Vase of white porcelain of Têhua in the province of Fuchien, mounted in silver-gilt of the period of Louis XIV. as a pastille-burner. Height, 7½ in. Jones Collection.
In addition to applied reliefs the Fuchien potters decorated their porcelain with delicate incised designs, sometimes scarcely perceptible until closely examined, or with ornaments impressed by means of small stamps. An instance of the latter method is seen on the foot of the piece under consideration, which has a repeating border of fret-pattern lightly impressed in the paste.
The reign of Wan Li was followed by an epoch extending over nearly half a century which is almost devoid of significance in the history of porcelain. The invasions of the Manchu Tartars brought to an end the native Ming dynasty, and gave its last two emperors little leisure for the patronage of art. The establishment on the throne of the still-ruling Ch’ing dynasty of Tartar emperors was the opening of a new era, and the accession of its second monarch, K’ANG HSI, was the signal for a brilliant artistic renaissance, nowhere more apparent in its effects than in the wonderful achievements of the imperial porcelain works at Ching-tê-chên. K’ang Hsi’s reign of sixty years’ duration covered roughly the same space of time as that of his illustrious French contemporary, the _Grand Monarque_, who gave the impetus for a similar revival in the arts of his own kingdom. It was an age of peace and order following after years of strife and confusion. Energies no longer required to be spent in warfare were free to be diverted to the pursuance of the arts of peace.
In the domain of porcelain the outcome of these favourable conditions is seen in an extraordinary advance along technical lines unparalleled in the history of ceramics. A white body of the utmost purity, a glaze fusing so perfectly on to the surface of the paste as to give an appearance of deep luminosity, underglaze colours and overglaze enamels unsurpassed in brilliance and liveliness, brought within the reach of the potter a wonderful variety of effects far beyond anything that had been attained before. Yet the very technical skill which made the triumphs of the K’ang Hsi period possible, opened the way for the artistic decline of the following half century. Virtuosity took the place of aesthetic spontaneity; while there is undeniable beauty in the new achievements, they generally lack the vigour and sincerity of earlier periods when the principles of technique were less well understood.