CHINA
PORCE LATHE ECORA TED
Probably it failed to attract attention, being compara- tively easy to manufacture and not belonging to the category of “delicate” wares. In the neighbouring empire of Japan, however, it was esteemed. The celebrated factories at Kutani took it as a model, and the greatest keramist of Kyét6, Zengoro Hozen, not only owed much of his fame to imitations of the ware and to developments suggested by it, but also derived his artist name, Eiraku (Chinese Yung-/), from the period of its original production. The Yung-lo potters do not appear to have employed this fashion of decoration in direct association with blue sous couverte. The latter, however, is occasionally found on the interior of specimens covered externally with the former.
The Hsuan-té era (1426-1435) of the Ming dynasty is remarkable for the first use of vitrifiable enamels in a manner so skilful and artistic as to command the highest admiration of Chinese connoisseurs. Not that, even then, the fashion of covering the surface of a vase with elaborate and brilliant designs came into vogue. Such a style had certainly been con- ceived by previous potters, but in the Hsuan-¢é era, and indeed throughout the Ming dynasty down to the reign of Lung-ching (1567-1572), delicacy and fine- ness were the chief aim of the Chinese expert. He appreciated the value of vitrifiable enamels as a decora- tive agent, but subserved them always to the design of his piece, instead of making the latter a mere field for their display. The “Illustrated Catalogue” of H’siang gives four representative specimens of Hsuan-té enamelled porcelain. In two of these red —the “colour of fresh blood’? —is the dominant colour. Red persimmons with sepals and stalks in
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