Page 49 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

BLUE AND WHITE

Although no mention is made of painting or decoration in blue before

the Yiian dynasty (notable for " Lin-ch'uan-yao " and " Nan-teng-yao "),

Weyet blue was from the earliest times one of the most favored colors.

may note that in the Chin dynasty (266-419) blue porcelain (or pottery)
was called " P'iao-tz'u," said by Dr. Bushell to resemble a certain pale-

blue shade of silk.

In the T'ang dynasty this blue was called the "color of the distant
hills"; in the posterior Chou dynasty (954-959), the "blue of the sky after
rain." In another period it was called the " prohibited color," because it
was reserved for the Emperor or the palace, and not to be seen by the
common people. Under the Sung dynasty (960-1279), although other
colors were also used, the famous porcelain of Ju-chou was of a pale-blue
glaze. The finest Imperial porcelain of this epoch was a sort of peacock-
blue, and the crackled " Ko-yao," although mostly celadon, contained
some specimens of a bluish tinge like the celebrated monochrome porce-

lains of Lung-ch'iian.

As no reference is made in early Chinese literature to blue decoration,

Mr. Monkhouse aptly concluded, in his critical notes, that "blue and
white, for practical purposes (that is, for a collector), commenced with
the Ming dynasty " ; and this refers especially to Wan-li, Hsuan-te,
Cheng-te, and Chia-ching, although later, in the Ch'eng-hua period, the
foreign blue failing, the Chinese used their native blue, prepared h:om
cobaltiferous ore of manganese. However, during the K'ang-hsi period

"

it may be said that, with the exception of the fine " Mohammedan blue

("Su-ma-ni" or "Su-ni-po"), there is no tint of cobalt which cannot
be found. While the Ming blue is boldly painted and dark, and also
distinguishable by more massive forms, the later blue and white porcelain

I'l