Page 359 - Chinese Porcelain Vol I, Galland

PAINTED IN COLOURS OVER THE GLAZE. 209

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To these subdivisions the following are now added :
Archaic Mandarin.
Nos. 342, 343, are taken from a beaker vase with oviform
body. Height, 17^ inches. Mark, two blue rings. The shape
is an imitation of the more rounded forms we find in the older
classes, showing, however, the stiffness of the mandarin class.
The are bolder than usual, but the is in the
figures colouring
true mandarin pinks, reds, yellows, blues, and greens. The
border at foot is probably intended to represent official battens
with heads. The some of the
joo-e design represents games
most in vogue in China drawn into a procession, one part of
which is on the neck and the other on the body of the vase.
In No. 343, at top, we have three figures seated on the ground,
"
gambling with cash." Kite-flying is going on behind them,
the kite being decorated with the Tae-keih, followed (in No.
342) with other figures carrying insignia and symbols. Below,
two standard-bearers, come three men on
in No. 343, following
cock-horses, a lotus leaf being held over one in imitation of a
state umbrella. These are followed No. men
(see 342) by playing
the game of lion ; while behind these, not seen in the photo-
others are boats on a small sheet of water.
graph, sailing toy
549 : " adults in the Chinese
Doolittle, p. Among January,
and occasionally at other times of the year, there are one or
two kinds of amusements which deserve
practised, perhaps
mention. One of these a lion a ball. A
represents pursuing
of an immense lion is made out of bamboo and
figure splints
covered with cloth coloured to the
pasteboard, represent popular
notions in regard to this animal. It is carried by two men
or who their heads and shoulders into the body
boys, put
of the animal. Their and of their bodies
legs part appear
below, about where the fore legs and the hinder legs should
come. The of the bodies and the lower limbs of the
parts
actors, whose heads are concealed in the body of the lion,
are sometimes covered with coloured or in
clothing, painted
a manner which fits them, as the Chinese believe, to represent
the four legs of the beast itself. The lion has an immense
head, and is made with open jaws, so that one or both of those
who personate its legs and feet can see out pretty clearly
through its mouth. The front one, at least, can see well where
p