Page 101 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

OF CHINESE PORCELAINS [CASE B

5 to 8. FOUR HAWTHORN VASES OR GIN-

GER-JARS, of which the one with a wooden cap is
known as the Blenheim vase, having come from the
Marlborough collection. The ground of each is of the

deepest and most brilliant cobalt, broken up into an
arbitrary pattern known as "cracked ice," upon which

is picked out in the pure white of the glazed surface a
graceful decoration of so-called hawthorn blossoms,

being actually the flower of the jnei or winter-blooming

plum-tree, Height 10 inches.
K'ang-hsi (1662-1722).

(PLATE Xl)

9 to 12. FOUR OVOID JARS with caps. Fine

white porcelain with a decoration in brilliant cobalt
of linked medallions and bands of ornament.

K'ang-hsi (1662-1722). Height 6>< inches.

13 to 16. FOUR SPHERICAL BOTTLES with cy-

lindrical necks. With a decoration in brilliant cobalt.

These are copies made in China of a piece of Delft

which in its turn had been modelled after a Chinese

original, but with a distinctly Dutch quality in the exe-

cution. The fidelity of the Chinese artist's copy is

unimpeachable. On the foot is an enigmatical mark
resembling a misshapen D or G, and which has been
conjectured to be a copy of a mark on the Dutch orig-

inal. The late Philippe Sichel, a great authority,

claimed that the mark was a D, and stood for Delft.

The paste is of fme quality, and dense and heavy.

K'ang-hsi (1662-1722). Height 8 and 7^:^ inches.

(PLATE VIIl)

TWO17, 18. BOTTLES with sloping shoulders

and slender, flaring necks. Intricate and delicately

drawn decoration of floral ornament in cobalt.

K'ang-hsi (1662-1722). Height yj4 inches.

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