Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/217

that an official who lived at the beginning of the seventeenth century had two of these little cups which were valued at fifteen hundred dollars the pair. Lotus leaves and blossoms, figure subjects, insects, especially grasshoppers, and floral designs, were among the favourite decorations of the era. Among the specimens depicted in H'siang's Catalogue there are four of the celebrated little wine-cups. Two of them have the lower part of the outer surface coloured so as to represent sward, from which spring flowers—the coxcomb, narcissus, and marigold. A dragon-fly hovers in the white field of one cup and a mantis creeps in the green of the other. The tiny vessels have a diameter of two inches and a height of one and a half, yet they are said to have been valued at 100 taels the pair in H'siang's day. The two other cups shown have flat bottoms and are of similar dimensions. They are decorated with blue sous couverte in combination with vitrifiable enamels. The designs are flowers, fighting cocks and geese swimming waves. Judging from these four specimens, the palette of the Chêng-hwa decorator contained five colours, red, green, yellow, blue, and purple.

Every one of H'siang's Chêng-hwa specimens is a dainty and choice object. The miniature wine-cups spoken of above show that the experts of the time had conceived and skilfully utilised the idea of making enamel pictures on their pieces. That is to say, they no longer subordinated their enamels to the general form of the specimen, but used them to depict independent subjects on its white surface. They still, indeed, practised the former method, and regarded its skilful employment as their greatest tour de force. H'siang's Catalogue contains exquisite examples of