Transcriber’s Notes:
1. [chch] = Chinese character. [chch 2] = 2 Chinese Characters, etc.
2. Items marked wth an asterisk (*): Pieces mentioned here from the British Museum collection.
3. The items marked with two asterisks (**) are stated to have been copied from old specimens in the palace collections.]
CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN
This Edition is limited to 1500 copies, of which this is
No. 669
CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN
AN ACCOUNT OF THE POTTER’S ART IN CHINA FROM PRIMITIVE TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY
BY
R. L. HOBSON, B.A.
Assistant in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities and Ethnography, British Museum. Author of the “Catalogne of the Collection of English Pottery in the Department of British and Mediæval Antiquities of the British Museum”; “Porcelain: Oriental, Continental, and British”; “Worcester Porcelain”; etc; and Joint Author of “Marks on Pottery.”
Forty Plates, in Colour and Ninety-six in Black and White
VOL. II
Ming and Ch’ing Porcelain
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne 1915
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
1. THE MING [chch] DYNASTY, 1368–1644 A.D. 1
2. HSÜAN TÊ [chch 2] (1426–1435) 7
3. CH’ÊNG HUA [chch 2] (1465–1487) AND OTHER REIGNS 22
4. CHIA CHING [chch 2] (1522–1566) AND LUNG CH’ING [chch 2] (1567–1572) 34
5. WAN LI [chch 2] (1573–1619) AND OTHER REIGNS 58
6. THE TECHNIQUE OF THE MING PORCELAIN 91
7. MISCELLANEOUS PORCELAIN FACTORIES 107
8. THE CH’ING [chch] DYNASTY, 1644–1910 117
9. K’ANG HSI BLUE AND WHITE 128
10. K’ANG HSI POLYCHROME PORCELAINS 145
11. K’ANG HSI MONOCHROMES 176
12. YUNG CHÊNG [chch 2] PERIOD (1723–1735) 200
13. CH’IEN LUNG [chch 2] (1736–1795) 227
14. EUROPEAN INFLUENCES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY 250
15. NINETEENTH CENTURY PORCELAINS 262
16. PORCELAIN SHAPES IN THE CH’ING DYNASTY 272
17. MOTIVES OF THE DECORATION 280
18. FORGERIES AND IMITATIONS 304
LIST OF PLATES
COVERED JAR OR POTICHE (Colour) Frontispiece
Painted with coloured enamels on the biscuit. Eight petal-shaped panels with flowering plants, birds and insects on the sides; with a band of smaller petals below enclosing lotus flowers, and borders of red wave pattern and floral sprays. Base unglazed. Early part of the K’ang Hsi period (1662–1722). British Museum.
PLATE FACING PAGE
59. WHITE EGGSHELL PORCELAIN BOWL WITH IMPERIAL DRAGONS FAINTLY TRACED IN WHITE SLIP UNDER THE GLAZE 4
Mark of the Yung Lo period (1403–1424), incised in the centre in archaic characters.
Fig. 1.--Exterior. Fig. 2.--Interior view. British Museum.
60. REPUTED HSÜAN TÊ PORCELAIN 8
Fig. 1.--Flask with blue decoration, reputed to be Hsüan Tê period. British Museum.
Fig. 2.--Brush rest. (?) Chang Ch’ien on a log raft; partly biscuit. Inscribed with a stanza of verse and the Hsüan Tê mark. Grandidier Collection.
61. PORCELAIN WITH san ts’ai GLAZES ON THE BISCUIT 8
Fig. 1.--Wine jar with pierced casing, the Taoist Immortals paying court to the God of Longevity, turquoise blue ground. Fifteenth century._Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 2.--Screen with design in relief, horsemen on a mountain path, dark blue ground. About 1500. _Benson Collection._
62. BARREL-SHAPED GARDEN SEAT (Colour) 16
Porcelain with coloured glazes on the biscuit, the designs outlined in slender fillets of clay. A lotus scroll between an upper band of clouds and a lower band of horses in flying gallop and sea waves. Lion-mask handles. About 1500 A.D. British Museum.
63. BALUSTER VASE 24
With designs in raised outline, filled in with coloured glazes on the biscuit; dark violet blue background. About 1500. Grandidier Collection (Louvre).
64. FIFTEENTH CENTURY POLYCHROME PORCELAIN 24
Fig. 1.--Vase with grey crackle and peony scrolls in blue and enamels. Ch’êng Hua mark. British Museum.
Fig. 2.--Vase with turquoise ground and bands of floral pattern and winged dragons incised in outline and coloured green, yellow and aubergine. _S. E. Kennedy Collection._
Fig. 3.--Box with bands of ju-i clouds and pierced floral scrolls; turquoise and yellow glazes in dark blue ground. Grandidier Collection.
65. MING san ts’ai PORCELAIN 24
Fig. 1.--Vase with winged dragons, san ts’ai glazes on the biscuit, dark blue ground. Dedicatory inscription on the neck, including the words “Ming Dynasty.” Cloisonné handles. S. E. Kennedy Collection.
Fig. 2.--Figure of Kuan-yin, turquoise, green and aubergine glazes, dark blue rockwork. Fifteenth century. Grandidier Collection.
Fig. 3.--Vase with lotus scrolls, transparent glazes in three colours. Late Ming. Grandidier Collection.
66. PORCELAIN WITH CHÊNG TÊ MARK 32
Fig. 1.--Slop bowl with full-face dragons holding shou characters, in underglaze blue in a yellow enamel ground. British Museum.
Fig. 2.--Vase with engraved cloud designs in transparent coloured glazes on the biscuit, green ground. Charteris Collection.
67. BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN. Sixteenth Century 32
Fig. 1.--Bowl with Hsüan Tê mark. Dresden Collection.
Fig. 2.--Covered bowl with fish design. Dresden Collection.
Fig. 3.--Bottle, peasant on ox. Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Fig. 4.--Bottle with lotus scrolls in mottled blue. Alexander Collection.
68. BLUE AND WHITE PORCELAIN. Sixteenth Century 40
Fig. 1.--Perfume vase, lions and balls of brocade. V. and A. Museum.
Fig. 2.--Double gourd vase, square in the lower part. Eight Immortals paying court to the God of Longevity, panels of children (wa wa). Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Fig. 3.--Bottle with medallions of ch’i-lin and incised fret pattern between. Late Ming. Halsey Collection.
69. SIXTEENTH CENTURY PORCELAIN 40
Fig. 1.--Bowl of blue and white porcelain with silver gilt mount of Elizabethan period. British Museum.
Fig. 2.--Covered jar, painted in dark underglaze blue with red, green and yellow enamels; fishes and water plants. Chia Ching mark. S. E. Kennedy Collection.
70. PORCELAIN WITH CHIA CHING MARK 40
Fig. 1.--Box with incised Imperial dragons and lotus scrolls; turquoise and dark violet glazes on the biscuit. V. and A. Museum.
Fig. 2.--Vase with Imperial dragons in clouds, painted in yellow in an iron red ground. Cologne Museum.
71. SIXTEENTH CENTURY PORCELAIN 40
Figs. 1 and 2.--Two ewers in the Dresden Collection, with transparent green, aubergine and turquoise glazes on the biscuit, traces of gilding. In form of a phœnix, and of a crayfish.
Fig. 3.--Bowl with flight of storks in a lotus scroll, enamels on the biscuit, green, aubergine and white in a yellow ground. Chia Ching mark. Alexander Collection.
72. VASE WITH IMPERIAL FIVE-CLAWED DRAGONS IN CLOUD SCROLLS OVER SEA WAVES (Colour) 46
Band of lotus scrolls on the shoulder. Painted in dark Mohammedan blue. Mark on the neck, of the Chia Ching period (1522–1566) in six characters. V. & A. Museum.
73. TWO BOWLS WITH THE CHIA CHING MARK (1522–1566), WITH DESIGNS OUTLINED IN BROWN AND WASHED IN WITH COLOURS IN MONOCHROME GROUNDS (Colour) 50
Fig. 1.--With peach sprays in a yellow ground. Alexander Collection.
Fig. 2.--With phœnixes (feng-huang) flying among scrolls of mu-tan peony. Cumberbatch Collection.
74. TWO BOWLS WITH GILT DESIGNS ON A MONOCHROME GROUND. PROBABLY CHIA CHING PERIOD (1522–1566) (Colour) 54
Fig. 1.--With lotus scroll with etched details on a ground of iron red (fan hung) outside. Inside is figure of a man holding a branch of cassia, a symbol of literary success, painted in underglaze blue. Mark in blue, tan kuei (red cassia).
Fig. 2.--With similar design on ground of emerald green enamel. Mark in blue in the form of a coin or cash with the characters ch’ang ming fu kuei (“long life, riches and honours”).
75. MING PORCELAIN 64
Fig. 1.--Tripod Bowl with raised peony scrolls in enamel colours. Wan Li mark. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._
Fig. 2.--Blue and white Bowl, Chia Ching period. Mark, Wan ku ch’ang ch’un (“a myriad antiquities and enduring spring”). Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin.
Fig. 3.--Ewer with white slip ch’i-lin on a blue ground. Wan Li period. Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Fig. 4.--Gourd-shaped Vase with winged dragons and fairy flowers, raised outlines and coloured glazes on the biscuit. Sixteenth century. Salting Collection.