Page 240 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain
P. 240
CASE XVIIl] THE MORGAN COLLECTION
remarkable for the fact that the blue is all under the
glaze, having been fixed at the first firing, after the
technique of the preceding Ming dynasty. The mo-
tive is a historical scene, the Emperor Yu Wang (B. C.
781-771), of the Chou dynasty, being seated with his
favorite consort, Pao Ssu, surrounded by courtiers
watching the arrival of feudatories who had been sum-
moned by a false alarm to rescue the capital from a pre-
tended assault by Tatars, all to gain a smile from the
notorious Pao Ssu. (See Mayer's Chinese Reader's Man-
ual, p. 168). Height 26}^ inches.
K'ang-hsi (1662-1722).
495. TALL BEAKER with long neck, spreading
mouth, and slightly spreading base, of the same beauty
and style of decoration as No. 475. The emblems
enclosed in the brocaded band around the shoulder
are all musical, comprising a bronze bell, castanets, a
mouth reed organ, and a copper chime mounted on its
frame. The appropriate association of birds and flow-
ers in the reverse panels is proceeded by pictures of
the phoenix and peony, of mandarin ducks and lotus
flowers, wild geese and reeds, of storks and peaches,
joins emblems of longevity, and the rest. Among
animals sacred deer are grouped with pines, the sea
monster and eagle with pines, and dryandras, and the
eight chargers of the ancient Emperor Mu Wang, with
willows.
K'ang-hsi (1662-1722). Height 32 inches.
496, 497. TWO BEAKERS with long necks and
spreading mouths and bases. Each shows on the body
an exceedingly rich decoration in which green and gold
predominate; two crested pheasants in plumage of blue,
red, green, orange, and gold on the limb of a tree, with
blue-green and white flowers, which, starting in front
of pale green and purple rocks, spreads upward round
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