Page 89 - Catalog Of Chinese Applied Art

520. LARGE SHALLOW DISH OF FINE WHITE PORCELAIN, painted with

figures in an interior looking out upon a garden, and with a rich diapered border.
The whole in famille verte colours. 14 inches diameter. K'ang-Hsi.

Lent by Dr. E. J. Sidehotham

521. WHITE PORCELAIN VASE, with mirror-black glaze, into which flecks of

gold-leaf have been fired. 5| inches high. Late K'ang-Hsi or Yung Cheng.

The famous Jesuit missionary, Pere d'EntrecoUes, in his letters which give an
account of the manufacture of Chinese porcelain in the early part of the i8th century,
mentions the tentative efforts that were being made in his time to get the effect of
gold in the black glaze. This is evidently one of the pieces of the type to which he

refers.

522. SMALL BALUSTER-SHAPED VASE OF FINE WHITE PORCELAIN, with

a rough, uneven black ground and finely drawn figures, rocks, trees, &c., all

outlined in black. 9 inches high. K'ang-Hsi.

This piece is of the greatest technical interest, as it represents the first stage in

the production of a vase of the famous famille noire decoration. The vase is complete
at this stage. It would then in the ordinary way have been finished by super-posing
an enamel decoration in greens, yeUows, &c., and the soft green enamel being carried
right over this uneven underglaze black ground would have produced the brilliant
mirror black that is so greatly admired. The bowl (No. 519) represents the finish of

the process without this first stage having been done.

523. SQUARE PERFORATED STAND OF WHITE PORCELAIN, painted in pale

enamel yellow, with touches of green ; a panel on the top of the stand has a fine brilliant
black ground with a bird on a spray of flowers painted in yellow, aubergine and bright

green. 5 inches high. K'ang-Hsi.

524. LARGE BOTTLE-SHAPED VASE, wide spreading mouth, with raised ornament

of magnolia, prunus, &c., painted with brilliant enamel colours, green delicate
turquoise and aubergine. The ground of the vase is a pale yellow enamel colour.
14 inches high. Late Ming.

This piece was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 191 1, and was repro-
duced in colours in the catalogue.

Lent by G. Eumorfopoulos, Esq.

CASE U

CASE OF FLAMBE GLAZES OF VARIOUS PERIODS

These flambe, or transmutation glazes which are produced by the effect of alter-
nating, reducing and oxidising atmospheres in the kiln in which the pieces are fired,
appear to have originated, possibly accidentally, as early as Sung times. Note,
for instance, the bowls and vases bearing peach-coloured and blood-red patches in
Case No. Bb. This brilliant red, obtained from copper, was also used as an underglaze
colour in Ming times. (See No. 326 and No. 451.) Its extended use as a glaze only
came back again with the introduction of the magnificent Lang Yao blood-red glaze
of the late 17th century, so that the great majority of such pieces found in

collections to-day are of i8th century date.

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