Porcelain. Dillon Edward
must not forget the researches on the chemical and technical side of the subject by what we may call the school of Sèvres. To these workers we have made frequent reference in previous chapters. It is to the experiments and analyses of men such as Brongniart, Salvétat, Ebelmen, and Vogt, that we are indebted for our knowledge of the chemical constitution of the paste, the glaze, and the enamels of Chinese porcelain, as well as for a rational exposition of the methods of its manufacture. To sum up, our sources of information of late years are, in the main, English, as far as the history and what I may call the sinology of our subject are concerned; but for the chemistry and technology we must turn to French works. As far as I know, little of value has been published in Germany on the subject of Oriental porcelain. The discussion between Karabacek, Meyer, and Hirth (whose later papers have been published in German) on the early history of celadon and on the Arab traders of the Middle Ages, is perhaps the most notable exception.
We are in the dark even now as to the date and place of origin of more than one class of Oriental porcelain. On the question of the relation of the ceramic wares of China to the contemporary sister arts, there are many points to be cleared up,—I mean especially the question how far the early wares were influenced by the art of the bronze-caster and the carver of jade, and again to what extent the decoration of porcelain in later times was dependent upon the example of the contemporary schools of painting. When we know about the pictorial art of the Chinese even the little that we do already of that of their Japanese neighbours, we shall, to give but one instance, be able to trace the source of the beautiful landscapes and flower designs that we find on the vases and plates of the famille verte and famille rose.
There is one source of information which remains as yet almost completely untapped. The Japanese have been for many centuries keen collectors of Chinese porcelain, as of other Chinese objects of art. They have their own views on its history, and some of the finest specimens of the older wares remain still in Japan, in spite of the many pieces that have of late years been carried away to Europe and America. As we shall see, they have in their own pottery and porcelain handed on to quite recent days many traditions of Ming and earlier times that have been lost in China. If some Japanese connoisseur or antiquary, strong in Chinese lore, could give us a history of porcelain from his own point of view, I think that European investigators would have cause to be grateful.
Much could be gleaned, as I have already said, by studying the relation of the potters art to that of the jade-carver and the caster of bronze, and this brings us to an important point that perhaps has not been fully appreciated by us in the West. I refer to the comparatively late date of the beginning of porcelain in China compared, for example, to the arts just mentioned. We can hardly carry back the history of true porcelain beyond the great Tang dynasty (618-907 A.D.), and even in China there is no existing specimen that can safely be attributed to so early a date. But this same Tang dynasty was the very heyday in that country, not only of military power but also of artistic culture. It would be impossible to enter into this important subject here; it is one that has been strangely ignored by us in Europe. Suffice to say that the great figure-painters of this period were looked back to with veneration in later times, both in China and in Japan, and that the two schools of landscape, the colour school of the North and the black and white ‘literary’ school of the South—schools whose traditions have survived to the present day—were both founded by Tang artists. At that time art critics were known (and even honoured); they already wrote books on the early history of painting, and they have left us descriptions of famous collections.
We may expect, then, to find the influence of these more precocious arts on the early fictile ware of China, and indeed we see the quaint decoration and the not too beautiful outlines of the early hieratic bronzes repeated on the rare specimens that survive from the dynasty that after a period of unrest followed that of Tang. This was the Sung dynasty, which lasted till the time of the Mongol invasion in the thirteenth century.27
It is difficult for a European to appreciate the charm, or rather superlative excellence, that is found by a Chinaman in a fine specimen of jade. It is, however, a substance that is closely linked with his philosophy, his religion, and above all with his all-important ceremonial. No wonder, then, if from an early time he strove, with the pastes and glazes at his command, to imitate such a material. And numberless references in contemporary writers, as well as the evidence of many of the oldest pieces of porcelain surviving, show that this was the case. We may safely say that in these early specimens the thick glaze, of tints varying from a true celadon to a more pronounced blue or green, was admired in proportion to its resemblance to jade. As for the porcelain itself, all that was looked for in the paste was that it should be hard, and that the vessel when struck should give out a bell-like sound—‘a plaintive note like a cup of jade,’ as one early Chinese writer says of a porcelain cup in his collection.
The Chinese in these times possessed also elaborately carved vessels of rock crystal and of various kinds of chalcedony, and these also it was attempted to imitate with the early glazes. Glass, too, as a material for small objects, was probably known; it seems, however, to have been somewhat of a rarity. It is mentioned by writers of the Tang period in connection with these early wares, and indeed it is possible that there may be some confusion in the literature of the time (or rather perhaps in our interpretation of the language used) between the two materials—the thickly glazed porcelain and the more or less opaque glass.
After these preliminary remarks we shall be in a better position to interpret the somewhat involved and contradictory allusions to our subject found in Chinese books.
We now come to the important question of the classification of Chinese porcelain. A difficulty here arises from the rival claims of two systems. The older and perhaps safer division depends solely on the nature of the ware, its colour, decoration, etc.; but in opposition to this the claim of the more logical, historical classification has, with our increasing knowledge, become of late years more pressing. The result has been an attempt to combine the two systems. Such an attempt must necessarily lead to many compromises, and yet something of the sort is perhaps the only available plan. We may compare the development of the ceramic art in China to what has taken place in the evolution of the animal kingdom: while new and more elaborated forms are evolved, the older ones, or many of them, survive in but slightly modified forms. If this tendency be borne well in mind there will be less danger of confusion between the really old types and the modern representations or even copies which are called, in China, by the same names.
The three classes into which Chinese porcelain is divided—and there is a general agreement among collectors on this head—rest on such an attempt to combine a historical with a technical classification:—
1. Porcelain with single-coloured glazes, including plain white ware. The colour of the glaze is derived from two metals only, iron and copper. Any further decoration depends upon the moulding of the surface or upon patterns incised in the paste. All the wares made up to the end of the Sung period (1279 A.D.) may probably be included in this class.
2. Porcelain decorated with colour under the glaze. This division is nearly equivalent to our ‘blue and white’ ware, but in addition to cobalt, copper is at times introduced to give a red colour. This system of decoration was probably introduced during the course of the fourteenth century, and it is associated with the Ming dynasty.
3. Porcelain decorated with enamels over the glaze, necessitating a second firing in a muffle-stove. The use of these fusible enamel colours came in probably during the sixteenth century, but the art was not fully developed till much later.
The glazes of the first and second classes as a rule contained no lead, and to melt them the full heat of the oven, the grand feu, was required.
There is, however, a class of porcelain which does not fall well into any of the above divisions, but which is historically of great importance. The blue, purple, and yellow glazes of this ware were painted on the biscuit after a preliminary baking of the paste, and then fired, not in the hottest part of the furnace, but in what we may call the demi grand feu. The glaze of this ware contains lead, and this fact and the method of the decoration may be held to give it a position bridging over the interval between our first two classes and the third—that of enamelled porcelain. This ware, painted on the biscuit, dates, however, from an earlier time than the
For a discussion, and for many illustrations of the art of these early dynasties which survives chiefly in objects of jade or bronze, see Paléologue,