424 KEPOET OP NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



obtain the same brilliant transparency of color upon the ground of 

 greater purity which was afforded by the best porcelain as compared 

 with the vitreous composition employed. T'angying's energies were 

 immediately devoted towards fulfilling the emperor's desire, his efforts 

 being certainly crowned with a very large measure of success. He 

 appears to have employed for his purpose a very pure glaze of a highly 

 vitrifiable nature, and to have thereby obtained an enamel brilliancy 

 that no other porcelain shows, and to have also secured to a considera- 

 ble extent the same soft transparency in the decorative colors which 

 was so much appreciated on Ku Yiich-hsiian vitreous ware. The man- 

 ufacture of this porcelain appears to have been carried on simultane- 

 ously with that of the Ku Yiich-hsiian proper, some dating from Yung- 

 cheng's reign and some from Chieniung's. The marks it bears corre- 

 spond exactly with the later products of vitreous composition, and 

 indeed, owing to its origiu, it is known as fang-JcuyucJi-hsnan, "modelled 

 on the pattern of the Ku Yiich hsiian." Specimens of this porcelain, 

 which is quite rare, are held in very high esteem by the Chinese, alike 

 for the purity of the paste, the brilliance of the glaze and the beaut^'^ 

 of the decoration, and are considered among the first productions of 

 the period during which the manufacture attained its highest excel- 

 lence. JSTos. 328 to 336 are good specimens, and afford a fair criterion of 

 the merits of this porcelain. 



The three-quarters of a century above mentioned (1698 to 1773) was 

 marked by the production of articles which are masterpieces of Chinese 

 ingenuity and of skilful workmanship. Vases of various forms are 

 fitted with a central ring, which, while it is separate from the vase and 

 movable at will in a horizontal direction, still cannot be detached. 

 Other vases there are having the body formed of two shells, the outer 

 portion consisting in part of a geometric design or of bunches of flow- 

 ers in open-work, revealing a historical representation, or a grouj) of 

 flowering plants beautifully painted upon the inner tube. Others 

 again exhibit the peculiarities of both these varieties combined, it 

 being possible to make the open-work exterior revolve, in order to 

 bring to light the painted decoration within, but without possibility of 

 separating it from the vase itself. There are still others of which the 

 exterior shell is divided into two, generally unequal, parts, each hav- 

 ing scallopped or lambrequin edges some inches in depth, which fit ex- 

 actly into one another but are still movable, though neither can be 

 detached entirely from the internal body. What process was adopted 

 to secure this mobility and prevent the movable section from becoming 

 attached to the other portions of the vase in the process of baking is 

 a mystery which has never as yet, I believe, been satisfactorily ex- 

 plained. The beautiful hexagonal and octagonal lamp-shades of deli- 

 cately thin porcelain either reticulated or ornamented with paintings 

 and reticulated edges are productions of this period equally admired 

 and now^ no less rare than the above. 



