Page 249 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz
P. 249
CHINESE PORCELAINS
No. 73
Tall Square Vase, brilliant ** famiile verte" type (polychrome colors with
the green predominating), its rectangular form tapering downward from
the curved shoulders, with a slightly everted cyhndrical neck (mortar-
shaped) ; the paste is of fine hard texture and rare purity.
The four vertical panels show two separate treatments in superb "over-glaze" decora-
tion and lustrous colors; two sides have a light transparent green ground sustaining in-
dividual floral motives of minute and felicitous detail: one side presents a charming
combination of the peony and magnolia plants, with their blossoms and foliage, in warm
natural tints, spnnging from behind an open rocky cliff, with pheasants and other birds
contributing to the animation; the other green panel carries an old dwarfed peach (or
plum) tree with its stems in aubergine (manganese) glaze, bearing white and yellow
blossoms; they are encircled by many magpies, birds of good omen, hovering about the
fragremce.
The two alternating panels show a white ground with landscape and figures, in the
distinctive colors and classic taste prevailing in China during the seventeenth century,
under the Viceroy Lang-ting-so, at the King-te-chen (Ching-te-chin) factories.
The legendary subject depicted upon one of these panels includes a high mountain
(Kw'en Lun) with steep and rugged ledges, through which a distant sea ("Lake of
Gems ') is visible; in the foreground are gathered legendary beings (Taoist immortals),
assembled, it appears, at the mountain realm of the Genii fairy Hsi-wang-mu, who is
presented riding on the back of a fabled phoenix (Feng-huang) flying to the place of
meeting, attired as a princess, with a " Ju-i" scepter, and nearing the old sage, presumably
Lao Tsze, the ancient Chinese philosopher (termed also "God of Longevity," and appear-
ing with a less pronounced high forehead than usual), who stands upon a high projecring
ledge; he is about to be charged with an important mission by Hsi-wang-mu for a dis-
tant votary, and, possibly, to receive a "sacred peach" from the Genii fairy.
The fourth panel, on the reverse side, presents a more domestic scene, and one that
may be also interpreted from Chinese legends. Lao Tsze, as history has it, was a very
small man, and is here so represented, and in the act of delivering the "sacred peach"
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