Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/242

 glaze. Indeed many of the Medallion Bowls treasured by European and American collectors belong to the Chia-tsing (1796–1827) and Taou-kwang (1821–1851) periods. Estimable enough in their line, these more modern wares are always lacking in delicacy and finish as compared with their Yung-ching and Chien-lung predecessors.

In speaking of the Rose Family no attempt is here made to distinguish between porcelains dating from the closing years of the Kang-hsi era and those of the Yung-ching or Chien-lung factories. No distinction can, in fact, be made. And within certain limitations the same may be said of enamelled wares generally. The Yung-ching era (1723–1735), as will be presently shown, is not without titles to independent fame, but in the matter of porcelain decorated with vitrifiable enamels its keramists struck out no new lines. They merely carried the old to an unsurpassed point of excellence. Coming to the Chien-lung time (1736–1795), the Green Family practically disappears, the potters applying themselves especially to decoration of the Famille Rose type. But in their employment of full-toned enamels they inaugurated a virtually new and pleasing departure by means of delicate tints of green, yellow, and red combined sparsely with blue under the glaze. This type of ware is distinguished by its subdued tone and by the conventional character of the decoration, which consists usually of floral scrolls, arabesques, and diapers. From the latter years of the same era dates also the custom of covering the inside as well as the outside of a piece with half-toned, non-vitrous enamels, pink and green being most common. This fashion belongs to an inferior type of art: it seems to have been sug-