Page 4 - Chinese Porcelain The Altman Collection

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Fig. 2. Ch'ing porcelains. Above: three peach bloom vases. All K'ang-hsi period. Heights 7 8, 7
inches. Center: large vase with peach-coloredglaze. Yung-chengperiod (I723-I735). Height 20 inches. Below
(left to right): mirrorblack vase, peach bloomwater coupe,peach bloom vase with green dragon, and oxblood
vase. All K'ang-hsi period. Heights 161M, 3 4, 8, Ig 12 inches

overlooking the stairway in the Great Hall. The most admired T'ang pottery is called
Continuous cases have been designed (see Fig- "three-color" ware or T'ang san-ts'ai;in it im-
ures I and 2), with attic and foot lighting and pressionisticsoft yellow browns, greens, or blues
flexible dividers, to bring out to the full the dra- were used in combination with the rosy white
matic shapes and colors of these beautiful pieces. clay body. The san-ts'aitechnique was used not
only for daily utensils, but also for tomb figurines
Most of the porcelainswere producedat Ching- known as mingchi.We are accustomed to seeing
te chen during the seventeenth and eighteenth these tomb figures singly or in small groups, but
centuries. Many of them, however, continue tra- they were actually interredin large numbersand
ditions that had existed for centuries before, for often included architectural models. There were

Chinese ceramic history has a continuity rarely whole troops of horsemen and hostlers, female
found elsewhere. Some bowls and vases in the musicians and dancers, animals and household
furniture. The custom of placing such objects in
Altman collection resemble in shape early Chin- tombs may have been substituted for an earlier
ese pottery and bronzes, which can be dated be- practice of burying alive with a man of rank his
tween 3000 B.C.and A.D. 300. It is, however, to wives, servants, and livestock. The number of
the golden periods of Chinese art, the T'ang
dynasty (618-906) and the Sung dynasty (960- potteries placed in a given tomb depended upon
1279), that the Altman pieces refer directly.

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