Page 393 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

C/iiuese Pottery and Porcelain

main criteria private collec
of the wares
tions. To these

in the eyes of periods prac-
tically belong
Chinese con- all the finer
noisseurs.

Space will not kinds o f Chi-

permit one to nese porcelain,

follow Mr. the earlier

Hobson in his pieces which

interesting" ac- come within

count of the that category

different varie- showing little

ties of the differentiation

wares, some of from stone-

the most es- ware. The

teemed of wares belong-

which are still ing to these

unrepresented periods are so

in European varied and nu-

collect ions. merous that it

The pieces of is impossible
this period
to attempt to
formed a great
w Mfo 1 1 o r.

source of in- Hobson in his

spirat ion to elaborate d e -

later Chinese scription and

makers, and classification

were frequent- t'.a.N(; pottery dish with mirror pattern incised .\nd coloured blue of them. His
green, etc.; inner horder of "ju-l" cloud scrolls on a mottles book i s deci-
ly imitated. yellow ground, outer border of mottled green ; pale green glaze dedly the best
a^r. d most ex-
On the ques- underneath and three tusk-shaped feet diameter, i5 in. haustive epi-

tion o f t h e (eumorfopoulos collection)
exact period in

which Chinese porcelain originated, Mr. Hobson is in tome of Chinese ceramic art that as been placed before

direct conflict with Dr. Bushell's latest pronouncements, the English reader. Perhaps " epijrne " is the wrong word

which apparently lean to the theory that porcelain was to use in this conjunction ; for thouh the work cannot con-
tain such minute particulars as isiven in books dealing
first made so far back as the Han dynasty. Mr. Hob-

son complains that Dr. Bushell bases his idea on the only with individual phases of the jbject, the information

mistranslation of a Chinese word, which he renders as given regarding the different kinc of pottery and porce-
lain, the factories at which they 2re produced, and the
"porcelain'" instead of "pottery." A knowledge of

Chinese would be essential to do justice to the merits characteristics and marks by wl ;n they are to be dis-

of the controversy. Mr. Hobson, however, makes out tinguished, is at once so full an so concisely put that

a strong case for his contention, and such extraneous even the highly specialised colleor will find it of great

evidence as exists, chiefly of a negative character, leans value in studying the particular riod or style which he

decidedly on his side. No specimens of porcelain be- affects. To the general studentio book can be recom-
longing to the Han or even the T'ang period have yet mended more highlv. It is wri»i« with a clearness and

been discovered, and the inference appears to be that precision that leaves little scopc'or misunderstanding.

its manufacture was not accomplished until the T'ang The plates are numerous, and ha^'( een carefully selected

period. Mr. William Burton, in the last edition of the to give the best idea of the dififerH types of pottery and
Encyclopd.diaBrita)inica^ coincides with this view, which,
Aporcelain. highly valuable fe;;re is that every piece

one^ would imagine, must be generally accepted until illustrated is elaborately describ and its salient cha-

7 t'-T-"'J. r. 3" -13 ""-^rc^iiced -.o the co2"'t''*i'-Vj-in-tIi'* -fofsT' vac'-er-'^ticp poinff^H out J'l -fii^-j?; rue nlates wil!^ be

belonging to the earlier dynasties. of great assistance to the tyro in entifying the style and
[Vuan dynasty ( 1 280-1 367 A.D.), founded by the
period of any piece which may 1 -.ffered to him. The
under Kublai Khan, gave little encouragement
plates in monochrome are gener \ of excellent quality
Inic art, and it was not until the time of the Ming ;
(1368-1644; that it made any substantial advance.
and those in colour, if not alwa si reproducing the exact
I
tints of the pieces from which t^iis^ire taken— an almost
(rks of this period, and even more those of the
lynasty (1644-1910), are naturally the best known impossible performance in the t '!<^colour process— are
Ipeans, and are best represented in public and
always sufficiently explicit as n 1 \ allow any doubt as

to the identity of the originals.

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