Page 48 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

HISTORICAL

Special attention was paid at this time (Yung-cheng and Ch'ien-lung)
to the production of " Yao-pien,"^ flambd, of which Chinese writers dis-
tinguish three kinds, i.e., two supposed to be due to celestial agency,
and the third to human ingenuity.

Oxidulated copper furnishes vitrifiable painting with a fine red. This,
thrown in a body on a vase, forms the tint called "haricot," a kind of

fawn-color. With a further quantity of oxygen of equal amount a pro-
toxide is formed, producing a beautiful green that may be changed into
sky-blue by increasing the oxygenation. The tints upon a vase may be
modified indefinitely by a due regulation, at different periods during the

process of baking, of the currents of air admitted ; or.

When a clear fire placed in a strong cunent draws a considerable column of air, all

the oxygen is not consumed, and part of it combines with the metal ; if, on the other
hand, thick smoke is introduced into the furnace, of which the carbonaceous mass,
greedy of oxygen, absorbs everywhere this gas, necessary for its combustion, the oxides
will be destroyed and the metal completely restored. Placed at a given moment in these
given conditions, by the rapid and simultaneous introduction of currents of air and of
sooty vapors the " haricot " glcize assumes a most picturesque appearance ; the whole
surface of the piece becomes diapered with veins and streaked colorations, changing and
capricious as the flame of spirits ; the red oxidulate, passing by violet into pale blue and
to the green protoxide, evaporates itself even completely upon certain projections which
become white, and thus furnishes happy accidental combinations. (Jacquemart.)

On the whole, the Ch'ien-lung period was distinguished by mastery of

materials, from the plain "self-glazed" piece to the richest landscape,
figure, and flower enamelings, and from the plain surface to the most elabo-
rate modeling and perforations.

^ In the Buddhist temple Pao-kuo-ssu, in Pe- of which, in an ode from his pen engraved on the
shrine, the Emperor Ch'ien-lung says the goddess
—king, is a famous " Yao-pien" image of Yuanyin, descended into the kiln to fashion ein exact like-
ness of herself.
a finely designed figure enameled in colors light

blue, crimson, yellow, and two shades of brown ;

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