Page 499 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

off in flakes. Direct experiments long ago showed
that enamels cannot be used in the decoration of

European porcelains owing to this grave defect.
Whatever be the cause to which, in the case of

European porcelain, this want of adherence on the
part of the enamels is due, I think that it is to be
found in the difference between the natures of the

glazes of the two wares. The more fusible pate of

Chinese porcelain had to be covered with a glaze
more fusible than that used in Europe, and it is the

introduction of lime into the glazing material which,

by diminishing the infusibility of the latter, and, per-

haps, modifying its expansion, approaches its physical

properties to those of enamel. If the aspect of Chi-
nese porcelains differs from that of ours, if the har-

mony of their painting seems more varied, these

things are, I believe, the necessary result of the

methods employed in China. All the colours em-

ployed there have but little colouring matter they
;

have no value unless they are given a thickness which

imparts to them a degree of relief impossible to ob-

tain otherwise. The harmony of their decoration

results from the nature and composition of their

enamels.

" It remains only to say a few words of the pro-

cesses of stoving the tender colours, or couleurs de

demi-grand feu. Chinese books, and plates that we

have seen separate the furnaces into two divisions

open and closed. The former are similar to the fur-
naces employed by enamellers. I am not aware that

they are used anywhere in Europe for stoving deco-
rated porcelain except in Germany. Even in China,
the danger of breakage limits the employment of such
furnaces to the stoving of small pieces. Large speci-

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