Page 294 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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i62 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

{wu se^) ornament, and they are very common. Of the modern

(i.e. beginning of the Ming dynasty) wares good specimens with

white colour and lustrous material are very highly valued. There

are besides dark green - wares with gilt ornament. They are

chiefly wine pots and wine cups, which are very lovely."

The T^ao lu has a paragraph on the shu fu wares which reflects

(not always very clearly) these earlier accounts, adding that " this

is the ware made in the private (min) factories and supplied to the

palace ; the material had to be fine, white and unctuous clay,

and thin specimens were preferred. . . . Inside them were written

the characters shu fu as a mark. At the time the private factories

also issued imitations of these wares ; but of the porcelains destined

for the Emperor ten out of a thousand, one out of a hundred, only

were selected. The private factories were unable to achieve uniform

success." The author has inserted the gilt and enamelled,^ and

a large number of the other wares mentioned in the Memoirs of

Chiang and the Ko ku yao lun in that irresponsible fashion which

makes much of the Chinese ceramic literature exceedingly diffi-.

cult to handle. Indeed, one is tempted to ask what was his authority

for the statement that the " private factories " made the shu fu

ware, in spite of the very circumstantial tone of the passage.

It is clear that the best of the Yiian wares made at Ching-t6

Chen was plain white or white with engraved and moulded

designs ; and in this connection it is interesting to find an example

of shu fu porcelain described and illustrated in Hsiang's Album. ^

It is a small, bottle-shaped vase with bulbous mouth, engraved

with a dragon and cloud design, and stated to be marked with

Wethe characters shu fu under the base. are told that in colour,

form, and design it was copied from a specimen of the Northern

Ting ware, and that the shu fu ware, itself copied from Ting

Chou originals, served as a model for the fine white engraved

porcelains of the Yung Lo and Hsiian Td periods of the Ming

dynasty. It stood, in short, midway between the soft, opaque

looking, creamy white Sung ware and the thin, hard, and highly

' Lit. " five-coloured."

- cKing hei. Bushell renders the two words " greenish black."

* ^^t^^3i'&'f£^" i yu. ch'uang chin wu sS hua die. The expression ch'uang
chin, which also occurs in the Ko ku yao lun, apparently carries the idea of gilding,

though its literal meaning ("originate gold") is very vague. Bushell renders the
phrase " pencilled with designs in gold," and Julien " rehaussde d'or."

* Op. cit., Fig. 21.