Page 50 - The art of the Chinese potter By Hobson

THE ART OF THE CHINESE POTTER

Figure modelling was a speciality of the Fukien potters, and some

good examples of this work are shown on Plates CIV to CVI, but
it would be unwise to guarantee that they are all of Ming date.

In addition to the porcelains of which most of the Ming specimens
in this album consist, there was a vast quantity of pottery and
stoneware made in the many factories scattered up and down the

eighteen provinces of China, Much of this is classed as " tile ware,"

and indeed it includes roof tiles and architectural pottery which
are often distinguished by finely modelled ornament and rich
glazes. But the tile factories and miscellaneous potteries also pro-

duced many noble vases, fish bowls, figures, and groups, in which

the three-colour glazes were applied to a pottery base with strikingly

beautiful effect ; and one of the most attractive of the late Ming

types are vases with a stoneware body and soft-looking turquoise,
green, and aubergine glazes, such as those represented by Plates

CXXVII and CXXIX. The provenance of these handsome vases

has not been definitely ascertained.
Such then is the story, in briefest outline, of the development of

Ceramic Art in China up to the early part of the 17th century.
After that date potting technique may have been further elaborated
and certain new glazes invented, but the art of the Chinese potter

never reached a higher plane than in the best of the early periods.
Indeed the later potters often devoted their skill to the reproduction

of the older types. It may be that part of this tendency was due to

the proverbial Chinese veneration of the past ; but in any case

these imitative efforts were not conspicuously successful. The

simple beauty and the freshness of the earlier wares are their chief
distinction, and they do not suffer from the fussiness which is often
noticeable in the work of the 18th-century potters. Most of our
readers are familiar with the finer examples of 17th- and 18th-
century porcelain, and they can form their judgment on the truth
of our statement from the illustrations which follow.

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