336 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



dazzling the eyes." Occasional!}" these fish would be represented on 

 the outside swimming on waves engraved in the paste, with two more 

 on the inside. Though no less than four vessels so decorated are 

 described b}" Hsiang Tzii-ching, they are stated to have been even 

 then "precious specimens of this rare kind of porcelain" — they are 

 certainly so now. 



A rarer kind of decoration still was three pairs of peaches in red on 

 a white ground — of these "oulv two or three were then known to 

 exist within the four seas," that is, the Empire. 



A still rarer decoration, found on a wine cup, is described as "the 

 white ground decorated inside and outside with cloud scrolls engraved 

 in the paste, a scroll border above colored crimson: the handle a 

 dragon of bold design moulded in high relief coiled round the top, 

 with teeth and four claws fixed in the rim, enamelled vermilion red." 

 (Vessels with a dragon moulded in relief upon the brim are, it may be 

 added, always highly esteemed by the Chinese when intact, partly 

 because of the artistic ability required to successful^ execute the 

 design, and partl}^ because old specimens are seldom met with undam- 

 aged.) "Only one or two of these beautiful little cups remain 

 throughout the Empire, and 100 taels ($150 gold) is not considered too 

 much to pay for a specimen." Hsiang Tzii-ching states that the bril- 

 lianc}" of this crimson glaze was obtained l)y the 'addition of powdered 

 red gems from the west to the ordinary materials. Doctor Bushell, 

 commenting upon this statement, says "this is impossible, and the 

 colors being painted on under the glaze shows it to have been a copper 

 silicate, the same doubtless that gave the bright red {Jisien hung) to 

 the monochromes of the period."^ M, Julien states that among the 

 colors for porcelain painting brought from China by M. Itier (an 

 employe in the ministry of finance, who accompanied the French 

 ambassador to that country) and presented in 18-M to the manufactory 

 at Sevres, was one na.nied p((o-s/ii7i-kung, "precious stone red," which 

 when analyzed by M. Salvetat proved to be merely "oxyde de fer 

 avec du fondant."^ 



A decoration first met with in the productions of this period is 

 obtained by the entire excision of a delicate pattern, by some sharp 

 instrument, from the biscuit of which the cup or bowl is formed. 

 When the vessel is dipped in the glaze, the latter fills up the excised 

 open work with a thin film sufficientl}' thick after baking to retain the 

 liquid in the cup, though so thin that the pattern is thrown out as a 

 transparency upon the more opaque body. This decoration is com 

 monly known among English collectors as "lace-work," and the 

 French term pieces so decorated reticules. 



*S. W. Bushell, Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty, Nos. 6, 10, 40, 54, 

 56, 58, 60, 69, 71, and p. 117. 

 '■'S. Julien, L'Histoire et la Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise, p. 91. 



