CHINA
PORCELAIN IDIDCORATED
in low relief, their raised portions covered with gold, strongly burned in. Sometimes the design was picked out with silver instead of gold. These porcelains are not at first sight very striking. The Western collector will probably prefer many other varieties of decora- tion. But as a tour de force the gold-flecked wares of Yung-ching and Chien-/ung are most admirable. Choice specimens have an almost extravagant value for Chi- nese connoisseurs. In another variety of the same genre the patina of ordinary bronze is imitated with wonderful fidelity, the designs in relief being either gilt or glazed like the rest of the piece and having their interstices only in darker colour.
Enamel decoration was sometimes applied to a glaze mottled so as to resemble tiger’s skin, and therefore called Hu-f7. This is a very uncommon style. It appears to have been employed in the man- ufacture of small pieces only, such as snuff-bottles and sacrificial cups. On these two classes of objects, col- lections of each of which have been made by Western amateurs, the Chinese keramist lavished most elaborate decoration. The gentleman of the Middle Kingdom regarded his snuff-bottle with much the same pride and affection as the European beau used to bestow on his snuff-box. The jade carver, the glass-cutter, and the potter devoted all their skill to the adornment of these little vessels. They were from two to three inches high, with cylindrical or flattened circular bodies, and from the stopper there projected into the interior a tiny spoon that served to carry the snuff to the nose. Monochromatic and polychromatic glazes, enamel decoration applied to a surface plain white, coloured in the various styles described above, carved in relief, reticulated, granulated, chagrined — it would
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