i20 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
PORCELAIN CUPS BY CHIKUZEN 
MODERN CHINESE AND JAPANESE OVERGLAZE DECO- 
RATION 
Mary Churchill Ripley Weisse 
\ MONG Oriental potters there seems to be evident in- 
-^^ tent to copy that which has been successful in the past, 
and they are handling undecorated glazed porcelain in a way 
that should be most suggestive to ceramic artists everywhere. 
One of the greatest Japanese potters said to me frankly 
that there was "too much new style in America" and that he 
wished that some big American artist would do "big copy." 
Keen appreciation was expressed of those artists in America 
who have followed Oiiental lead in doing successful over- 
glaze work. In answer to repeated questions about the styles 
he would suggest for modern artists to adopt, who were 
obliged to depend for decoration upon porcelains which they 
did not make themselves, the answer was "enamel and gold 
— fine in America — solid colors overglaze, etching in glaze." 
In order to obtain some absolutely modern ideas I set 
out one morning with a great porcelain expert to visit the 
potters of Kyoto. On both sides of the narrow streets were 
curio shops, each one boasting a small show window, which 
served as setting for a few selected gems of the potter's art: 
a bit of a jug made by an ancestor, and a less successful but 
somewhat attractive copy made by the owner of the shop 
in his private kiln which was located in the garden at the 
rear of his house. 
A common ambition seemed to have caused the potters 
to do their best toward reproducing Chinese colors, and beau- 
tiful objects both large and small testified to their skill. No 
one with a thorough knowledge of Chinese pastes and glazes 
could for a moment be deceived by the Japanese wares, but 
no novice could escape being puzzled by certain of the repro- 
ductions. 
It was my personal experience to find the potters all 
anxious to claim their work as their own and in no single case 
was anything offered me that was other than what it was 
said to be. Several times more money was charged for por- 
celain, hot from the. kiln, so to speak, than for pieces made 
by the noted grandfather of the potter. 
Seifu and Chikuzen are conceded to be the master potters 
of Japan to-day and they are more difficult to approach than 
many of the younger men whose reputation is not yet made. 
They received me most courteously and spread out before 
me matchless little saki cups and bottles, closely resembling 
in color the white libation cups of the Fukien Province in China. 
Chikuzen himself selected for me twenty-one little white cups 
which had that morning been drawn from the kiln. On 
each one of them his name was engraved as sole decoration. 
Nothing could be of more superb quality than Chiku- 
zen's white ware, this has been developed by the master 
potter himself and is produced in many shades. Bowls of 
fine quality paste, decorated with raised flowers, were covered 
with a deep cream colored glaze of almost a yellow cast re- 
sembling the opaque white glaze of old Ming pottery, these 
bowls were of translucent porcelain without a blemish. 
A set of teacups of eggshell porcelain were bluish white 
in color and utterly different in every way from the bowls, 
while some exquisite little one company teapots were both 
in paste and glaze suggestive of the wares made for Kang- 
h.si, the first Great Emperor of the last Chinese Dynasty. 
Altogether these reproductions of the Chinese have never 
been asjf successfully made as by Seifu and Chilcuzen and 
neither of these great simple hearted men claimed that the 
work of their hands was other than it really was, twentieth 
century reproduction of beautiful objects made in the past. 
It is generally left to the middle man to offer as genuine an- 
tiques, wares made to-day. These reproductions are ordered 
in large quantities by dealers and though the potters know 
perfectly well that they are sold as antiques, they personally 
seem proud of their success and insist upon being recognized 
as makers of the articles. 
This was demonstrated by Makudza Kozan, 3d, who 
charges to-day more for his copies of antique pottery than for 
specimens made by either his father or his gi'and father. I 
bought several very rare bits of porcelain made by the elder 
Kozan nearly a half century ago for which I paid less than 
for a tea-bowl and a tea-jar made by Kozan's grandson. Each 
of the small porcelain vases made by the elder Kozan was 
marked by him and bore the impress of his own seal, there 
was no attempt to copy a Chinese mark. Many connoisseurs 
have been surprised to find these little glazed pieces so puz- 
zling and difficult to identify as they are strongly suggestive 
of Chinese work. 
I tried to obtain some idea of the materials used in the 
most successful overglaze work being done in Japan to-day 
and was astonished to find that the preparations instead of 
being of old time formulae and of native manufacture were 
generally the same as those used in Europe and America and 
bore the name of some American or European maker. 
A method of mixing India ink or lampblack with the 
colors serves to change their tone somewhat and seemed to 
me an important item of interest. The use of India ink was 
advised by several artists, especially those who favored the 
Chinese process of etching in the glaze. This mode of decor- 
ation long puzzled students of the potter's art and two cen- 
turies ago both in Germany and England, Chinese porcelains 
thus decorated were counted as rare and interesting. Of 
late years this has been frankly spoken of as a lost art and one 
never really understood and therefore it was interesting to 
have it recommended to American artists as one of the methods 
they might adopt with success. Determined to find out all 
that I could about this etched ware, I carried the thought 
from Japan to China and in the original home of porcelains 
discovered that for which I was seeking. 
The whole country beyond Nanking on the Yangtse 
Kiang and in the mountains back of the river in the neighbor- 
Rouge Box decoration incised in the glaze while you wait 
