it is directly studied on the wares
destined for export to Persia, but in the floral scrolls on the Imperial
wares of the Ming period. The expressions hui hid hua (Moham-

medan ornament or floAvers) and hui hui wen (IMohammcdan designs)

occur in the descriptions of the porcelain forwarded to the palace,
and there can be little doubt that they refer to floral arabesque
designs in a broad sense, though it would, of course, be possible
to narrow the meaning to the medallions of Arabic writing not
infrequently seen on Chinese porcelain, which was apparently

made for the use of some of the numerous Mohammedans in

China.

An interesting series of this last-mentioned type is exhibited
in the British Museum along with a number of bronzes similarly
ornamented. Many of these are of early date, and five of the porce-
lains bear the Cheng Te mark and unquestionably belong to that

period. These comprise a pair of vases with spherical tops which
are hollow and pierced with five holes, in form resembling the pecu-
liar Chinese hat stands ; the lower part of a cut-down vase, square
in form ; an ink slab with cover, and a brush rest in the form of
a conventional range of hills. The body in each case is a beautiful
white material, though thickly constructed, and the glaze, which
is thick and of a faint greenish tinge, has in three of these five pieces
been affected by some accident of the firing, which has left its sur-
face dull and shrivelled in places like wrinkled skin.^ The designs

—are similar throughout medallions with Arabic writing surrounded

by formal lotus scrolls or cloud-scroll designs, strongly outlined
and filled in with thin uneven washes of a beautiful soft Moham-
medan blue. The glaze being thick and bubbly gives the brush
strokes a hazy outline, and the blue shows that tendency to run
in the firing which we are told was a peculiarity of the Moham-

^ The converse is equally true, and Chinese porcelain of this kind is frequently classed
among Persian wares. Indeed, there are not a few who would argue that these true
porcelains of the hard-paste type were actually made in Persia. No evidence has been
produced to support this wholly unnecessary theory beyond the facts which I have
mentioned in this passage, and the debated specimens which I have had the opportunity
to examine were all of a kind which no one trained in Chinese ceramics could possibly
mistake for anything but Chinese porcelain.

* This peculiarity occurs on a tripod incense vase in the Eumorfopoulos Collection,
which in other respects resembles this little group, but it is a peculiarity not confined
to the Cheng Te porcelain, for I have occasionally found it on much later wares.