Page 54 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain
P. 54
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
SO that it need not detain us long. The Yi-hsing pot-
teries flourished most under the Ming dynasty, having
been founded by Kung Ch'un in the reign of Cheng-te
(i 506-1 521). A more famous potter named Ou worked
here during the reign of Wan-li (i 573-1619), who ex-
celled in the imitation of the antique reproducing the
old crackled and variegated glazes of the Sung dy-
nasty on the brown stoneware of the place. Bottger,
the inventor of Saxon porcelain, first tried his hand
at the imitation of the Chinese hoccaro ware in 1708,
some of his pieces being exhibited in the Johanneum
—at Dresden, beside the original models with some
success, although his essays hardly deserve the epithet
of porcelaine rouge with which they were baptized.
The Elers, too, copied the red varieties with great
exactness in Staffordshire, so that it is not always easy,
according to Sir Wollaston Franks, to distinguish their
productions from Oriental examples.
After this digression we must return to the story of
pottery in China. It passed through here, as else-
where, the usual stages of sun-dried and burned bricks,
tiles, architectural ornaments, culinary utensils, funeral
and sacrificial vases and dishes. The most ancient
specimens, dug up from burial mounds, resemble gen-
erally, in form as well as in fabric, the prehistoric pot-
tery of other parts of the world. They are unglazed,
and only the later examples show signs of having been
fashioned on the wheel. The Chinese claim the in-
vention of the potter's wheel, like many of the great
nations of antiquity, and ascribe it to a director of
pottery attached to the legendary emperor, Huang Ti,
who "first taught the art of welding clay." The
ancient emperor Shun, who was a potter before he
was called to the throne, is reputed to have been a
master of the art, his wine vessels and earthenware
coffins being alluded to in the ritual classics of the
Chou dynasty. Wu Wang, the founder of the Chou
xlii
