Page 87 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

inscriptions being usually tags of verse on the subject
illustrated, or perhaps the signature and date of the

artist who has painted the scene. For example, the

decorator of the vase (No. 865) of the highest quality

—painted with transparent enamels of great beauty dates

his work: "A fortunate day in the shang-huan dec-

ade of a summer month in the cyclical year hsin mao,"

which would correspond to A.D. 171 1 of our calendar,

as it is certainly a production of the K'ang-hsi period.

The superb eggshell vases, Nos. 464, 465, which have

been correctly referred to the reign of Yung-cheng, are

inscribed with the date, locality, and studio name of
the artist, who worked, he tells us, at the Chin Shui

T'ing, or "Water-side Arbour," by the Pearl River, in

the cyclical ytdiV chi yu, i.e., A.D. 1729.
The next inscription occurs on the inside of a rose-

backed eggshell plate in the collection ^
which has been illustrated in the ar-

tide of the Burlington Magazine, just ^^ ^.

cited. It reads "A Ling Nan (Canton) 'J

painting," with the studio name of ''^'^ ^^"^ ""' ^"^

the artist attached. This artist's sig- "A Canton Painting"

....• 1known fr rom ot^1her sources, ,c- a\ tTat Sch!i,b\
(Signed)
natureis

and his date may be gathered from "White Rock

the inscription on a saucer of similar (Studio)"

style, etched by Jules Jacquemart,

for his brother's Histoire de la Porcelaine (PI. VIII,

Fig. 3), which is headed the cyclical year Chia Ch'en,
i.e., A.D. 1724, the second year of the reign of the em-

peror Yung-cheng.

The last inscription for which we have room is also

written, within a foliated panel, in the midst of the
blue and white decoration. It is remarkable for its

length, as well as for its intrinsic interest, and is taken

from a pair of portly blue and white pricket candle-

mysticks, two and a third feet high, in own possess-

ion, part of a wu kung altar set, which was specially

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