Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/179

 Another class of hard-paste porcelain decorated with blue sous couverte, numerous and beautiful examples of which were manufactured during the Kang-hsi era, is that known to Western collectors as soufflé, and called in China Chui-ching-yao. The colouring matter was applied by blowing it through a tube covered with gauze. Thus the surface became covered with speckles of colour, more or less minute and close, showing a charming play of light and shade. M. d'Entrecolles describes the process thus:—"The blue is fully prepared. Then a tube is taken, one orifice of which has very fine gauze stretched over it. The end of this tube is lightly dipped in the colouring solution so that the gauze becomes saturated, whereupon the workman blows through the tube against the porcelain, of which the surface becomes covered with little blue specks. This species of ware is dearer and rarer than that not having its colour soufflé, because the execution of the process is very difficult if the requisite proportions are preserved." Sometimes the piece received no other decoration than this soufflé blue, in which case it ranked as a monochrome, and depended entirely upon the brilliancy and depth of its colour. In other instances floral designs, landscapes, or figure subjects, were sketched in gold upon the surface of the glaze. This addition cannot be called a happy inspiration, especially as the gold, being inperfectly fixed at a low temperature, and sometimes not fired at all, suggested the idea of an accidental adjunct, and very soon disappeared under friction, leaving only unsightly traces of its presence. The fashion had descended from the Ming dynasty, for in the imperial requisition of the eighth year of Chia-ching (1529) it appears