CHINA
CHINA
be impossible to enumerate all the varieties of decora- tive device employed in the manufacture of these little objects. Fifty years ago they acquired historical in- terest in Europe, for Rosellini, in his “I Monumenti del? Egitto,’ described one found by him in an Egyptian tomb, which was supposed to have never been opened before. On the strength of this evidence, supplemented by the subsequent discovery of three similar bottles in Egypt, Sir Francis Davis concluded that the manu- facture of Chinese porcelain for the bottles were of ‘true porcelain and undoubtedly Chinese origin — dated as far back as the eighteenth century before Christ. Such a theory did not long survive. At- tacked in the first place by M. Stanislas Julien, it was finally demolished by Mr. Medhurst, who showed that the inscriptions on the bottles were extracted from the writings of poets of the eighth century of our era. Exactly similar bottles were afterwards sent by Mr. Wells Williams from China, where they could be purchased in any porcelain store. Their presence in Egyptian tombs remains unexplained, and has no more historical significance than the discovery of Chi- nese ivory-white porcelain seals in an Irish bog. Though scarcely worthy to be called a special vari- ety, mention may be made of porcelain in the deco- ration of which one enamel only, deep emerald green, was employed. The designs were almost invariably dragons or pheenixes, supplemented by clouds, waves, or tongues of flame. Porcelains thus decorated are usually distinguished by careful technique. ‘They are at once brilliant and restful. When their manufacture originated it is not possible to say with certainty, but it probably dates from the closing reigns of the Mzng dynasty. No specimens older than the latter half
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