Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/262

 CHINA

and he further mentions a little plate painted with a Cruci- fixion, which, he was informed, had been made to be smug- gled into Japan at the close of the 17th century.

With. regard to porcelain made for the Asiatic market, there are five specimens in the collection; two of these are saucers with Arabic inscriptions from the Koran, incorrectly written, and resemble a bowl and saucer in the collection of M. Charles Schefer, of Paris, which are inscribed with the name of the provost of merchants at Cairo.

Another dish has evidently been made for the Indian market. Two others are painted from Indian drawings which have been copied with great fidelity and care. Their Chinese origin is, however, betrayed by other portions of the ornaments. As we have already stated, M. Jacquemart has described a similar specimen as Indian porcelain.

From Pere d’Entrecolles’ letters it is clear that even as early as his time the great manufactory of King-té-chén made specimens with foreign designs; for instance, “ the porcelain,” he says, “which is transported to Europe is generally made on new models, often of a strange form, and difficult to succeed in making, for the least defect the Euro- pean [merchants] reject it, and it remains on the hands of the workmen, who cannot sell it to the Chinese because it is not according to their taste.”’ He afterwards speaks of the models as having been sent from Europe. In his letter of 1722 he mentions that there had just been made large vases of three feet high and more, without the covers, which rose in the shape of a pyramid to the height of another foot. These pieces had been ordered by the merchants of Canton, who did business with Europeans, and had taken a great deal of trouble to make, as out of eighty only eight had succeeded.

In the History of King-te-chén there are numerous notices of porcelain made in the European taste, and of vases painted with enamels in the European style, landscapes, figures, flow- ers, animals, etc., “ of most delicate execution and marvellous perfection.”

It is evident, therefore, that in China porcelain was made for exportation from designs furnished by Europeans, and if this was the case at King-té-chén, we should naturally find

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