Page 201 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

PAINTED IN COLOURS UNDER THE GLAZE. 149

Chow to gather firewood, he entered a grotto, in which some
men were seated, intent a of chess. He laid
aged upon game
down his axe and looked on at the game, in the course of which
one of the old men handed him a thing in shape like a date-
him to it in his mouth. No sooner had he
stone, telling put
tasted it than he 'became oblivious of hunger and thirst.'
After some time had elapsed, one of the players said, ' It is
long since you came here. You should go home now ! ' where-
upon Wang Chih, proceeding to pick up his axe, found that
its handle had mouldered into dust. On repairing to his
home, he found that centuries had passed since the time when
he had left it for the mountains, and that no of his
vestige
kinsfolk remained. Retiring to a retreat among the hills, he
devoted himself to the rites of Taoism, and attained to
finally
immortality."
No. 223. Dish of same shape as above. Diameter, 12 §
inches ; height, 2{ inches. No mark. Edge coloured blue,
edge of stand unglazed. The centre decoration is marked
off by double lines, from which spring eight large and eight
small cartouch-shaped radiating compartments, the former
filled, four with symbols and four with flowers, the eight
small with diaper work and a knot. The centre decoration is
worked into an octagon reserve, by means of diaper work, con-
two birds, and flowers from a rock. This
taining springing is
an old plate, and may have been made for Persia.
The backs of both these dishes are very roughly decorated.
Plates of archaic design appear always to have the edge
blue. The brown so on the
(when coloured) glaze, general
edges of "Indian china" plates, seems to have been introduced
quite at the beginning of the eighteenth century ; probably
before that blue was when the
employed edges were coloured,
so the Chinese in these old adhere to the
reproducing designs
blue
edge.
No. 224. Thanks to Mr. George Salting, it is possible to
include in this series a specimen of Ming porcelain with
Elizabethan silver mountings. As seen in the photograph, the
motive appears to be the making fast of a horse to a post.
These pieces were no doubt used as tankards, but we must not
jump at the conclusion that in those very early times the
Chinese made to suit the of the
shapes requirements European
L 1