Page 485 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

Alphonse Salvetat, in his preface to M. Stanislas

Julien's Histoire et Fabrication de la Porcetaine Chinoise,
" " of
are of much interest. Variety," he writes,

fonds cokres de grand feu has made the reputation

of Chinese porcelain quite as much, perhaps, as

originality of decoration and rich harmony of paint-

ing. The analyses which I have been able to make

of these colours, as well as the syntheses which

I have metried, justify in regarding as tolerably

exact the greater part of the recipes given in Chinese

books, at any rate in the case of those where the
synonyms are easily found. Some of the Chinese

colours de grandfeu have not been as yet reproduced

on European porcelains. I may cite specially the
clear, bluish green colour known as celadon, so much

sought after by amateurs, and the reds, sometimes

orange, sometimes bordering upon violet, which owe

their colour to protoxide of copper. These tints are

of great delicacy and brilliancy. It would be a mat-

ter of real interest to reproduce them for use on our

porcelains. But this is not the place to give recipes

which render their production probable, perhaps pos-

sible. It is to be regretted that the detailed instruc-

tions given by M. Bronginart, at different epochs, to

travellers setting out for China, or the letters which

I have myself addressed to persons living in that dis-

tant country, have not brought us more complete

ideas upon this subject than those acquired by ex-

amining or analysing pieces which we have been
permitted to study. The want of isolated materials

and their absence in either a crude or prepared form,

as they were furnished by the consignment of Pere

Ly, so far as concerns decorations in couleurs de moufie

induce us to think, as has been often said, that those

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