Oriental Pottery and Porcelain
China
The porcelain of China is composed of two earths, the one a decomposed felspathic rock called kaolin, and the other a rock of the same geological origin, mixed with quartz, called petuntse. They both harmonise so completely that they have an equally resisting power when placed in the kiln. The kaolin used in making porcelain is much softer than petuntse when dug out of the quarry, yet it is this which, by its mixture with the other, gives strength and firmness to the work.
Chinese porcelain was classified by the late Dr. S. W. Bushell, C.M.G., under the following periods:—
1. Primitive period, including the Sung dynasty (960-1279) and the Yuan dynasty (1280-1367).
2. Ming period, comprising the whole of the Ming dynasty (1368-1643).
3. K’ang Hsi period, extending from the fall of the Ming dynasty to the close of the reign of K’ang Hsi (1662-1722).
4. Yung Chêng and Chiên Lung period (1723-1795), the two reigns being conjoined.
5. Modern period, from the beginning of the reign of Chia Ch’ing to the present day.
The most ancient mode of decoration was the blue camaïeu, and it is still much esteemed in China; it was executed on the ware, simply dried before the glaze was applied, and then placed in the kiln. Being all completed in one baking, au grand feu, the painting thus executed became imperishable.
It is on this blue ware that the greater number of the Chinese characters are found denoting the period in which the porcelain was made. The cobalt on the earlier pieces was not so fine as on those of the Siouen-te and Ching-hoa periods, which are now much sought after. It is extremely difficult to tell even the approximate date of the coloured pieces, especially as there was a conventional method of decorating them which had been practised from time immemorial; the painters worked according to given models or patterns, and monsters, deities, or flowers and landscapes, of the same uncouth and rude designs, were placed in successive ages upon the ware.
The Père d’Entrecolles tells us the manner of painting vases in China, and how the different parts of a landscape on one vase were intrusted to various hands according to their ability to paint special objects mechanically. He says: “One is employed solely to form the coloured circle which is seen round the border of the ware, a second traces the flowers in outline, which a third fills in with colour; another excels only in painting the water and the mountains, while the next is only competent to portray birds or animals.”
A sort of very hard stoneware, covered with a thick glaze, may be the most ancient description seen at the present day. The surface is covered with a semi-opaque glaze which is called céladon by the French, and which varies in colour from a russet grey to a sea green. The glaze of this ware is frequently seen crackled all over in irregular lines, which is termed in England crackle. This crackle china is the most esteemed of Oriental porcelain, although it arises from a defective cause.
The same effect may be easily produced upon all terra-cottas of which the paste is more sensible to the changes of temperature than the exterior coating or glaze. In fayence this accident is of frequent occurrence; the red porous clay, being more expansive, draws away the enamel, which, being less elastic, is separated into fragments, and the greater the resistance the more they are multiplied. Now one of the qualities of porcelain is precisely to avoid this double action. Its paste is composed of a felspathic rock, decomposed and infusible, called kaolin; the cover or glaze comes also from a felspathic rock, slightly crystallised; these melt and assimilate together harmoniously in vitrification, and a complete affinity is evident between the two elements of porcelain. Nevertheless the Chinese, in modifying the glaze, are able to render it more or less expansive and to break the harmony between its own shrinkage and that of the paste or body which it covers.
Hence the crackle, at the option of the potter, is made of large, middling, or small size.
Various kinds of crackle are thus produced, sometimes upon one and the same piece, as by exposing the porcelain or portions of it when at its greatest heat to a sudden cold or contact of water, large fissures may be obtained. These cracks are sometimes filled in with black, red, chocolate, or purple colours.
Others may be classed among the curiosities of porcelain—for example, cups or bowls which have an outer reticulated coating, pierced or cut out into arabesques, completely insulated from the inner vessel, except at the rim at top and bottom where it is joined; these have been used for tea or hot liquids, and may be held in the hand with impunity, notwithstanding the heat enclosed within it.
Another variety consists in cutting or punching out pieces of the paste or body of the ware in patterns before it is baked; the pieces so cut out are small ovals like grains of rice placed in more or less numerous stars, rosettes, &c. The vase thus ornamented is dipped into the glaze which fills up all these small holes, and then placed in the kiln. The pattern, being much more transparent than the body of the ware, is distinctly seen, but especially so when held to the light.
Another beautiful effect is produced by means of the glaze itself, which is of a light or dark shade according to its intensity or thickness; for example: a fish, animal, or other object is stamped incuse on the upper surface of a plate, it is then filled in with a coloured glaze and vitrified, and is consequently shaded according to the thickness of the glaze on each portion of the design, the surface being perfectly smooth.
Vases are sometimes seen separated in the middle into two pieces (which must have been cut while the clay was soft), the upper half being completely divided from the lower half—in arabesques and dove-tail patterns, in such a manner, that although separate, they cannot be altogether removed from each other; the wonder is, that in the baking, the edges in juxtaposition should not have become again cemented together.
The Chinese themselves are great forgers, and endeavour to impose not only upon the Europeans, but upon their own countrymen, many of whom are great amateurs, and are willing to pay extravagant prices for ancient examples of porcelain, especially if made by a celebrated potter.