Page 193 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

PAINTED IN COLOURS UNDER THE GLAZE. 145

Some reason that, as the emperor personates the empire, and
as the five-clawed dragon personates the emperor, the dragon
may with propriety be considered as the Chinese national coat
—
of arms. Others style it the patron god the protecting deity
of the
empire."
White Slip Decokation.
The decoration in this class consists of figures, flowers, and
other ornamentations in white on coloured The
grounds.
white called with which
semi-liquid clay, technically slip,
these pieces are decorated, when fired, stands out in relief on
the porcelain, and resembles somewhat the Wedgwood style of
decoration. This white slip ornamentation generally appears
on pieces coated with blue, celadon, brown, grey, or lavender
It does not seem to have been in favour in China,
glaze. great
as the class is but a small one, and none of the
pieces belong-
ing to it appear to be of any great age.
No. 220. Porcelain beaker-shaped cuspidore. No mark.
Covered with greyish-blue glaze, ornamented with flowers and
in white Unlike No. 326, the base of this is
figures slip. piece
at the bottom of the bulb, so that there is a deep stand, the
inside of which, as also of the is covered with white
cuspidore,
The stand is ornamented with and
glaze. prunus peaches ; on
the body of the piece is a gentleman dressed in the old style,
with court head-dress, and three also a palm tree. On
girls,
the neck are and other flowers.
paionies

PAINTED IN COLOURS UNDER THE GLAZE.

Blue and White.
In this class the blue to the unbaked which
is
applied paste,
is then and fired at a for
glazed very high temperature twenty-
four hours, so that there is but one while in the
firing, poly-
chrome class the colours are to the
applied glazed porcelain
in its manufactured state, which is then fired at a lower
again
temperature to fix the colours ; these, therefore, appear over
the instead of under, as in the case of blue and white china.
glaze
L