Page 26 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

PREFACE

the illusory "soft paste" of the dealers. The semi-
egg-shell examples of it in blue and white, which for a
time were more or less of a rage with collectors, were
really well-advanced examples of the downward ten-
dency of the art in the middle of the reign of Ch'ien-

lung.

When Chinese porcelain first became known in Eu-

rope it aroused universal admiration and wonder.

Western nations had only their own wares to com-
pare it with, and when one surveys the ceramic field

of Europe, even as late as the year 1700, it is possible

to form some idea of the impression it produced. The
pottery of England, of Germany, of the Lowlands,
of France, and even the beautiful faiences of Italy,
were at a vast disadvantage. The quality of the Chi-
nese paste, its purity and brilliancy, its density and
fineness, and, above all, the beauty of its enamel
colors, which was approached only by that of precious

—stones the sapphire, the ruby, the emerald, the ame-
—thyst, the turquoise, and the topaz were a revelation.

Little is known of the earliest pieces that came from
China. There is a legend that Saladin made a present

of forty pieces to Nureddin, Caliph of Syria, circa a. d.
1 188, but what was its true nature has not been told.

Marco Polo is said to have brought back some por-

celain, in 1295, to Venice, after his twenty years' so-
journ with the great Khan, but the circumstances
of his return do not enhance the probability that por-
celain formed a part of his baggage. Nothing, how-
ever, has prevented the appearance in European col-
lections of veritable Chinese porcelains said to have
come from Venice and attributed to the great travel-
ler. They were hexagonal, reticulated pieces of vis-
cous white, and Marco Polo would have had to defer

his return from Cathay for some 200 years in order
to bring them with him.

The earliest pieces to reach Europe were probably

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