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                               PORCELAIN

            [Illustration: _PLATE I._ JAPANESE IMARI WARE]




                               PORCELAIN

                                  BY

                          EDWARD DILLON, M.A.

                          [Illustration: The
                             Connoisseur’s
                               Library]

                            METHUEN AND CO.
                            36 ESSEX STREET
                                LONDON

                      _First published in 1904._




PREFACE


How extensive is the literature that has grown up of late years round
the subject of porcelain may be judged from the length of our ‘selected’
list of books dealing with this material. Apart from the not
inconsiderable number of general works on the potter’s art in French,
German, and English, there is scarcely to be found a kiln where pottery
of one kind or another has been manufactured which has not been made the
subject of a separate study. And yet, as far as I know, the very
definite subdivision of ceramics, which includes the porcelain of the
Far East and of Europe, has never been made the basis of an independent
work in England.

It has been the aim of the writer to dwell more especially on the nature
of the paste, on the glaze, and on the decoration of the various wares,
and above all to accentuate any points that throw light upon the
relations with one another--especially the historical relations--of the
different centres where porcelain has been made. Less attention has been
given to the question of marks. In the author’s opinion, the exaggerated
importance that has been given to these marks, both by collectors and by
the writers that have catered to them, has more than anything else
tended to degrade the study of the subject, and to turn off the
attention from more essential points. This has been above all the case
in England, where the technical side has been strangely neglected. In
fact, we must turn to French works for any thorough information on this
head.

In the bibliographical list it has been impossible to distinguish the
relative value of the books included. I think that _something_ of value
may be found in nearly every one of these works, but in many, whatever
there is of original information might be summed up in a few pages. In
fact, the books really essential to the student are few in number. For
Oriental china we have the Franks catalogue, M. Vogt’s little book, _La
Porcelaine_, and above all the great work of Dr. Bushell, which is
unfortunately not very accessible. For Continental porcelain there is no
‘up-to-date’ work in English, but the brief notes in the catalogue
prepared shortly before his death by Sir A. W. Franks have the advantage
of being absolutely trustworthy. The best account of German porcelain is
perhaps to be found in Dr. Brinckmann’s bulky description of the Hamburg
Museum, which deals, however, with many subjects besides porcelain,
while for Sèvres we have the works of Garnier and Vogt. For English
porcelain the literature is enormous, but there is little of importance
that will not be found in Professor Church’s little handbook, or in the
lately published works of Mr. Burton and Mr. Solon. The last edition of
the guide to the collection lately at Jermyn Street has been well edited
by Mr. Rudler, and contains much information on the technical side of
the subject. On many historical points the notes in the last edition of
Marryat are still invaluable: the quotations, however, require checking,
and the original passages are often very difficult to unearth.

In the course of this book I have touched upon several interesting
problems which it would be impossible to thoroughly discuss in a general
work of this kind. I take, however, the occasion of bringing one or two
of these points to the notice of future investigators.

Much light remains to be thrown upon the relations of the Chinese with
the people of Western Asia during the Middle Ages. We want to know at
what time and under what influences the Chinese began to decorate their
porcelain, first with blue under the glaze, and afterwards by means of
glazes of three or more colours, painted on the biscuit. The relation of
this latter method of decoration to the true enamel-painting which
succeeded it is still obscure. So again, to come to a later time, there
is much difference of opinion as to the date of the first introduction
of the _rouge d’or_, a very important point in the history and
classification of Chinese porcelain.

We are much in the dark as to the source of the porcelain exported both
from China and Japan in the seventeenth century, especially of the
roughly painted ‘blue and white,’ of which such vast quantities went to
India and Persia. So of the Japanese ‘Kakiyemon,’ which had so much
influence on our European wares, what was the origin of the curious
design, and what was the relation of this ware to the now better known
‘Old Japan’?

When we come nearer home, to the European porcelain of the eighteenth
century, many obscure points still remain to be cleared up. The
currently accepted accounts of Böttger’s great discovery present many
difficulties. At Sèvres, why was the use of the newly discovered _rose
Pompadour_ so soon abandoned? And finally, in England, what were we
doing during the long years between the time of the early experiments of
Dr. Dwight and the great outburst of energy in the middle of the
eighteenth century?

The illustrations have been chosen for the most part from specimens in
our national collections. I take this opportunity of thanking the
officials in charge of these collections for the facilities they have
given to me in the selection of the examples, and to the photographer in
the reproduction of the pieces selected. To Mr. C. H. Read of the
British Museum, and to Mr. Skinner of the Victoria and Albert Museum, my
thanks are above all due. To the latter gentleman I am much indebted for
the trouble he has taken, amid arduous official duties, in making
arrangements for photographing not only examples belonging to the
Museum, scattered as these are through various wide-lying departments,
but also several other pieces of porcelain at present deposited there by
private collectors. To these gentlemen, finally, my thanks are due for
permission to reproduce examples of their porcelain--to Mr. Pierpont
Morgan, to Mr. Fitzhenry, to Mr. David Currie, and above all to my
friend Mr. George Salting, who has interested himself in the selection
of the objects from his unrivalled collection.

The small collection of marks at the end of the book has no claim to
originality. The examples have been selected from the catalogues of the
Schreiber collection at South Kensington, and from those of the Franks
collections of Oriental and Continental china. For permission to use the
blocks my thanks are due, as far as the first two books are concerned,
to H. M.’s Stationery Office and to the Education Department; in the
case of the last work, to Mr. C. H. Read, who, I understand, himself
drew the original marks for Sir A. W. Franks’s catalogue.

In a general work of this kind much important matter has had to be
omitted. That is inevitable. I only hope that specialists in certain
definite parts of the wide field covered will not find that I have
committed myself to rash or ungrounded generalisations. Let them
remember that the carefully guarded statements and the reservations
suitable to a scientific paper would be out of place in a work intended
in the main for the general public.

E. D.




CONTENTS


                                                                    PAGE

PREFACE,                                                               v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,                                               xii

SELECTED LIST OF WORKS ON PORCELAIN,                                xxvi

KEY TO THE BIBLIOGRAPHICAL LIST,                                  xxxiii

LIST OF WORKS ON OTHER SUBJECTS REFERRED
TO IN THE TEXT,                                                     xxxv


CHAPTER I. Introductory and Scientific,                                1

CHAPTER II. The Materials: Mixing, Fashioning,
and Firing,                                                           14

CHAPTER III. Glazes,                                                  30

CHAPTER IV. Decoration by means of Colour,                            38

CHAPTER V. The Porcelain of China. Introductory--Classification--The
Sung Dynasty--The Mongol or Yuan Dynasty,                             49

CHAPTER VI. The Porcelain of China (_continued_).
The Ming Dynasty,                                                     78

CHAPTER VII. The Porcelain of China (_continued_).
The Manchu or Tsing Dynasty,                                          96

CHAPTER VIII. The Porcelain of China (_continued_).
Marks,                                                               117

CHAPTER IX. The Porcelain of China (_continued_).
King-te-chen and the Père D’Entrecolles,                             123

CHAPTER X. The Porcelain of China (_continued_).
Forms and uses--Descriptions of the various
Wares,                                                               137

CHAPTER XI. The Porcelain of Korea and of
the Indo-Chinese Peninsula,                                          168

CHAPTER XII. The Porcelain of Japan,                                 177

CHAPTER XIII. From East to West,                                     208

CHAPTER XIV. The First Attempts at Imitation
in Europe,                                                           233

CHAPTER XV. The Hard-Paste Porcelain of
Germany. Böttger and the Porcelain of
Meissen,                                                             244

CHAPTER XVI. The Hard-Paste Porcelain of
Germany (_continued_).
Vienna--Berlin--Höchst--Fürstenberg--Ludwigsburg--Nymphenburg
--Frankenthal--Fulda--Strassburg. The Hard and Soft Pastes of
Switzerland, Hungary, Holland, Sweden,
Denmark, and Russia,                                                 259

CHAPTER XVII. The Soft-Paste Porcelain of
France. Saint-Cloud--Lille--Chantilly--
Mennecy--Paris--Vincennes--Sèvres,                                   277

CHAPTER XVIII. The Hard-Paste Porcelain of
Sèvres and Paris,                                                    305

CHAPTER XIX. The Soft and Hybrid Porcelains
of Italy and Spain,                                                  316

CHAPTER XX. English Porcelain. Introduction.
The Soft-Paste Porcelain of Chelsea
and Bow,                                                             326

CHAPTER XXI. English Porcelain (_continued_).
The Soft Paste of Derby, Worcester,
Caughley, Coalport, Swansea, Nantgarw,
Lowestoft, Liverpool, Pinxton, Rockingham,
Church Gresley, Spode, and Belleek,                                  350

CHAPTER XXII. English Porcelain (_continued_).
The Hard Paste of Plymouth and Bristol,                              375

CHAPTER XXIII. Contemporary European Porcelain,                      387


EXPLANATION OF THE MARKS ON THE PLATES,                              395

MARKS ON PORCELAIN,                                                  400

INDEX,                                                               405




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


 I. JAPANESE, Imari porcelain (‘Old Japan’). (H. c. 19 in.)
 Vase, slaty-blue under glaze, iron-red of various shades
 and gold over glaze. Early eighteenth century. Salting
 collection......(_Frontispiece._)

 II. CHINESE, Ming porcelain. (H. c. 15 in.) Jar with blue-black ground
 and thin, skin-like glaze. Decoration in relief slightly counter-sunk,
 pale yellow and greenish to turquoise blue. Probably fifteenth
 century. Salting collection......(_To face p. 44._)

 III. (1) CHINESE. (H. c. 9 in.) Figure of the Teaching Buddha. Celadon
 glaze, the hair black. Uncertain date. British Museum.

 (2) CHINESE, probably Ming dynasty. (H. 11¼ in.) Vase with open-work
 body, enclosing plain inner vessel. Thick celadon glaze. Victoria and
 Albert Museum......(_To face p. 64._)

 IV. CHINESE, Sung porcelain. (H. c. 12 in.) Small jar with thick
 pale-blue glaze, and some patches of copper-red; faintly crackled.
 _Circa_ 1200. British Museum......(_To face p. 71._)

 V. CHINESE, Ming porcelain. Three small bowls with apple-green glaze.
 Fifteenth or sixteenth century. British Museum.

 (1) Floral design in gold on green ground. (Diam. 4¾ in.) On base a
 coin-like mark, inscribed _Chang ming fu kwei_--‘long life, riches,
 and honour.’

 (2) Similar decoration and identical inscription to above (diam. 4¾
 in.), set in a German silver-gilt mounting of sixteenth century.

 (3) Shallow bowl (diam. 5¼ in.). Inside, apple-green band with gold
 pattern similar to above; in centre, cranes among clouds--blue under
 glaze......(_To face p. 81._)

 VI. CHINESE. Ming porcelain. (H. 7¾ ins.) Spherical vase, floral
 decoration of Persian type in blue under glaze; the neck has probably
 been removed for conversion into base of hookah. Probably sixteenth
 century. Bought in Persia. Victoria and Albert Museum......(_To face
 p. 84._)

 VII. (1) CHINESE. Ming porcelain. (H. c. 18 in.) Baluster-shaped vase;
 greyish crackle ground, painted over the glaze with turquoise blue
 flowers (with touches of cobalt), green leaves and manganese purple
 scrolls; a little yellow in places, and around neck cobalt blue band
 _under glaze_. On base, mark of Cheng-hua, possibly of as early a date
 (1464-87). British Museum.

 (2) CHINESE. Ming porcelain. (H. c. 19 in.) Vase of square section
 with four mask handles, imitating old bronze form. Enamelled with
 dragons and phœnixes; copper-green and iron-red over glaze with a few
 touches of yellow, combined with cobalt blue under glaze. Inscription,
 under upper edge, ‘Dai Ming Wan-li nien shi.’ _Circa_ 1600. British
 Museum......(_To face p. 90._)

 VIII. CHINESE. Ming porcelain. Covered inkslab (L. 9¾ in.), pen-rest
 (L. 9 in.), and spherical vessel (H. 8 in.). Decorated with
 scroll-work in cobalt blue under the glaze. Persian inscriptions in
 cartels, relating to literary pursuits. Mark of Cheng-te (1505-21).
 Obtained in Pekin. British Museum......(_To face p. 94._)

 IX. CHINESE, turquoise ware. Probably early eighteenth century.
 Salting collection.

 (1) Pear-shaped vase (H. 8½ in.), decorated with phœnix in low relief.
 Six-letter mark of Cheng-hua.

 (2) Plate with pierced margin (diam. 11 in.). Filfot in centre
 encircled by cloud pattern, in low relief.

 (3) Small spherical incense-burner (H. 5 in.). Floral design in low
 relief......(_To face p. 98._)

 X. CHINESE, _famille verte_. (H. 18 in.) Vase of square section,
 decorated with flowers of the four seasons. Green, purple, and yellow
 enamels and white, as reserve, on a black ground. Mark of Cheng-hua.
 _Circa_ 1700. Salting collection......(_To face p. 100._)

 XI. CHINESE, _famille verte_. (H. 26 in.) Baluster-shaped vase,
 decorated with dragons with four claws and snake-like bodies amid
 clouds. Poor yellow, passing into white, green of two shades, and
 manganese purple upon a black ground. A very thin skin of glaze, with
 dullish surface. Probably before 1700. Salting collection. (_To face
 p. 102._)

 XII. _Chinese_, egg-shell porcelain. _Famille rose._

 (1) Plate (diam. 8¼ in.). On border, vine with grapes, in gold. In
 centre, lady on horseback, accompanied by old man and boy carrying
 scrolls. 1730-50. British Museum.

 (2) Plate (diam. 8½ in.) In centre the arms of the Okeover family with
 elaborate mantling. Initials of Luke Okeover and his wife on margin.
 Early _famille rose_, the _rouge d’or_ only sparingly applied. _Circa_
 1725. British Museum......(_To face p. 108._)

 XIII. (1) CHINESE, _famille verte_. Long-necked, globular vase (