CHAPTER V

WAN LI [chch 2] (1573–1619) AND OTHER REIGNS

The long reign of Wan Li, the last important period of the Ming dynasty, is certainly the best represented in European collections, a circumstance due to the ceramic activity of the time not less than to its nearness to our own age. In the first year of the reign orders were given that one of the sub-prefects of Jao-chou Fu should be permanently stationed at Ching-tê Chên to supervise the Imperial factory. It appears that he proved a stern taskmaster, and at the same time that the potters were severely burdened by excessive demands from the palace. The picture drawn by the censor in the previous reign of the afflicted condition of the potters, and the story told elsewhere[146] how they had made intercession daily in the temple of the god that the Imperial orders might be merciful, are fitting preface to the tale of the dragon bowls told as follows by T’ang Ying,[147] the director of the factory in the first half of the eighteenth century.

“By the west wall of the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the spirit who protects the potters is a dragon fish bowl (_lung kang_). It is three feet in diameter and two feet high, with a fierce frieze of dragons in blue and a wave pattern below. The sides and the mouth are perfect, but the bottom is wanting. It was made in the Wan Li period of the Ming. Previously these fish bowls had presented great difficulty in the making, and had not succeeded, and the superintendent had increased his severity. Thereupon the divine T’ung took pity on his fellow potters, and served them by alone laying down his life. He plunged into the fire, and the bowls came out perfect. This fish bowl was damaged after it had been finished and selected (for palace use), and for a long time it remained abandoned in a corner of the office. But when I saw it I sent a double-yoked cart and men to lift it, and it was brought to the side of the Ancestral-tablet Hall of the god, where it adorns a high platform, and sacrifice is offered. The vessel’s perfect glaze is the god’s fat and blood; the body material is the god’s body and flesh; and the blue of the decoration, with the brilliant lustre of gems, is the essence of the god’s pure spirit.”

The deification of T’ung was a simple matter to the Chinese, who habitually worship before the tablets of their ancestors; but he seems to have become the genius of the place, and in this capacity to have superseded another canonised potter named Chao,[148] who had been worshipped at Ching-tê Chên since 1425.

To add to the difficulties experienced by the potters in satisfactorily fulfilling the Imperial demands, it had been reported in 1583 that the supplies of earth from Ma-ts’ang were practically worked out, and though good material was found at Wu-mên-t’o, which is also in the district of Fu-liang, the distance for transport was greater, and as the price was not correspondingly raised the supply from this source was difficult to maintain. Consequently we are not surprised to learn that in this same year another memorial was forwarded to the emperor by one of the supervising censors, Wang Ching-min, asking for alleviation of the palace orders, and protesting specifically against the demands for candlesticks, screens, brush handles, and chess apparatus as unnecessarily extravagant. It was urged at the same time that blue decoration should be substituted for polychrome, and that pierced work (_ling lung_) should not be required, the objection to both these processes being that they were difficult to execute and meretricious in effect.

It is stated in the _T’ao lu_[149] that the supply of Mohammedan blue had ceased completely in the reign of Wan Li, and that on the other hand the _chi hung_ or underglaze copper red was made, though it was not equal in quality to the _hsien hung_ or _pao shih hung_[150] of the earlier periods. Both these assertions are based on the somewhat uncertain authority of the _T’ang shih ssŭ k’ao_, and though the truth of the second is shown by existing specimens, the first is only

## partially true, for there are marked examples of Mohammedan blue in the

British Museum and probably elsewhere. Either there were supplies of the Mohammedan material in hand at the beginning of the reign, or they continued to arrive for part at least of the period.

The lists of porcelain supplied to the Court of Wan Li may be consulted with advantage, and the extracts from those of the previous reigns may be supplemented by the following, which, though not necessarily new forms and designs, do not appear in the Chia Ching and Lung Ch’ing records:--

=Forms.=

Trays for wine cups (_pei p’an_).[151]

Beaker-shaped[152] vases (_hu p’ing_ [chch 2]).

Flat-backed wall vases in the form of a double gourd split vertically.

Chess boards (_ch’i p’an_).

Hanging oil lamps[2] (_ch’ing t’ai_ [chch 2]).

Pricket candlesticks (_chu t’ai_). See _Cat. B. F. A._, 1910, E 6: a pricket candlestick with cloud and dragon designs in blue and the Wan Li mark.

Jars for candle snuff (_chien chu kuan_).

Screens (_p’ing_).

Brush handles (_pi kuan_).

Brush rests (_pi chia_).

Brush pots (_pi ch’ung_). Apparently the cylindrical jars usually known as _pi t’ung_.

Fan cases (_shan hsia_).

Water droppers for the ink pallet (_yen shui ti_).

Betel-nut boxes (_pin lang lu_).

Handkerchief boxes (_chin lu_).

Hat boxes (_kuan lu_).

Cool seats (_liang tun_), for garden use in summer.

=Motives for Painted Decoration.=

_Floral, etc.:_

Lily flowers (_hsüan hua_).

Hibiscus (_kuei_) flowers on a brocade ground.

Round medallions of season flowers.

Flower designs broken by medallions of landscape.

Marsh plants.

Sections of water melons (_hsi kua pan_).

Foreign pomegranates; sometimes tied with fillets.

The sacred peach.

Medallions of peach boughs with the seal character _shou_ (longevity).

Apricot (_hsing_) foliage.

Pine pattern brocade.

Ginseng (_hsien_).

Hemp-leaved (_ma yeh_) Indian lotus.

Borders of bamboo foliage and branching prunus.

Grape-vine borders.

_Animals, etc.:_

Monsters: variously described as _hai shou_ (sea monsters) and _i shou_ (strange monsters).

Nine blue monsters in red waves.

Strange monsters attending the celestial dragon.

Sea horses.

Full-faced dragons (_chêng mien lung_). See Plate 66.

Medallions of archaic dragons (_ch’ih_) and tigers.

Ascending and descending dragons.

Couchant, or squatting (_tun_) dragons.

Flying dragons.

The hundred dragons.

The hundred storks.

The hundred deer. (As in the “Hundred Shou Characters” and other similar phrases, the “hundred” is merely an indefinite numerative signifying a large number.)

Elephants with vases of jewels (of Buddhistic significance).

Water birds in lotus plants.

Six cranes, “symbolising the cardinal points of the universe” (_liu ho ch’ien k’un_).

Phœnixes among the season flowers.

Bees hovering round plum blossom.

_Human:_

Men and women (_shih nü_).

Medallions with boys pulling down (branches of) cassia (_p’an kuei_).

The picture of the Hundred Boys.

_Fu_, _Lu_, _Shou_ (Happiness, Rank, and Longevity). It is not stated whether the characters only are intended, or, as is more probable, the three Taoist deities who distribute these blessings.

=Emblematic Motives and Inscriptions.=

The eight Buddhist emblems, bound with fillets (_kuan t’ao_).

_Ju-i_ sceptres bound with fillets.

_Ju-i_ cloud borders (_ju i yün pien_).

Midsummer holiday symbols (_tuan yang chieh_). Explained by Bushell as sprigs of acorns and artemisia hung up on the fifth day of the fifth moon.

Emblems of Longevity (_shou tai_), e.g. gourd, peach, fungus, pine, bamboo, crane, deer.

The “monad symbol” (_hun yüan_), which is apparently another name for the _yin yang_, and the Eight Trigrams. See p. 290.

Lozenge symbols of victory (_fang shêng_).

“The four lights worshipping the star of Longevity” (_ssŭ yang p’êng shou_).

Spiral (_hui_ [chch 1]) patterns.

Sanskrit invocations (_chên yen tz’ŭ_). See Plate 93.

Ancient writings found at Lo-yang (_lo shu_). Lo-yang (the modern Honan Fu) was the capital of the Eastern Han (25–220 A.D.).

Inscriptions in antique seal characters (_chuan_).

Dragons holding up the characters [chch 4] _yung pao wan shou_ (ever insuring endless longevity); and [chch 6] _yung pao hung fu ch’i t’ien_ (ever insuring great happiness equalling Heaven).

Borders inscribed [chch 4] _fu ju tung hai_ (happiness like the eastern sea); and [chch 8] _fêng t’iao yü shun t’ien hsia t’ai p’ing_ (favouring winds and seasonable rain: great peace throughout the empire).

“A symbolical head with hair dressed in four puffs”[153] bearing the characters [chch 4] _yung pao ch’ang ch’un_ (ever insuring long spring).

Taoist deities holding the characters [chch 8] _wan ku ch’ang ch’un ssŭ hai lai ch’ao_ (through myriads of ages long spring; tribute coming from the four seas); or the same sentiment with _yung pao_ (ever insuring) in place of _wan ku_.

Dragons in clouds holding the characters [chch 2] _shêng shou_, the emperor’s birthday.

=Miscellaneous.=

Representations of ancient coins (_ku lao ch’ien_).

Landscapes (_shan shui_).

Necklaces (_ying lo_ [chch 2]).

Jewel mountains in the sea waves (_pao shan hai shui_). This is, no doubt, the familiar border pattern of conventional waves with conical rocks standing up at regular intervals.

Round medallions (_ho tzŭ_, lit. boxes) in brocade grounds.

Most of these designs are given under the heading of “blue and white,” though, as in the Lung Ch’ing list, the blue is in many cases supplemented by colour or by other forms of decoration such as patterns engraved in the body (_an hua_), and “designs on a blue ground,” the nature of them not explained, but no doubt similar to those described on p. 61. The method of reserving the decoration in white in a blue ground (_ch’ing ti pai hua_) is specifically mentioned under the heading of “mixed decorations.” The supplementary decoration consists of on-glaze enamels mixed with the underglaze blue; bowls with coloured exterior and blue and white inside or vice versa; yellow grounds with designs engraved under the glaze; gilded fishes among polychrome water weeds, and other gilded patterns; curling waves in polychrome and plum blossoms; red dragons in blue waves, the red either under or over the glaze; relief designs (_ting chuang_[154]) and pierced work (_ling lung_[155]).

The “mixed colours” included garden seats with lotus designs, etc., in polychrome (_wu ts’ai_) and with aubergine brown (_tzŭ_) lotus decoration in a monochrome yellow ground; tea cups with dragons in fairy flowers engraved under a yellow glaze; yellow ground with polychrome (_wu ts’ai_) decoration; banquet dishes, white inside, the outside decorated with dragons and clouds in red, green, yellow, and aubergine.

The custom of minutely subdividing the work in the porcelain factories so that even the decoration of a single piece was parcelled out among several painters existed in the Ming dynasty, though perhaps not carried so far as in the after periods. It is clear that under such a system the individuality of the artists was completely lost, and we never hear the name of any potter or painter who worked at the Imperial factory. In the private factories probably the division of labour was less rigorous, and it is certain that many of the specimens were decorated by a single brush. But even so, signatures of potters or painters are almost unknown; and only one or two private potters of conspicuous merit at the end of the Ming period are mentioned by name in the Chinese books. Mr. Ts’ui, for instance, has already been mentioned in the chapter on the Chia Ching period, and three others occur in the annals of the Wan Li period.

[Illustration: Plate 75.--Ming Porcelain.

Fig. 1.--Tripod Bowl with raised peony scrolls in enamel colours. Wan Li mark. Height 5¾ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._

Fig. 2.--Blue and white Bowl, Chia Ching period. Mark, _Wan ku ch’ang ch’un_ (“A myriad antiquities and enduring spring!”). Height 3 inches. _Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin._

Fig. 3.--Ewer with white slip _ch’i-lin_ on a blue ground. Wan Li period. Height 9 inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._

Fig. 4.--Gourd-shaped Vase with winged dragons and fairy flowers, raised outlines and coloured glazes on the biscuit. Sixteenth century. Height 8¾ inches. _Salting Collection._]

Of these, the most interesting personality was Hao Shih-chiu,[156] scholar, painter, poet, and potter, who signed his wares with the fanciful name _Hu yin tao jên_[157] (Taoist hidden in a tea pot), to show that he “put his soul” into the making of his pots. He lived, we are told,[158] in exaggerated simplicity, in hut, with a mat for a door and a broken jar for a window; but he was so celebrated as a man of talent and culture that his hut was frequented by the _literati_, who capped his verses and admired his wares. The latter were of great refinement and exquisitely beautiful, and his white “egg shell”[159] wine cups were so delicate as to weigh less than a gramme.[160] No less famous were his red wine cups, bright as vermilion, the colour floating in the glaze like red clouds. They were named _liu hsia chan_[161] (_lit._ floating red cloud cups), which has been poetically rendered by Bushell as “dawn-red wine cups” and “liquid dawn cups,” and were evidently one of the reds of the _chi hung_ class produced by copper oxide in the glaze, like the beautiful wine cups with clouded maroon red glaze of the early eighteenth century. All these wares were eagerly sought by connoisseurs throughout the Chinese empire. “There were also elegantly formed pots (hu), in colour pale green, like Kuan and Ko wares, but without the ice crackle, and golden brown[162] tea pots with reddish tinge, imitating the contemporary wares of the Ch’ên family at Yi-hsing, engraved underneath with the four characters, _Hu yin tao jên_.”

The “red cloud” cups are eulogised by the poet Li Jih-hua in a verse addressed to their maker as fit to be “started from the orchid pavilion to float down the nine-bend river.”[163]

[Illustration: Plate 76.--Blue and White Porcelain. Sixteenth Century.

Fig. 1.--Vase with monster handles, archaic dragons. Height 10⅞ inches. _Halsey Collection._

Fig. 2.--Hexagonal Bottle, white in blue designs. Mark, a hare. Height 11½ inches. _Alexander Collection._

Fig. 3.--Bottle with “garlic mouth,” stork and lotus scrolls, white in blue. Height 11 inches. _Salting Collection._

Fig. 4.--Vase (_mei p’ing_), Imperial dragon and scrolls. Wan Li mark on the shoulder. Height 15 inches. _Coltart Collection._]

The two other potters of this period whose names have survived are Ou of Yi-hsing fame (vol. i., p. 181) and Chou Tan-ch’üan, whose wonderful imitations of Sung Ting ware have been described in vol. i., p. 94. Many clever imitations of this latter porcelain were made at Ching-tê Chên in the Wan Li period, and a special material, _ch’ing-t’ien_[164] stone, was employed for the purpose; but the followers of Ch’ou Tan-ch’üan were not so successful as their master, and their wares are described as over-elaborate in decoration and quite inferior to Ch’ou’s productions. There was one type, however, which is specially mentioned, the oblong rectangular boxes made to hold seal-vermilion. These are described in a sixteenth-century work[165] as either pure white or painted in blue, and usually six or seven inches long. They are accorded a paragraph in the _T’ao shuo_[166] under the heading of _fang ting_ or “imitation Ting ware,” and they were probably of that soft-looking, creamy white crackled ware to which Western collectors have given the misleading name of “soft paste.”[167]

Another private manufacture specially mentioned in the _T’ao lu_[168] was located in a street called _Hsiao nan_ [chch 2] where, we are told, “they made wares of small size only, like a squatting frog, and called for that reason frog wares (_ha ma[169] yao_). Though coarse, they were of correct form; the material was yellowish, but the body of the ware was thin; and though small, the vessels were strong. One kind of bowl was white in colour with a tinge of blue (_tai ch’ing_), and decorated in blue with a single orchid spray or bamboo leaves; and even those which had no painted design had one or two rings of blue at the mouth. These were called “white rice vessels” (_pai fan ch’i_). There were, besides, bowls with wide mouths and flattened rims (_p’ieh t’an_)[170] but shallow, and pure white, imitating the Sung bowls. All these wares had a great vogue, both at the time and at the beginning of the present (i.e. the Ch’ing) dynasty.”

Out of the comparatively large number of Wan Li porcelains in European collections the majority are blue and white. This is only to be expected, having regard to the preponderance of this style of decoration in the Imperial lists, and also to the fact that it was found easiest of all processes to execute. In fact, the censor pleading on behalf of the potters in 1583 asks that this style may be substituted for the more exacting polychrome and pierced work. It has already been mentioned that the supplies of Mohammedan blue apparently came to an end early in the reign, but there are enough examples of this colour associated with the Wan Li mark to show that it was used for part at least of the period. One of these is a well-potted bowl of fine white porcelain, entirely covered with Sanskrit characters (_chên yen tz’ŭ_), in the British Museum; and another piece* is a dish moulded in the form of an open lotus flower with petals in relief, and in the centre a single Sanskrit character. Both are painted in a clear and vivid Mohammedan blue, and have the Wan Li mark under the base. A dark violet blue, closely akin to the typical Chia Ching colour but with a touch of indigo, occurs on two dishes,* decorated with a pair of fishes among aquatic plants and bearing the four characters of the Wan Li mark surrounding a cartouche, which contains the felicitous legend, “Virtue, culture, and enduring spring” (see vol. i., p. 225). An intense but more vivid violet blue, which betrays something of the Mohammedan blend, is seen on a ewer* of Persian form, decorated with a _ch’i-lin_ reclining before a strangely Italian-looking fountain. The ware of this piece, though thick, is of fine grain, and the glaze has a faint greenish tinge, and its mark, a hare,[171] (see vol. i., p. 227) occurs on several other examples of varying quality, but all of late Ming character.

Another group of marked Wan Li ware, comprising bowls and dishes with trim neat finish and obviously destined for table use, has a soft-looking glaze, often much worn, but, even in the less used parts, with a peculiar smoothness of surface which is, no doubt, largely due to age. There are three examples of this group in the British Museum, all painted in the same soft, dark indigo-tinged blue. One is a bowl with baskets of season flowers round the exterior, insects, and a border of dragon and phœnix pattern; while inside is a blue medallion with a full-face dragon reserved in white. The other two are dishes with figure subjects and gourd vine borders, which are interesting because the painting shows signs of a transition state, part being in flat Ming washes, and part showing the marbled effect which was afterwards characteristic of the K’ang Hsi blue and white.

In striking contrast with this smooth, soft-surfaced ware is a vase* of square, beaker shape, and details which indicate a form derived from bronze. Though evidently an Imperial piece, it is of strong, heavy build, with a hard thick glaze of greenish tinge, so full of minute bubbles as to spread in places a veritable fog over the blue decoration beneath. The design, consisting of a dragon and phœnix among sprays of (?) lily, with rock and wave borders, is repeated in all the spaces, and below the lip in front is the Wan Li mark extended in a single line. A similar vase,* but with polychrome decoration, illustrated on Plate 81, will serve to show the form and design. Both are fine, decorative objects, in a strong, rugged style, which takes no account of small fire-flaws and slight imperfections in the glaze. The same strong, hard body and glaze is seen again on three flat, narrow-rimmed dishes,* which are conspicuous for unusual borders, two having a large checker and the third a chevron pattern, in addition to a thin blue line on either side of the edge. Sand adhering to the foot rim and faint radiating lines scored in the base are indications of rough finish, and they are clearly all the work of a private factory perhaps catering for the export trade.

A variety of boxes figured in the Imperial lists, destined for holding incense, vermilion, chess pieces, handkerchiefs, caps, sweetmeats, cakes, etc. A fair number of these have survived and found their way into Western collections. Round, square, oblong with rounded ends, and sometimes furnished with interior compartments, they are usually decorated with dragon designs in dark blue, occasionally tricked out with touches of iron red; but miscellaneous subjects also occur in their decoration, as in a fine example exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910,[172] which has figure subjects on the cover and a landscape with waterfall, probably from a picture of the celebrated mountain scenery in Szechuan. Sometimes the covers of these boxes are perforated as though to allow some perfume to escape. Other interesting late Ming porcelains in the same exhibition were a pricket candlestick with cloud and dragon ornament and the Wan Li mark; a curious perfume vase (Plate 68, Fig. 1), which illustrates the design of lions sporting with balls of brocade, an unmarked piece which might even be as early as Chia Ching; and a wide-mouthed vase lent by the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, with the familiar design of fantastic lions moving among peonies and formal scrolls on the body and panels of flowers separated by trellis diaper on the shoulder. The last is a type which is not uncommon, but this particular example is interesting because it belonged to one of the oldest collections in England, presented to the Oxford Museum by John Tradescant, and mostly collected before 1627.

The export trade with Western Asia was in full swing in the reign of Wan Li, and the Portuguese traders had already made their way to the Far East and brought back Chinese porcelain for European use. That it was, however, still a rare material in England seems to be indicated by the sumptuous silver-gilt mounts in which stray specimens were enshrined. Several of these mounted specimens still exist, and seven of them were seen at the Burlington Fine Arts Exhibition, 1910,[173] the date of the mounts being about 1580–1590. Taken, as they may fairly be, as typical specimens, they show on the whole a porcelain of indifferent quality, with all the defects and virtues of export ware--the summary finish of skilful potters who worked with good material but for an uncritical public, and rapid, bold draughtsmanship in an ordinary quality of blue usually of greyish or indigo tint. The most finished specimen was a bowl from the Pierpont Morgan Collection, with a design of phœnixes and lotus scrolls finely drawn in blue of good quality. Unlike the others, it had a reign mark (that of Wan Li), and probably it was made at the Imperial factory. A bottle mounted as a ewer from the same collection had a scale pattern on the neck, flowering plants and birds on the body, and a saucer dish was painted in the centre with a typical late Ming landscape, with mountains, pine trees, pagoda, a pleasure boat, and sundry figures. The blue of this last piece was of fair quality but rather dull, and it had a double ring under the base void of mark. Another bowl had on the exterior panel designs with deer in white reserved in a blue ground, in a style somewhat similar to that of the bottle illustrated on Plate 76, Fig. 3. There is a bowl in the British Museum, mounted with silver-gilt foot and winged caryatid handles of about 1580 (Plate 69, Fig. 1). The porcelain is of fine white material with thick lustrous glaze of slightly bluish tint and “pinholed” here and there; and the design painted in blue with a faint tinge of indigo consists of a vase with a lotus flower and a lotus leaf and three egrets, in a medallion inside and four times repeated on the exterior. This is clearly an early Wan Li specimen, if, indeed, it is not actually as old as Chia Ching.

The most remarkable collection of Chinese export porcelain is illustrated by Professor Sarre[174] from a photograph which he was able to make of the _Chini-hane_ or porcelain house attached to the mosque of Ardebil, in Persia. Ranged on the floor are some five hundred specimens--jars, vases, ewers, and stacks of plates, bowls and dishes, many of which had formerly occupied niches in the walls of the building erected by Shah Abbas the Great[175] (1587–1628). Unfortunately, the conditions were not favourable to photography, and the picture, valuable as it is, only permits a clear view of the nearer objects, the rest being out of focus and represented by mere shadows of themselves. They are, we are told, mainly blue and white, but with a sprinkling of coloured pieces, and it is clear from the picture that they belong to various periods of the Ming dynasty, mostly to the later part. They include, no doubt, presents from the Chinese Court,[176] besides the porcelains which came in the ordinary way of trade, and we recognise a large vase almost identical with the fine Chia Ching specimen on Plate 72: a small-mouthed, baluster-shaped vase, similar in form and decoration to a marked Wan Li specimen in the Pierpont Morgan Collection[177]; a bowl with lotus scrolls in blotchy blue, recalling the style of Plate 67, Fig. 4; a ewer with the curious fountain design described on p. 67; besides a number of the ordinary late Ming export types and some celadon jars and bulb bowls of a slightly earlier period. Some of the pots, we are told, are almost a metre in height. Among the tantalising forms in the indistinct background are some large covered jars with a series of loop-handles on the shoulders, such as are found in Borneo and the East Indies (see vol. i., p. 189).

One of the most attractive types of late Ming export porcelain, and at the same time the most easily recognised, consists of ewers, bowls, and dishes of thin, crisp porcelain with characteristic designs in pale, pure blue of silvery tone; see Plate 77, Fig. 1. The ware is of fine, white, unctuous material with a tendency (not very marked) to turn brown at the foot rim and in parts where the glaze is wanting. The glaze partakes of the faintly greenish tinge common to Ming wares, but it is clear and of high lustre. Here, again, a little sand or grit occasionally adhering to the foot rim and radiating lines lightly scored in the base indicate a summary finish which detracts from the artistic effect no more than the obviously rapid though skilful brushwork of the decoration. Sharply moulded forms and crinkled borders, admirably suited to this thin crisp material, give additional play to the lustrous glaze, and the general feeling of the ware is well expressed by Mr. F. Perzynski[178] in his excellent study of the late Ming blue and white porcelains, in which he remarks that “the artists of this group have used thin, brittle material more like flexible metal than porcelain.”

The designs as shown in the illustration are typical of the ware.

[Illustration: PLATE 77

Two examples of Ming Blue and White Porcelain in the British Museum

Fig. 1.--Ewer of thin, crisp porcelain with foliate mouth and rustic spout with leaf attachments. Panels of figure subjects and landscapes on the body: “rat and vine” pattern on the neck and a band of hexagon diaper enclosing a cash symbol. Latter half of the sixteenth century. Height 7 inches.

Fig. 2.--Octagonal stand perhaps for artist’s colours. On the sides are scenes from the life of a sage; borders of _ju-i_ pattern and gadroons. On the top are lions sporting with brocade balls. Painted in deep Mohammedan blue. Mark of the Chia Ching period (1522–1566). Diameter 4¾ inches.]

A freely drawn figure of a man or woman usually in garden surroundings, standing before a fantastic rock or seated by a table and a picture-screen often form the leading motive, though this is varied by landscape, floral compositions, spirited drawings of birds (an eagle on a rock, geese in a marsh, a singing bird on a bough), or a large cicada on a stone among plants and grasses. The borders of dishes and the exteriors of bowls are divided into radiating compartments (often with the divisions lightly moulded) filled with figures, plant designs, symbols, and the like, and separated by narrow bands with pendent jewels and tasselled cords, which form perhaps the most constant characteristics of the group. Small passages of brocade diapers with swastika fret, hexagon and matting patterns, are used to fill up the spaces. The finer examples of this group are of admirable delicacy both in colour and design; but the type lasted well into the seventeenth century and became coarse and vulgarised. It appears in a debased form in the large dishes which were made in quantity for the Persian and Indian markets, overloaded with crudely drawn brocade diapers and painted in dull indigo blue, which is often badly fired and verges on black. The central designs on these dishes, deer in a forest, birds in marsh, etc., usually betray strong Persian influence.

I am not aware of any specimens of this group, either of the earlier or the more debased kinds which bear date-marks, but still a clear indication of the period is given by various circumstances. A bowl in the National Museum at Munich is credibly stated to have belonged to William V., Duke of Bavaria (1579–1597),[179] and a beautiful specimen, also a bowl, with silver-gilt mount of about 1585, is illustrated by Mr. Perzynski.[180] The characteristic designs of this ware are commonplace on the Persian pottery of the early seventeenth century, and a Persian blue and white ewer in the British Museum, which is dated 1616, clearly reflects the same style. The shallow dishes with moulded sides are frequently reproduced in the still-life pictures by the Dutch masters of the seventeenth century, from whose work many precious hints may be taken by the student of ceramics. To give one instance only, there are two such pictures[181] in the Dresden Gallery from the brush of Frans Snyders (1579–1657).

We shall have occasion later on to discuss more fully another kind of blue and white porcelain for which the Chinese and American collectors show a marked partiality, and which has received the unfortunate title, “soft paste,” from the latter. It has an opaque body, often of earthy appearance, and a glaze which looks soft and is usually crackled, and the ware is usually of small dimensions, such as the Chinese _literatus_ delighted to see in his study, and beautifully painted with miniature-like touches, every stroke of the brush clear and distinct. Ming marks--Hsüan Tê, Ch’êng Hua, etc.--are not uncommon on this ware, and there is no doubt that it was in use from the early reigns of the dynasty, but the style has been so faithfully preserved by the potters of the eighteenth century that it is wellnigh impossible to distinguish the different periods. A dainty specimen with the Wan Li mark illustrated in Fig. 2 of Plate 93 will serve to show the delicacy and refinement of this exquisite porcelain. At the same time it should be mentioned that the imitation Ting wares described on p. 96, vol. i., when painted in blue, are included in this group.

[Illustration: Plate 78.--Porcelain with pierced (_ling lung_) designs and biscuit reliefs. Late Ming.

Fig. 1.--Bowl with Eight Immortals and pierced swastika fret. Diameter 3¾ inches. _S. E. Kennedy Collection._

Fig. 2.--Bowl with blue phœnix medallions, pierced trellis work and characters. Wan Li mark. Height 2¼ inches. _Hippisley Collection._

Fig 3.--Covered Bowl with blue and white landscapes and biscuit reliefs of Eight Immortals. Height 6½ inches. _Grandidier Collection._]

Two interesting kinds of decoration mentioned in the Wan Li list[182] are frequently found in combination with blue and white; these are relief (_ting chuang_ or _tui hua_) and pierced work (_ling lung_). Though both have been seen in various forms on the earlier wares, they occur at this period in a fashion which challenges special attention. I allude particularly to the small bowls with or without covers, decorated on the sides with unglazed (or “biscuit”) figures in detached relief, or with delicately perforated fretwork, or with a combination of both. The catalogue[183] of the Pierpont Morgan Collection illustrates two covered bowls of the first type with the Eight Immortals in four pairs symmetrically arranged on the sides, and a “biscuit” lion on the cover doing duty for a handle. A similar bowl, formerly in the Nightingale Collection, had the same relief decoration and painted designs in the typical grey blue of the Wan Li period; and Fig. 3 of Plate 78 represents an excellent example from the Grandidier collection. The Chinese were in the habit of daubing these biscuit reliefs (just as they did the unglazed details of statuettes) with a red pigment which served as a medium for oil gilding, but as neither of these coatings was fired they have worn away or been cleaned off in the majority of cases. In the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam, is a picture[184] by Van Streeck (1632–1678), which shows one of these covered bowls with the biscuit reliefs coloured red, and Mr. Perzynski[185] alludes to another in a still-life by Willem Kalf (1630–1693) in the Kaiser Frederick Museum, Berlin, with the figures both coloured[186] and gilt. An excellent example of the second kind of decoration is illustrated by Fig. 2 of Plate 78, one of a set of four bowls in the Hippisley Collection, with phœnix medallions and other decoration in a fine grey blue, the spaces filled with perforated designs of the utmost delicacy, veritable “devil’s work,” to borrow a Chinese term for workmanship which shows almost superhuman skill. The small pierced medallions contain the characters _fu_, _shou_, _k’ang_, _ning_[187] (happiness, longevity, peace, and tranquillity), and under the base are the six characters of the Wan Li mark. A line cut in the glaze (before firing) at the lip and on the base-rim seems to have been designed to give a firm hold to a metal mount, a use to which it has been actually put in one case; and in another the glazing of the mark under the base has been omitted with the result that it has come from the kiln black instead of blue. The third kind which combines the reliefs and the pierced ornament is illustrated by Fig. 1 of Plate 78. The reliefs of these medallions are small and very delicately modelled, and the subjects are various, including human and animal figures, birds and floral compositions; the borders are often traced in liquid clay, which is left in unglazed relief. An example in the British Museum has an interior lining washed with blue to serve as a backing for the pierced work, and it is painted inside with dragon designs in Wan Li grey blue. It bears a mark which occurs on other late Ming porcelains, _yü tang chia ch’i_ (beautiful vessel for the Jade Hall).[188] Examples of this same pierced and relief work in white, without the supplementary blue designs, though rare, are yet to be seen in several collections. If marked at all they usually bear the apocryphal date of Ch’êng Hua, but an example in the Marsden Perry collection, Providence, U.S.A., has the T’ien Ch’i (1621–1627) date under the base, which no doubt represents the true period of its manufacture. This intricate _ling lung_ work, which the Wan Li censor deprecated as too difficult and elaborate, has been perpetuated, though it was probably never more beautifully executed than in the late Ming period. The later examples are mostly characterised by larger perforations, which were easier to manage. There are several references to the pierced and relief decorations in the lists of porcelain supplied to the Court of Wan Li, e.g. “brush rests with sea waves and three dragons in relief over pierced designs, and landscapes,” “landscape medallions among pierced work,” and “sacred fungus carved in openwork, and figures of ancient cash.” In the finer examples of pierced work the most frequent design is the fret or key pattern often interwoven with the four-legged symbol known as the swastika, which commonly serves in Chinese for the character _wan_ (ten thousand), carrying a suggested wish for “long life,” as expressed in the phrase _wan sui_ (Jap. _banzai_), ten thousand years. The pierced patterns are carved out of the porcelain body when the ware has been dried to a “leather-tough” consistency, and the manipulative skill exercised in the cutting and handling of the still plastic material is almost superhuman. Similar _tours de force_ distinguish the Japanese Hirado porcelain, and Owen’s work in our own Worcester ware exhibits extraordinary skill, but I doubt if anything finer in this style has ever been made than the _ling lung_ bowls of the late Ming potters.

Another form of decoration which, if not actually included in the _ling lung_ category, is at any rate closely allied to it, is the fretwork cut deeply into the body of the ware without actually perforating it, the hollows of the pattern being generally left without glaze. This ornament is used in borders or to fill the spaces between blue and white medallions after the manner of the pierced fretwork, and it was evidently contemporaneous with the latter, viz. dating from the late Ming period onwards (Plate 68, Fig. 3).

It will be convenient here to consider another type of decoration which was probably in use in the early periods of the Ming dynasty, certainly in the reign of Wan Li, and which has continued to modern times. This is the decoration in white clay varying in thickness from substantial reliefs to translucent brush work in thin slip or liquid clay, which allows the colour of the background to appear through it. The designs are painted or modelled in white against dark or light-coloured grounds of various shades--lustrous coffee brown (_tzŭ chin_), deep blue, slaty blue, lavender, celadon, plain white, and crackled creamy white--and they are usually slight and artistically executed. The process, which is the same in principle as in the modern _pâte sur pâte_, consisted of first covering the ground with colouring matter, then tracing the design in white slip (i.e. liquid clay) or building it up with strips of clay modelled with a wet brush, and finally covering it with a colourless glaze. In this case the white design has a covering of glaze. When a celadon green ground is used the design is applied direct to the biscuit and the celadon glaze covers the whole, but being quite transparent it does not obscure the white slip beneath. Sometimes, however, as in Fig. 3 of Plate 75, the design is unglazed and stands out in a dry white “biscuit.” Elaborate and beautiful examples of slip decoration were made in the K’ang Hsi and later periods, and Pére d’Entrecolles, writing in 1722, describes their manufacture, stating that steatite and gypsum were used to form the white slip.[189] The Ming specimens are usually of heavier make and less graceful form, and distinguished by simplicity and strength of design, the backgrounds being usually lustrous brown or different shades of blue. They consist commonly of bottles, jars, flower pots, bulb bowls, dishes, and narghili bowls, and many of them were clearly made for export to Persia and India, where they are still to be found. On rare examples the slip decoration is combined with passages of blue and white.

There is little to guide us to the dating of these wares, and marks are exceptional.[190] There is, however, a flower pot in the British Museum with white design of _ch’i-lin_ on a brown ground which has the late Ming mark _yü t’ang chia ch’i_[191]; and a specimen with an Elizabethan metal mount was exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910.[192] These are, no doubt, of Ching-tê Chên make; but there is a curious specimen in the British Museum which seems to be of provincial manufacture. It is a dish with slaty blue ground and plant designs with curious feathery foliage traced with considerable delicacy. The border of running floral scroll has the flowers outlined in dots, and the whole execution of the piece is as distinctive as the strange coarse base which shows a brown-red biscuit and heavy accretions of sand and grit at the foot rim. The same base and the same peculiarities of design appeared on a similar dish with celadon glaze exhibited by Mrs. Halsey at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910,[193] and in the British Museum there are other dishes clearly of the same make, but with (1) crackled grey white glaze and coarsely painted blue decoration, and (2) with greenish white glaze and enamelled designs in iron red and the Ming blue green. It is clear that we have to deal here with the productions of one factory, and though we have no direct clue to its identity, it certainly catered for the export trade to India and the islands; for the enamelled dishes of this type have been found in Sumatra. Mrs. Halsey’s dish came from India, and fragments of the blue and enamelled types were found in the ruins of the palace at Bijapur,[194] which was destroyed by Aurungzebe in 1686. Probably the factory was situated in Fukien or Kuangtung, where it would be in direct touch with the southern export trade, and the style of the existing specimens points to the late Ming as the period of its

## activity.

The process of marbling or “graining” has been tried by potters all the world over, and the Chinese were no exceptions. The effect is produced either by slips of two or more coloured clays worked about on the surface, or by blending layers of clays in two or more colours (usually brown and white) in the actual body. Early examples of this marbling occur among the T’ang wares, and Mr. Eumorfopoulos has examples of the Ming and later periods. One of these, a figure with finely crackled buff glaze and passages of brown and white marbling in front and on the back, has an incised inscription, stating that it was modelled by Ch’ên Wên-ching in the year 1597.[195]

The use of underglaze red in the Wan Li period has already been mentioned (p. 59), and though Chinese writers classed it as _chi hung_ they would not admit it to an equality with the brilliant reds of the fifteenth century.[196] Where red is named in the lists of Imperial porcelains we are left in doubt as to its nature, whether under or over the glaze; but there are two little shallow bowls in the British Museum with a curious sponged blue associated with indifferent underglaze red painting, which bear the late Ming mark _yü t’ang chia ch’i_.[197] A bowl of lotus flower pattern, similar in form to that described on p. 66, but deeper, and painted with similar designs in pale underglaze red, though bearing the Ch’êng Hua mark, seems to belong to the late Ming period.

The Wan Li polychromes will naturally include continuations of the early Ming types, such as the large jars with decoration in raised outline, pierced or carved and filled in with glazes of the _demi-grand feu_--turquoise, violet purple, green and yellow--wares with flat washes of the same turquoise and purple, incised designs filled in with transparent glazes of the three colours (_san ts’ai_), green, yellow and aubergine, and, what is probably more truly characteristic of this period, combinations of the first and last styles. A good example of the transparent colours over incised designs is Fig. 1 of Plate 79, a vase of the form known as _mei p’ing_ with green Imperial dragons in a yellow ground and the Wan Li mark. All three of the _san ts’ai_ colours were also used separately as monochromes with or without engraved designs under the glaze, a striking example in the Pierpont Morgan Collection being a vase with dragon handles and engraved designs under a brilliant iridescent green glaze, “which appears like gold in the sunlight.”[198] But though these types persisted, they would no doubt be gradually superseded by simpler and more effective methods of pictorial decoration in painted outline on the biscuit, filled in with washes of transparent enamels in the same three colours. These softer enamels, which contained a high proportion of lead and could be fired at the relatively low temperature of the muffle kiln, must have been used to a considerable extent in the late Ming period, though their full development belongs to the reign of K’ang Hsi, and there will always be a difficulty in separating the examples of these two periods, whether the colours be laid on in broad undefined washes, as on certain figures and on the “tiger skin” bowls and dishes, or brushed over a design carefully outlined in brown or black pigment. There is one species of the latter family with a ground of formal wave pattern usually washed with green and studded with floating plum blossoms, in which are galloping sea horses or symbols, or both, reserved and washed with the remaining two colours, or with a faintly greenish flux, almost colourless, which does duty for white. This species is almost always described as Ming; and with some reason, for the sea wave and plum blossom pattern is mentioned in the Wan Li lists as in polychrome combined with blue decoration. But the danger of assuming a specimen to be Ming because it exhibits a design which occurred on Ming porcelain is shown by an ink pallet in the British Museum, which is dated in the thirty-first year of K’ang Hsi, i.e. 1692. This important piece (Plate 94, Fig. 2) is decorated in enamels on the biscuit over black outlines with the wave and plum blossom pattern, the same yellow trellis diaper which appears on the base of the vase in Plate 97, and other diaper patterns which occur on so many of the so-called Ming figures. This piece is, in fact, a standing rebuke to those careless classifiers who ascribe all on-biscuit enamel indiscriminately to the Ming period, and I am strongly of opinion that most of the dishes,[199] bowls, ewers, cups and saucers, and vases with the wave and plum blossom pattern and horses, etc., in which a strong green enamel gives the dominating tint, belong rather to the K’ang Hsi period. The same kind of decoration is sometimes found applied to glazed porcelain, as on Fig. 3 of Plate 79, a covered potiche-shaped vase in the British Museum with the design of “jewel mountains and sea waves,” with floating blossoms, and _pa pao_[200] symbols in green, yellow and white in an aubergine ground, supplemented by a few plain rings in underglaze blue. The style of this vase and the quality of the paste suggest that it really does belong to the late Ming period.

[Illustration: Plate 79.--Wan Li Polychrome Porcelain.

Fig. 1.--Vase (_mei p’ing_) with engraved design, green in a yellow ground, Imperial dragons in clouds, rock and wave border. Wan Li mark. Height 15 inches. _British Museum._

Fig. 2.--Bottle with pierced casing, phœnix design, etc., painted in underglaze blue and enamels; cloisonné enamel neck. Height 23 inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._

Fig. 3.--Covered Jar, plum blossoms and symbols in a wave pattern ground, coloured enamels in an aubergine background. Height 15½ inches. _British Museum._]

The use of enamels over the glaze was greatly extended in the Wan Li period, though practically all the types in vogue at this time can be paralleled in the Chia Ching porcelain, and, indeed, have been discussed under that heading. There is the red family in which the dominant colour is an iron red, either of curiously sticky appearance and dark coral tint or with the surface dissolved in a lustrous iridescence. Yellow, usually a dark impure colour, though sometimes washed on extremely thin and consequently light and transparent, and transparent greens, which vary from leaf tint to emerald and bluish greens, occur in insignificant quantity. This red family is well illustrated by a splendid covered jar in the Salting Collection (Plate 80), and by three marked specimens in the British Museum, an ink screen, a bowl, and a circular stand. It also occurs on another significant piece in the latter collection, a dish admirably copying the Ming style but marked _Shên tê t’ang po ku chih_[201] (antique made for the Shên-tê Hall), a palace mark of the Tao Kuang period (1821–1850). It should be added that this colour scheme[202] is frequently seen on the coarsely made and roughly decorated jars and dishes with designs of lions in peony scrolls, etc., no doubt made in large quantities for export to India and Persia. They are not uncommon to-day, and in spite of their obvious lack of finish they possess certain decorative qualities, due chiefly to the mellow red, which are not to be despised.

But the characteristic polychrome of the period, the _Wan Li wu ts’ai_, combines enamelled decoration with underglaze blue, and this again can be divided into two distinctive groups. One of these is exemplified by Plate 81, an Imperial vase shaped after a bronze model and of the same massive build as its fellow in blue and white, which was described on p. 67. Here the underglaze blue is supplemented by the green, the impure yellow and the sticky coral red of the period, and the subject as on the blue and white example consists of dragons and phœnixes among floral scrolls with borders of rock and wave pattern. The object of the decorator seems to have been to distract the eye from the underlying ware, as if he were conscious of its relative inferiority, and the effect of this close design, evenly divided between the blue and the enamels, is rather checkered when viewed from a distance. But both form and decoration are characteristic of the Wan Li Imperial vases, as is shown by kindred specimens, notably by a tall vase in the Pierpont Morgan Collection, of which the design is similar and the form even more metal-like, having on the lower part the projecting dentate ribs seen on square bronze and cloisonné beakers of the Ming dynasty. Two other marked examples of this colour scheme, from which the absence of aubergine is noteworthy, are (1) a ewer in the British Museum with full-face dragons on the neck supporting the characters _wan shou_ (endless longevity) and with floral sprays on a lobed body, and (2) a straight-sided box with moulded six-foil elevation, painted on each face with a screen before which is a fantastic animal on a stand, and a monkey, dog and cat in garden surroundings.

The second--and perhaps the more familiar--group of _Wan Li wu ts’ai_ is illustrated by Fig. 1 of Plate 82, on which all the colours, including aubergine, are represented in company with the underglaze blue. There is no longer the same patchy effect, because the blue is more evenly balanced by broader washes of the enamel colours,

## particularly the greens. The design of this particular example is a

figure subject taken from Chinese history (_shih wu_), supplemented by a brocade band of floral scroll work on the shoulder and formal patterns on the neck and above the base. The former and the latter positions are commonly occupied in these vases by a band of stiff leaves and a border of false gadroons, both alternately blue and coloured. The stiff leaves in this instance are replaced by floral sprays, and the coloured designs are outlined in a red brown pigment. The mark under the base is the “hare,” which has already been noticed on examples of late Ming blue and white.[203] Another late Ming mark, _yü t’ang chia ch’i_,[204] occurs on a dish in the British Museum, with design of the Eight Immortals paying court to the god of Longevity (_pa hsien p’êng shou_), painted in the same style but with a predominance of underglaze blue.

[Illustration: PLATE 80

Covered Jar or potiche. Painted in iron red and green enamels, with a family scene in a garden, and brocade borders of _ju-i_ pattern, peony scrolls, etc. Sixteenth century.

Height 17½ inches.

_Salting Collection_ (_Victoria and Albert Museum_).]

But it is not necessary to multiply instances, for the type is well known, and must have survived for a long period. Indeed, many competent authorities assign the bulk of this kind of porcelain to the Yung Chêng period (1723–1735); and it is undoubtedly true that imitations of Wan Li polychrome were made at this time, for they are specifically mentioned in the Yung Chêng list of Imperial wares.[205] But I am inclined to think that the number of these late attributions has been exaggerated, and that they do not take sufficiently into account the interval of forty-two years between the reigns of Wan Li and K’ang Hsi. It was a distracted time when the potters must have depended largely upon their foreign trade in default of Imperial orders, and it is probable that much of this ware, characterised by strong, rather coarse make, greyish glaze and boldly executed decoration in the Wan Li colour scheme, belongs to this intermediate period. The vases usually have the flat unglazed base which characterises the blue and white of this time.[206] Two handsome beakers, with figure subjects and borders of the peach, pomegranate and citron, and a beautiful jar with phœnix beside a rock and flowering shrubs, in the British Museum, seem to belong to this period, but there are numerous other examples, many of which are coarse and crude, and obviously made wholesale for the export trade.

Among the various examples of Wan Li polychrome exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910, there was one which calls for special mention, a box[207] with panels of floral designs surrounded by fruit and diaper patterns in the usual colours of the _wu ts’ai_, with the addition of an overglaze blue enamel. It is true that this blue enamel was clearly of an experimental nature and far from successful, but its presence on this marked and indubitable Wan Li specimen is noteworthy. For it has long been an article of faith with collectors that this blue enamel does not antedate the Ch’ing dynasty, being, in fact, a characteristic feature of the K’ang Hsi _famille verte_ porcelain. The rule still remains an excellent one, and this solitary exception only serves to emphasise its general truth, showing as it does that so far the attempts at a blue enamel were a failure. But at the same time the discovery is a warning against a too rigid application of those useful rules of thumb, based on the generalisation from what must, after all, be a limited number of instances.

Marked examples of Wan Li monochromes are rarely seen, but we may assume that the glazes in use in the previous reigns continued to be made--blue, lavender, turquoise, violet and aubergine brown, yellow in various shades, leaf green, emerald green, apple green, celadon, coffee brown, and golden brown--besides the more or less accidental effects in the mottled and _flambé_ glazes. The plain white bowls of the period had a high reputation,[208] and a good specimen in the British Museum, though far from equalling the Yung Lo bowl (Plate 59), is nevertheless a thing of beauty. The white wares of the Ting type made at this time have been already discussed.[209] The monochrome surfaces were not infrequently relieved by carved or etched designs under the glaze, but it must be confessed that monochromes are exceedingly difficult to date. Particular colours and particular processes continued in use for long periods, and the distinctions between the productions of one reign and the next, or even between those of the late Ming and the early Ch’ing dynasties, are often almost unseizable. At best these differences consist in minute peculiarities of form and potting, in the texture of the body and glaze, and the finish of the base, which are only learnt by close study of actual specimens and by training the eye to the general character of the wares until the perception of the Ming style becomes instinctive. But something further will be said on this subject in the chapter on Ming technique.

[Illustration: PLATE 81

Beaker-shaped Vase of bronze form, with dragon and phœnix designs painted in underglaze blue, and red, green and yellow enamels: background of fairy flowers (_pao hsiang hua_) and borders of “rock and wave” pattern. Mark of the Wan Li period (1573–1619) in six characters on the neck. An Imperial piece. Carved wood stand with cloud pattern.

Height 18½ inches.

_British Museum._]

THE LAST OF THE MINGS

_T’ai Ch’ang_ [chch 2] (1620)

_T’ien Ch’i_ [chch 2] (1621–1627)

_Ch’ung Chêng_ [chch 2] (1628–1643)

Chinese ceramic history, based on the official records, is silent on the subject of the three last Ming reigns, and we are left to infer that during the death struggles of the old dynasty and the establishment of the Manchu Tartars on the throne work at the Imperial factory was virtually suspended. The few existing specimens which bear the marks of T’ien Ch’i and Ch’ung Chêng (the T’ai Ch’ang mark is apparently unrepresented) are of little merit. A barrel-shaped incense vase with floral scrolls and a large bowl with four-clawed dragons of the former date in the British Museum are painted the one in dull greyish blue, and the other in a bright but rather garish tint of the same colour; both have a coarse body material with blisters and pitting in the glaze, and the painting of the designs is devoid of any distinction. Similarly, a polychrome saucer dish with the same mark and in the same collection, decorated with an engraved dragon design filled in with purple glaze in a green ground, carries on the early tradition of that type of Ming polychrome, but the ware is coarse, the design crudely drawn, and the colours impure.[210] From the same unflattering characteristics another dish in the British Museum, with large patches of the three on-biscuit colours--green, yellow and aubergine--may be recognised as of the T’ien Ch’i make. This is a specimen of the so-called tiger skin ware, of which K’ang Hsi and later examples are known--a ware which, even in the best-finished specimens with underglaze engraved designs, is more curious than beautiful. On the other hand, one of the delicate bowls with biscuit figures in high relief, already described (p. 75), proves that the potters of the T’ien Ch’i period were still capable of skilful work when occasion demanded. A pair of wine cups in the British Museum, with freely drawn designs of geese and rice plants in pale greyish blue under a greyish glaze, are the solitary representatives of the Ch’ung Chêng mark.

In the absence of Imperial patronage, and with the inevitable trade depression which followed in the wake of the fierce dynastic struggle, it was fortunate for the Ching-tê Chên potters that a large trade with European countries was developing. The Portuguese and Spanish had already established trading connections with the Chinese, and the other Continental nations--notably the Dutch--were now serious competitors. The Dutch East India Company was an extensive importer of blue and white porcelain, and we have already discussed one type of blue and white which figures frequently in the Dutch pictures of the seventeenth century.

There is another group of blue and white which can be definitely assigned to this period of dynastic transition, between 1620–1662. A comparative study of the various blue and white types had already led to the placing of this ware in the middle of the seventeenth century, and Mr. Perzynski, in those excellent articles[211] to which we have already alluded, has set out the characteristics of this ware at some length, with a series of illustrations which culminate in a dated example. There will be no difficulty in finding a few specimens of this type in any large collection of blue and white. It is recognised by a bright blue of slightly violet tint under a glaze often hazy with minute bubbles, which suggested to Mr. Perzynski the picturesque simile of “violets in milk.” Other more tangible characteristics appear in the designs, which commonly consist of a figure subject--a warrior or sage and attendant--in a mountain scene bordered by a wall of rocks with pine trees and swirling mist, drawn in a very mannered style and probably from some stock pattern. Other common features are patches of herbage rendered by pot-hook-like strokes, formal floral designs of a peculiar kind, such as the tulip-like flower on the neck of Fig. 4 of Plate 82; the band of floral scroll work on the shoulder of the same piece is also characteristic. In many of the forms, such as cylindrical vases and beakers, the base is flat and unglazed, and reveals a good white body, and European influence is apparent in some of the shapes, such as the jugs and tankards.

As for the dating of this group, an early example of the style of painting in the Salting Collection[212] has a silver mount of the early seventeenth century, and a tankard of typical German form in the Hamburg Museum has a silver cover dated 1642.[213] There is, besides, a curious piece in the British Museum, the decoration of which has strong affinities to this group. It is a bottle with flattened circular body and tall, tapering neck, with landscape and figures on one side and on the other a European design copied from the reverse of a Spanish dollar, and surrounded by a strap-work border. The dollar, from a numismatic point of view, might have been made equally well for Philip II. (1556–1598), Philip IV. (1621–1665), or Charles II. (1665–1700), but there can be little doubt from the style of the ware that it belonged to one of the two earlier reigns.

A comparison of the ware and the blue of this group leads to the placing of the fairly familiar type illustrated by Figs. 3 and 5 of Plate 82 in the same intermediate period, and similarly certain specimens of polychrome, with underglaze blue and the usual enamels, display the characteristic body and blue painting, and even some of the decorative mannerisms. These specimens, particularly when of beaker form, are often finished off with a band of ornament engraved under the glaze.

[Illustration: Plate 82.--Late Ming Porcelain.

Fig. 1--Jar of Wan Li period, enamelled. Mark, a hare. Height 9 inches. _British Museum._ Fig. 2. Bowl with Eight Immortals in relief, coloured glazes on the biscuit. Height 3¼ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._

Figs. 3, 4 and 5.--Blue and white porcelain, early seventeenth century. Height of Fig. 5, 17 inches. _British Museum._]

[Illustration: Plate 83.--Vase

With blue and white decoration of rockery, phœnixes, and flowering shrubs. Found in India. Late Ming period. Height 22 inches. _Halsey Collection._]

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