Page 24 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

PREFACE

at the time when they were produced. In fact, all
the evidence goes to show that the prices of such pieces
in China two hundred years ago were relatively much

higher than those of the present day.
In the black hawthorns, the ground against which the

decoration appears is black; in the so-called green
hawthorns it is green. In the former the ground is
applied after the decoration is completed, and is of a
different firing. In the green pieces, the ground and

the decoration are established at the same time. Some-

times the black ground is found to be superposed on a
green ground, the latter probably having been found
inadequate in effect. The large vase. No. 4, case D,
would appear to have been destined for a black haw-
thorn, but to have been allowed to present its brilliant
enamels without the support of any other ground
than the fme white porcelain itself. In all the vases

of this class the porcelain is of the finest quality.

To Dr. Stephen W. Bushell, who was attached for a

quarter of a century to the British Legation at Peking
belongs the chief credit of clearing up the whole subject

of Chinese porcelain. He was the first to write of it

with authority, to present its history intelligibly, and
to enforce his learning by a broad and comprehensive
classification and identification of the porcelain itself.

Whatever had been published before Dr. Bushell made
himself known was chaotic, misleading and contra-
dictory. His history of Chinese porcelain was under-

taken at the behest of the late William T. Walters, of

Baltimore, in connection with a catalogue raisonne of
the Walters collection which he prepared; and while
it attained no wide publicity, on account of its great
size and cost, it reached the serious students and earnest

collectors. Since its publication, in 1899, there has
been a readjustment of the whole subject on the part

of all intelligent persons who are in any way concerned

xiv