Page 44 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

HISTORICAL

potters to take charge of the Imperial porcelain works in the prefec-

ture of King-te-chen (Ching-te-chen). The factories were not slow to
show the effect of these changes and the kilns also soon increased in

number.

The Imperial factory was burned in 1675, during the rebellion of

Wu San-kuei, but was soon rebuilt, and in 1680 a large order was given

from the palace. The factories at this time were under the supervision
of Lang-ting-so, a name that is great in ceramic history, who retained his
office until 1688; and his product, known as Lang porcelain (called by

the Chinese, after the inventor, "Lang-yao") is held in the highest esteem
by collectors and connoisseurs.

Another superintendent, Ts'ing-ying-hsuan, was appointed in 1 683 for
the Imperial factory, and "Ts'ing-yao" is the porcelain attributed to his

invention or period of superintendence.

To these men is due the credit for the renaissance of ceramic art in the

reign of the Emperor K'ang-hsi.

We have the first descriptions, during the reign of K'ang-hsi, of the

factories of King-te-chen, written by Pere d'Entrecolles, a missionary of the

Society of Jesus, who arrived in China during the year 1 700, and while

there wrote three reports, dated Jao-tcheou, in the province of Feou-liang,

giving an account of the tovm where the Imperial factory of porcelain was
situated. In a letter dated September 1 , 1 7 1 2, he stated that while his curi-
osity would not have led him to study the subject of the production of
porcelain, he felt that it might be of service to his country and to Europe,
and therefore availed himself of his opportunities. "The town of King-te-
tchin," he writes, "is only three miles distant from, and a dependency of,
Feou-liang, situated in a plain, and is surrounded by high mountains; the
one to the east, against which the town is built, is outwardly in form of a
semicircle, and from the two adjacent mountains issue two rivers which
unite: one is small, the other very large, and their confluence forms a mag-
nificent port over three miles in length, and a vast basin wherein the river
loses much of its velocity. Frequently in this large harbor are moored two
or three rows of junks. Entering the port, the sight is greeted by immense