Page 21 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

PREFACE

ever, remains at this time to confirm and illustrate its

literature. That some such objects were produced
there is little doubt, and it would seem safe to assume

that it has vanished from existence because of its

very fragility and delicacy. A quarter of a century

ago there were known to English lovers of porcelain
certain pieces bearing the mark of Yung-lo, 1403-1424.
There were, perhaps, in all, two or three blue and white

cups, with coral-red exteriors decorated with gold
and one or two egg-shell bowls of white translucent
porcelain of great delicacy. These last were very
remarkable pieces. In the body, and visible only in

the strongest light, were beautifully drawn dragons
and Buddhistic emblems, and in the disk which formed

the bottom of the bowl could be faintly traced the in-
scription, Yung-lo nien chih, in old k'uan characters.

No porcelain that ever was made could surpass them

in delicacy or in beauty, and they seemed to realize
to the utmost the inspiration of the long-departed

Chinese historians. How things of such exceeding

fragility should have survived the vicissitudes of cen-
turies, and succeeded in transmitting themselves un-
scathed when the work of more recent ages had not
left a trace of itself seemed difficult of explanation.

The blue and white bowls with the coral exteriors

were more convincing, and when one made its appear-
ance in a goldsmith's mount of the time of Elizabeth,

it seemed impossible to withstand their antiquity.
Toward the end of the century, however, objects

of the same kind became more frequent, especially

the white egg-shell bowls with the perplexing archaic

marks, of which quite a number found their way into
collectors' hands. They are not yet explained, at

least not to everybody's satisfaction.

There was a potter in Japan, who came of a long line
of potters, and whose name was Zengoro-Riosen. He
was born in the latter part of the eighteenth century,

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