Page 25 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

PREFACE

with it, and whatever of value has since been written

has been founded upon what Dr. Bushell set forth

in his exhaustive work. Much may yet be done to

elucidate special features of Chinese ceramics, but

the great and indispensable achievement is Dr. Bushell's

and that which remains to do is relatively unimportant.

What he accomplished was to move the great mass of

porcelain from one Chinese dynasty to another, from

the Mings to the Ch'ings, and to dispel many and dis-

tracting illusions which had grown up about it. One

of the most important collections in existence was

classified and generally accepted as containing nothing

Abut Ming pieces. year or two after Dr. Bushell's

work appeared it was conceded that it contained only

one Ming example, and that all the rest were of the en-

suing or Ch'ing dynasty. This is a very good example

of the revolution wrought by Dr. Bushell's simple and

wholly unpretentious exposition of the actual bearing

of Chinese literature and learning upon the subject

itself when rightly expounded.

A great deal has been heard among collectors of the

so-called "soft paste" porcelains, and for a long time a

special value seemed to attach to them as if they were
something quite apart from and more desirable than

"hard paste" examples. This naturally was a reflec-

tion of the distinction between "soft paste," or pate

tendre, and hard or true porcelain as recognized in

European porcelains. There is no such thing as soft

paste Chinese porcelain in the European sense of the

term; and yet an immense amount of porcelain found
its way as such into the hands of people who were in-

duced to pay more for it on that account. For the

most part it is inferior, and does not belong to the best

period, but must be ascribed to that of the decadence

of the art, when new and labored characteristics were

imparted to it, to its detriment. The pdie tendre of
the European porcelains has nothing in common with

XV