Page 23 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

PREFACE

into three groups, according to color: blue, black,

—and green. Red hawthorn is also known, but only

by a single example the superb vase, No. 14, case I.
There is no hawthorn involved in any of them, the
flower from which the term is derived being the blossom
of the wild plum or m^/-flower, and even it does not
always appear in the pieces which custom has recog-
nized as hawthorn. The blue hawthorns are the best

known, and in the collection there are three unsur-
passed examples, of which one, No. 6, case B, known
as the Blenheim, is as well known as it is beautiful.
These blue vases were originally known as ginger-
jars, and were used for the exportation of preserved
ginger, in which capacity they were woven about with
a protective netting or matting of stout fibre. They
were highly esteemed by the Dutch apothecaries,

who lined the shelves of their shops with them, and
later had them imitated at Delft, with labels to indi-

cate the drugs they were to contain. As with all por-
celain objects devoted to daily or domestic use, their
destruction was rapid, and the existence of survivors
is explained only by the fact that when their beauty
was reinforced by their rarity, they were withdrawn
from service and properly cared for.

The black and green hawthorn pieces did not appear
in Europe until much later. Indeed, it is doubtful
if any specimens were known outside China before the
latter half of the nineteenth century. They never
came within the classification of commercial porcelain,
as did all the vast quantity of blue and white which
found its way to Holland, but were essentially the pos-

sessions of the wealthy or ruling classes, the vases of
magistrates, or kouan-khi, as they were designated
in China. All of the finer examples of these black and

green hawthorns command very high and even extra-

ordinary prices; but there is good reason to believe
that they were just as dear and quite as highly prized

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