Part 1

A BOOK OF PORCELAIN

FINE EXAMPLES IN THE

VICTORIA AND ALBERT MUSEUM

AGENTS

AMERICA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 64 & 66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YORK

AUSTRALASIA THE OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 205 FLINDERS LANE, MELBOURNE

CANADA THE MACMILLAN COMPANY OF CANADA, LTD. ST. MARTIN’S HOUSE, 70 BOND STREET, TORONTO

INDIA MACMILLAN & COMPANY, LTD. MACMILLAN BUILDING, BOMBAY 309 BOW BAZAAR STREET, CALCUTTA

PLATE 1

Jar, Chinese, period of the Ming dynasty, decorated in colours of the _demi-grand feu_, with chased brass cover of Persian workmanship. Height. 15¼ in.

No. 1730-1876. See p. 14.

Unmarked.

A · BOOK · OF PORCELAIN

_FINE EXAMPLES IN THE VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM_

PAINTED BY WILLIAM GIBB

WITH TEXT BY

BERNARD RACKHAM, M.A.

ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK SOHO SQUARE · LONDON · MCMX

DEDICATED

BY PERMISSION

TO

H.M. QUEEN ALEXANDRA

PREFACE

_The twenty-eight water-colour drawings reproduced in this volume have been made from specimens of porcelain in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington, many of which have never been published before, while others have not hitherto been reproduced in colours. The selection has been made not merely of those pieces in their several classes which have a high sale-room value; due consideration has been given to those which by their aesthetic qualities appealed to the sympathies of the artist, while at the same time an effort has been made to include objects having some particular historical or personal interest, or important as documents in the history of ceramics. In this connection it should be explained that the drawings were made before Mr. George Salting’s unrivalled collection of Oriental porcelain passed by his death into the hands of the nation._

_The text does not pretend to be a general treatise on porcelain, or even an exhaustive summary of its history. The aim of the writer has been to record everything that is noteworthy with regard to the several pieces represented in the drawings, and at the same time to lay stress on the particular aspects of the subject which these examples serve to elucidate, taking them as the theme for a discussion of various phases in the evolution of the art._

_Anything in the nature of a bibliography of works consulted by the author would be out of place in a publication of this kind, but acknowledgment must be made of his indebtedness, in the sphere of Oriental ceramics, to the writings of Dr. Bushell, Captain Brinkley, Dr. Otto Kümmel_ (_in_ Geschichte des Kunstgewerbes), _and Mr. R. L. Hobson. For English porcelain reference has been made, in addition to older authorities, to the works of Mr. William Burton; while the chief authorities consulted on the subject of Continental factories are Dr. Brinckmann, Dr. Berling, Dr. Bertold Pfeiffer, Signor Corona, M. le Baron Davillier, M. le Comte X. de Chavagnac, and M. Lechevallier-Chevignard. The author desires to express his gratefulness for various information and personal assistance afforded him by Mr. M. Yeats Brown, Mr. H. P. Mitchell, M. le Comte X. de Chavagnac, M. Émile Auscher, and the Friherrinna Julia Marks von Würtemberg. Thanks are also due to Mr. J. H. Fitzhenry for kind permission to reproduce a Ludwigsburg coffee-pot in his collection._

_BERNARD RACKHAM._

LONDON, _October 1910_.

CONTENTS

PAGE PREFACE vii

INTRODUCTORY xiii

I. CHINESE PORCELAIN 1

II. JAPANESE PORCELAIN 29

III. ITALIAN PORCELAIN 37

IV. FRENCH PORCELAIN 47

V. GERMAN PORCELAIN 63

VI. ENGLISH PORCELAIN 73

INDEX 89

LIST OF PLATES IN COLOUR

BY WILLIAM GIBB

1. Jar, Ming Dynasty. Chinese, with Persian Brass Cover. (_Frontispiece._)

2. Jar, Chinese, Early Ming Dynasty.

3. Bowl, Period of Chia Ching, and Plate, Period of Yung Chêng. Chinese.

4. Ewer, Period of Wan Li. Chinese, with Augsburg Mount.

5. Vase, Chinese Celadon Ware with Louis XVI. Ormolu Mount.

6. Vase, Fuchien Porcelain, with Louis XIV. Silver-gilt Mount.

7. Jar, “Blue and White.” Chinese, Period of K’ang Hsi.

8. Vase, _famille verte_. Chinese, Period of K’ang Hsi.

9. Vase in Archaic Style. Chinese, Period of Yung Chêng.

10. Bottle, Medici Porcelain. Florentine.

11. Bowl, probably made at Pisa, dated 1638.

12. Toilette-pot, St. Cloud, with Ormolu Mount.

13. Toilette-pot, Chantilly, with Japanese Design.

14. Vase, Sèvres, _rose Pompadour_.

15. Ewer and Basin, Sèvres, yellow ground.

16. Écuelle and Stand, Sèvres, Turquoise-blue, with Panels after Boucher.

17. Jug, Sèvres, _bleu de roi_.

18. Vase, Sèvres, green ground.

19. Vase, Sèvres, _bleu de roi_, given by Gustavus III. to Catherine II.

20. Vase, Meissen, Marcolini Period.

21. Coffee-pot, Ludwigsburg.

22. Figure of a Shepherdess, Chelsea.

23. Jar, Chelsea, in Japanese Style.

24. Vase, Chelsea, Mazarine Blue.

25. Teapot, Chelsea, Claret-colour, with Figures after Watteau.

26. Vase, Chelsea-Derby, with Biscuit Handles.

27. Vase, Worcester, with Japanese Pattern.

28. Vase, Bristol, with Exotic Birds.

INTRODUCTORY

It is the experience probably of most Western amateurs of porcelain to pass through three successive stages of development in their appreciation of an art which, even for the uninitiated,--for those who have no knowledge of its history and little understanding of its technical aspects,--is not lacking in charm and fascination. For, indeed, there is about most porcelain, of whatever kind, some quality of alluring grace, a daintiness of material, or a pleasing play of colour, which makes an appeal at first sight to the eye of all lovers of things beautiful. Mere casual pleasure in its superficial attractiveness will not fail to give place to an ever-deepening interest for those who will take the pains to learn its inner secrets, to discover in it, expressed in enduring form, the creative power of a craftsman’s soul, nay more, a reflection of the very spirit of humanity in its changing moods, varying in conformity with racial differences or environment of time and place. This wondrous product of human skill,--as it were a new stone of rare value added to those which nature has given us,--will assuredly kindle in the hearts of its admirers a desire to learn something of its story. They will find, in their endeavours to understand its mysteries, that their interest is aroused in the first place by the porcelain of their own country, reflecting as it does a culture in the midst of which they have themselves been born and bred.

The English amateur will naturally seek a field for his first studies in English porcelain. It wears a certain air of homeliness which endears it to his heart; its uses and forms are those which are familiar in the daily life of his countrymen; its decoration as a rule makes no exacting demands on his erudition in order to be fully understood. After English porcelain, the collector’s attention will most readily be turned to that of the continent of Europe.

His apprenticeship, the first of the three stages to which allusion has been made above, is thus spent in the study of the Western manifestations of the art. As yet he does not understand, and cannot appreciate at their true value, the Eastern wares from which the European trace their descent. In the course of his researches a curiosity can scarcely fail to be stirred in him to know more of these Oriental precursors. His curiosity deepens; his desire to satisfy it brings him at last under a new spell, and the second stage is reached. His enthusiasm is now all for the Chinese; its perfection of material and form, its dazzling beauty of colour, the artistic fitness of its decoration, engage his admiration more and more. Alien to his imagination as it is in conception, it nevertheless fascinates him ever more surely as he grows more familiar with it. The European china of his early collecting days pleases him no longer.

But there will follow a third stage, in which a more catholic taste is developed. The student of the Oriental can understand much in the Western wares that was meaningless so long as he was ignorant of the sources from which they were derived. His appreciation of the high artistic worth of the Chinese is undiminished, but his sympathy is now again awakened by the more humane qualities of the European, appealing as they do to kindred instincts in his own Western nature. He has now reached the point at which he is able to give its true value to all good work, whatever its origin may be. The excellences of the Eastern do not blind him to the merits of the Western; all alike in their several types of beauty are a joy to his soul.

PLATE 9

Vase, Chinese, period of Yung Chêng (1723-1735), with “five colour” design of archaistic style. Height, 18 in.

No. 3022-1853. See p. 26.

Unmarked.

I

CHINESE PORCELAIN

PLATE 5

Vase, Chinese celadon porcelain, decorated in slip under the glaze, with French ormolu mount of the period of Louis XVI. Height, 17 in. Jones Collection.

No. 817-1882. See p. 16.

Unmarked.

The very name by which porcelain is commonly known suggests, to those in whom it arouses an interest beyond the mere aesthetic pleasure to be got from its outward beauty of appearance, that if they would understand it rightly, they must turn their attention first to the land of its origin. To the Chinese the world owes a material as lovely as any ever fashioned by the hand of man, and some account of the growth of this art in Chinese hands is a necessary prelude to any study alike of the Chinese ware itself and of the European imitations of it.

The first beginnings of this wonderful art must be sought in pottery of humble material. The rough but dignified earthenware of the HAN DYNASTY, contemporaneous approximately with the opening of the Christian era, signalises the first appearance in China of pottery of an artistic nature. The green-glazed vessels of this period, imitating the shapes and outward texture of bronze, have become only in recent times familiar objects on the shelves of our museums. From them we can trace the porcelain of later times, by which the Chinese have proved themselves the master-potters of the world, excelling and giving the lead to the ceramists of every other race. Yet it is strange to reflect how late in history their skill has been learned, and to remember that Persians, Egyptians, Greeks and other Western races were masters of the potter’s craft many centuries before the Chinese achieved their earliest artistic wares. Coming late into the field, they evolved in a comparatively short span of time a material which placed them ahead of every rival.

* * * * *

The SUNG DYNASTY, which occupied the throne of China for more than three hundred years beginning towards the end of the tenth century, witnessed the first emergence of a true ceramic style. The potters of earlier times had been content to follow the forms set by the bronze-founder, but their successors of the Sung period set forth on purely ceramic lines and arrived at a great variety of wares which are recorded in Chinese literature. To identify these among surviving specimens that may be attributed to this period is a formidable task for the antiquarian. The problem need not be discussed here, as most of these wares cannot be classed as porcelain in the ordinary sense of the word; but it is interesting to note briefly those types which foreshadow the developments of later times.

The emancipation of the potter to a position of independence is well shown by a small vase in the Victoria and Albert Museum of the type known as “_Chün yao_,” made from the earliest years of the Sung period at Chün-chou, in the province of Honan. The vase is of ovoid form with a lizard-like dragon coiled round it in relief; the surface is covered with a thick lavender-blue glaze on which is a splash of strong crimson. Though the body is porcellanous, the freedom of the modelling marks a distinct advance from the imitative bronze vessels of earlier times, while the brilliancy of the colouring anticipates the pure and gorgeous hues which were among the triumphs of the golden age of porcelain.

The discovery during this period of the properties of kaolin and the effort to imitate by artificial means the luminous beauties of jade, pointed the way to the evolution of a white translucent porcelain body. The cream-coloured Ting ware, made at Ting-chou in the province of Chihli, stand, among the relics of these far-off times which have escaped destruction, as the first achievements in this direction. The beauty and dignity of this ware is well exemplified by the two quadrangular vases at South Kensington, formerly in Dr. Bushell’s collection. The delicate floral or diaper ornament incised under the soft ivory-toned glaze gives promise of the skilful handiwork of the golden age of the art. One distinctive characteristic of porcelain, the quality of translucency, is still absent in most wares of this order, but pieces of smaller size, such as an exquisitely fashioned little box and cover at Kensington, show a warm glow through their thinner parts when held to the light.

Another class of ware to which reference must here be made is the celebrated celadon ware of Lung-ch’üan, in the province of Chekiang, which was first produced during this dynasty in the effort to imitate green jade. This ware was widely exported over land and sea, and is met with in remote and unexpected corners of the Old World. A well-known specimen of it, Archbishop Warham’s cup, preserved at New College, Oxford, is the first piece of Chinese ware recorded to have reached this country. Though it has the nature rather of fine stoneware than of porcelain, it is to be noted as the forerunner of a large class of porcelain of later times.

* * * * *

It was not until the period of the MING DYNASTY that the ware usually associated in Europe with the term “porcelain” first began to be made, that is, a ware with a hard, pure white body, more or less translucent. The beginning of the same period witnessed the emergence to a position of ascendancy of the imperial factory at Ching-tê-chên, in the province of Kiangsi. The factory was rebuilt in 1869 by Hung Wu, the first of the Ming emperors, and remained henceforward the chief centre of the porcelain industry in China. The subsequent achievements of Ching-tê-chên have never been surpassed in the whole history of ceramic art.

The Ming dynasty productions have a certain well-marked _cachet_, which distinguishes them clearly in their several classes alike from the wares of earlier times and from the porcelain made under the later Ch’ing emperors. There is a notable predominance of vessels of large size, formed of heavy material, displaying a massiveness and bold simplicity in their contours and decorated with designs, whether modelled or painted, of vigorous conception and of free, even rough execution. The potter addresses himself with energy to his task, and is no longer limited either to the imitative work of the Han dynasty, or to the more restrained, often delicate performances of the intervening age. At the same time, he has not yet gained the mastery of hand or the familiarity with the powers of the kiln which made possible the artistic and technical refinements of his successors.

PLATE 8

Vase, Chinese, period of K’ang Hsi (1662-1722), with enamel painting of the _famille verte_. Height, 18 in.

No. 276-1864. See p. 21.

Unmarked.

We are probably right in recognising as the earliest productions in pure white-bodied porcelain that have come down to us, a group, of which there are several fine examples in the Victoria and Albert Museum; one of these has been chosen for illustration in Plate 2. The class is characterised by a dense heavy body, massive form, and decoration, executed by means of coloured glazes, which are applied and fixed at a lower temperature after the first firing of the ware. The colours are confined to a full dark blue, turquoise-blue, straw-yellow, and a pale manganese-violet, to which sometimes an opaque white is added. In the greater number of cases the outline stands out in slight relief from the surface of the object, and is filled in with the coloured glazes in the same manner as the hollows in the copper base of a _champlevé_ enamel. A similar technique is met with again in the so-called _cuenca_ tiles made in Southern Spain in the sixteenth century. In some rare instances the vase is made with double sides, and the design is reserved in openwork by cutting through the outer casing. This type is represented at South Kensington by a large jar[1] decorated with a procession of soldiers, which stands out with bold effectiveness against the dark hollows of the pierced background.

[1] Illustrated in Dr. Bushell’s _Chinese Art_, vol. ii. fig. 12.

A fine example of the more usual method of decoration is the piece reproduced in Plate 2. It is a jar of large dimensions which has reached this country by way of Persia, and has been embellished there with a mounting of brass chased with inscriptions and medallions. The high esteem in which Chinese porcelain has been held for centuries in the Nearer East is evident from the pronounced Chinese influence manifested in Persian and Syrian art from an early period, while during the course of the Ming dynasty the export of porcelain from China to Western Asia grew enormously, and the imitation of Chinese motives became the predominant element of design in the indigenous wares of Persia. That country was the source which supplied a large part of the collection of Ming porcelain now exhibited at South Kensington.

The jar here illustrated is of characteristically solid material, only slightly translucent. Groups of crested wading birds among rocks and bushes of peony in blossom, the flower symbolical of spring in Chinese lore, form the main feature of the decoration. On the shoulder are lobed compartments enclosing the eight Buddhist “Emblems of Happy Augury.” Round the lower part are floral designs in shaped panels. The outlines, being slightly raised from the surface of the jar, form barriers by which the coloured glazes were kept from mingling one with another in the kiln. The harmonious hues serve to emphasise the bold and simple forms of the ornament, which seem thoroughly in keeping with the strong curves of the profile of the vase itself.

Other fine examples of this class exhibiting the same technique may be seen at South Kensington. Besides two large jars with processions of mounted soldiers, there are two smaller vases of the elongated pear shape which is also characteristic of this period. One of these, decorated with chrysanthemums and peonies, is remarkable for the full and rich colours of the glazes, while the other is of interest from the quaint figures on it with their primitive garb of sewn leaves. In a pair of square vases, probably early exponents of the style, an effect of solemn beauty has been obtained by the use of white and turquoise only on a manganese ground of dense purple.

PLATE 10

Bottle, “Medici porcelain,” made in Florence about 1580, with design of Oriental character in blue, outlined in manganese-purple. Height, 6-7/8 in.

No. 229-1890. See p. 41.

Unmarked.

In the classes of porcelain which have hitherto been dealt with, the decoration has been effected either by cutting into the surface with a pointed instrument or moulding it in relief, or by the addition of colouring materials to the glaze. We must now consider the method most widely prevalent in recent times, namely, that of painting on the surface either before or after glazing. In China this method came into use at a comparatively late period. Elsewhere it had been known for many centuries as a means of ceramic decoration. In Persia, for example, painted designs are met with on the pottery found by French excavators in the lowest stratum on the site of the city of Susa, dating possibly from 5000 years before Christ, while on the semi-porcellanous ware of ancient Egypt painting is of common occurrence. It was widespread as a ceramic process in the Near East and the countries round the Mediterranean long before it was practised by the Chinese. The earliest painted wares of China certainly do not date back before the Sung dynasty, and it is doubtful whether even so great an age as this can be ascribed to them.

There is a class of vases painted in a strong dark brown with roughly-drawn ornament of Buddhistic character, which are probably not more recent than the earliest years of the Ming dynasty, and may date from the latter part of the Sung period. They were made at Tzŭ-chou, in the province of Honan. Several examples of this kind are in the Victoria and Albert Museum, most of them painted with spirited designs of lotus-flowers and leafy scrollwork, sometimes with birds introduced amongst the foliage. One vase is decorated with four shaped panels, three enclosing lotus-flowers, while in the fourth is a crude figure of a Buddhist monk. These vases are worthy of special attention, as they appear to mark the point at which a step forward was taken of far-reaching significance in its effect on Chinese ceramics. The introduction of the painter’s brush among the implements of the Chinese potter led the way to developments which placed him above his fellow-craftsmen in other lands, amongst whom this branch of the art had been familiar in much earlier ages.

Of all the materials employed as pigments in the decoration of porcelain, the most important and the most widespread in use is cobalt-blue. It is said that this colour was first introduced into China from the west of Asia as early as the tenth century, but it does not appear to have been used for painting before the thirteenth century. In this connection mention may be made of a miniature vase at South Kensington of the cream-coloured Ting ware already alluded to, which is painted with indistinct markings in cobalt-blue. It may be that such pieces as this can rightly be referred back to the end of the Sung dynasty, and that we have in them the first manifestations of the great family of “blue and white” china, which in the eyes of the world at large represents Chinese porcelain _par excellence_.

Be that as it may, it was not till the time of the Ming emperors that there was any extensive production of painted “blue and white” porcelain. The earliest extant pieces that can be dated with any degree of certainty are ascribable to the reign of the emperor Hsüan Tê (1426-1435). There is a small bowl of this period in the Salting Collection. It is remarkable as well for the quality of the glaze, resembling vellum in its texture, as for the soft greyish tones of the cobalt used in the delicate painting of chrysanthemums and other flowering plants.