346 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1900. 



experts, thtit the secret of the composition of the scmg-de-hceuf coloring 

 and of its peculiiir glaze marked with pittings resembling those notice- 

 able on orange peel (specimens of which are now so highly prized by 

 collectors) was discovered by a missionar}^ and that its Chinese desig- 

 nation {Laiuj-yao or Lang ware) preserves to the present day the first 

 syllable of the inventor's surname. ^ Researches kindly undertaken at 

 my request ])y Abbe Alphonse Favier, the vicar-general of Chihli prov- 

 ince, into the ancient episcopal records and valuable library at Pekin 

 have, however, failed to discover any mention of the establishment 

 under missionary direction of a school for the special purpose of porce- 

 lain decoration. Had it existed, the fact would undoubtedly have been 

 chronicled in the records left by such careful and methodical workers 

 as these Jesuit priests were; and the explanation which the existence of 

 such a school would have afforded must therefore be abandoned. Abbe 

 Favier, however, informs me that Brothers Castiglione and Attirer 

 were noted painters at Pekin both of portraits and of landscapes, and 

 that they formed a school, paintings by their pupils having come into 

 his possession. It may, then, I think, be confidently assumed that the 

 imperial family having in the first instance been struck with the beauty 

 of the ornamentation on the enamel watches, snuff boxes, etc. , which 

 came to China from France during the reign of Louis XIV, a some- 

 what similar style of decoration was introduced about 1728, or shortly 

 after, for articles intended for imperial use; and that subsequently the 

 Jesuit brothers, Castiglione and Attirer, were commissioned to exe- 

 cute European designs, which were sent to Chingte-chen, to be there 

 copied on porcelain. As no article which was not perfect in every 

 detail could be forwarded to Pekin, man}^ of the pieces ordered for 

 the court would then (as now) be rejected by the superintendent of the 

 manufactory', and be retained by him or his subordinates. These 

 would gradually pass into other hands, and, possessing at once the 

 charm of novelty and the merit of being in a style appreciated at court, 

 would serve as models in the decoration of more ordinary ware. 



About the same period — that is, during the later years of Yungcheng's 

 reign, which ended in 1735-^Ku Yiieh-hsiian, a subordinate officer, I 

 believe, in the directorate of the Chingte-chen factories, introduced the 

 use of an opaque-white vitreous ware for the manufacture of articles 



^ In China omne ignotum pro magnifico is especially true; and, as in the case of the 

 beautiful red coloring of the Hsiiante period, so in the sang-de-boeuf, the brilliant 

 tint is commonly believed to result fi'om the use of powdered rubies. The fact that 

 in the list of missionaries of that time I could find none with the surname Lang, 

 caused me to doubt the reliability of this generally accepted explanation; and on 

 expressing my doubts to the late Chang Yen-Moan, for many years a member of the 

 Chinese foreign office and minister to the United States, who was himself an ardent 

 collector of ancient paintings and porcelain, he assured me that the name had no 

 connection with the .Tesuits, but was derived from the surname of the governor of 

 Kiangsi province at the time that ware was first made, Lang Ch'ao-t'ing. 



