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 PORCELAANTDECORATED

Perfume Boxes with fragrant flowers, carved in openwork with fir-leaf brocades and with flowers of the seasons.

Fars with brocaded ground in round patterns, the flowers of the four seasons, fruit, birds, and the eight precious symbols.

Fan Boxes with dragons in clouds and arabesques.

Pencil Rests with mountain scenes in openwork.

Handkerchief Boxes with flowers emblematic of the four seasons.

Slop Boxes with cloud dragons, arabesques, and flowers of the four seasons.

Fish Bowls with dragons soaring into the clouds, ara- besques, and fragrant plants.

The ubiquity of the dragon in the designs of this period cannot fail to strike the reader. Figure sub- jects also came into vogue, but they were not the Mandarins and slender ladies familiar to Western col- lectors: these belong to a later era. The Lung-ching and Wan-/i decorators chose the Taoist Immortals and other mythical personages; the “hundred boys at play,” or, in their historical scenes, warriors of fame. Wares thus profusely decorated exhibited more of the artisan than of the artist. Some small specimens pre- sented technical features almost worthy of the dynasty’s best traditions, but in large pieces the pate was heavy and coarse and the designs were clumsily executed. The colours, however, were always not only rich and full, but also combined and massed so to produce a strong and harmonious effect. Immense quantities of porcelain must have been produced. It is stated in Dr. Bushell’s ‘‘ Chinese Porcelain before the Present Dynasty,’ that “the imperial potteries were still at Ching-té-chén, and it was the practice to appoint eunuchs to superintend the manufacture and to bring

up the porcelain to Peking. They took with them 197