Page 501 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

after so many long years of prosperous achievement

sufficient to have crystallised into a natural en-

dowment the transmitted skill of fifty generations

a brief withdrawal of Court patronage had power to

paralyse art. During the years that intervened be-

tween the fall of the Ming dynasty (1644) and the

accession of the Emperor Kang-hsi (1661), the out-
come of the best factories scarcely deserve to be

called mediocre and again, although the reigns of
;

that sovereign and his two successors are memorable

as a period of renaissance culminating in hitherto

unparalled perfection, the illiberal policy of subse-

quent Emperors was the signal for an almost imme-

diate loss of everything but tradition. Since the

beginning of the present century, China has pro-

duced little that deserves to be classed with the works

of her old masters. No longer are found the depth

and softness of paste, rich velvety lustre of glaze and

brilliancy of enamels that distinguished, as they are

infallible evidences of, her keramic efforts prior to

1 800 ; while in paintings, bronzes, and lacquer, the

same marked inferiority is manifest.

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