Page 38 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

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HISTORICAL

graved cloud scrolls, and bands of geometrical and spiral pattern, with conical cover,
spirally curved handle, and spout molded and engraved in the form of a phoenix head,
all covered with deep red {chi-hung) glaze."

It is said to have cost the owner two hundred ingots of silver in paper

^

notes.

Fish-vessels, or jars decorated with three red fish on a pure "snow-

white" ground, were much esteemed, the fish being boldly outlined and

red as "fresh blood." Occasionally these fish would be represented swim-

ming on the waves engraved in the paste, both on the inside and outside.

A still rarer decoration, found on a wine-cup, is described as

"The white ground decorated inside and outside with cloud scrolls engraved in the

paste, a scroll border above colored crimson; the handle, a dragon of bold design,
molded in high relief, coiled round the top,' v^ath teeth and four claws fixed in the
rim, enzuneled vermilion-red.

Among the ceramists recorded, mention is made of two sisters named
T'a-sieou, who produced delicate cups and other objects with the designs

engraved in the paste. "White vases with blue decoration" were also
much esteemed, especially if the blue was pale, and where the ground

resembled an orange-peel surface, or a faint millet-like elevation. Poly-
chrome decoration, which included the fine red and blue (usually under
the glaze), was also successfully practised and esteemed as something new.

Among objects enumerated by the native author may be noted minia-

ture vases, called "Ping"; tea-cups, "Ch'a Pei"; conical wine<ups,
"Tou-li Pei"; wine-pots, "Hu"; rouge-box, "Lu Hu"; tazza-shaped
cups, "Pa Pei"; sacrificial vessels, "Yi"; water-dropper, "Shui-chu."

This period is specially credited with the introduction of the then new
method of perforated decoration; a pattern being cut through the paste
and dipped into glaze, which, when baked, shows the pierced work filled

up with a thin film of glaze, giving a delicate transparency to the design

A' sum estimated to be equivalent to about the Chinese when intact, partly because of the

three thousand dollars (Bushell). artistic ability required successfully to execute the
design, and partly because old specimens are sel-
" Vessels wth a dragon molded in relief upon
the rim are, it may be added, highly esteemed by dom met with undamaged.

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