Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/195

 It will, of course, be understood that the objects mentioned above are not restricted to the decoration of blue-and-white porcelain. They occur with equal frequency on specimens of famille verte and famille rose. Indeed no device is commoner on fine porcelains of the last named variety than a branch of peach tree with fruit, the leaves executed in translucid green enamel, and the fruit in the broken tints and half tones peculiar to the famille rose. Strawberries are almost as often found on fine specimens of this family, but they are chosen solely on account of their suitability to the palette of the famille rose painter, and not because of any emblematic significance attaching to them.

As to blue-and-white of the pâte tendre class, the subjects affected above all others by decorators—the ubiquitous dragon excepted—is the pomegranate tree. Why this should be the case, no explanation is forthcoming, other than the obvious fact that the branches and fruit lend themselves readily to graceful composition and distribution over the surface. Landscapes too are very frequently depicted, their details finished with the utmost care, and some of them showing a fine artistic sense. Garden scenes are also found, not uncommonly having a more or less close affinity with the familiar old willow pattern. Figure subjects, however, are comparatively rare on soft-paste porcelains, with the exception of snuff-bottles. On the whole, the decorators of this choice ware seem to have been guided chiefly by canons of chastity and refinement, and to have avoided the incongruity of attempting to produce dazzling effects on a surface that lent itself best to delicate and soft subjects.