Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/251

ing out the floral scrolls or arabesques—for which purpose the body colour is always used—and by the thinness of the biscuit.

The use of Indian ink for decorating porcelain above the glaze had its origin during the reign of Chien-lung. Such a method requires little comment. It is still largely practised, every variety of design being thus produced on a white ground. Chien-lung specimens are, however, easily distinguished by fineness of pâte and general excellence of technique. The same style of decoration is applied to a light green ground, with charming and artistic results.

Among the choicest and rarest glazes of Chinese potters yellow stands near the head of the list. Further reference will be made to it in the section on monochromes. It is noticed here only as a body colour for enamelled decoration. Its association with blue under the glaze after the "reserved" fashion is a conception already credited to the Ming keramists. The same style was successfully continued at the Kang-hsi and Chien-lung factories, the blue design—generally floral or arabesque—being applied sous couverte and the spaces between its parts covered with yellow enamel. In addition to yellow and blue, a third colour, light green enamel, was sometimes used in decorating specimens of this class. Another favourite and less uncommon type had green designs surrounded by yellow glaze. This style also dates from the Chêng-hwa era (1465–1478), for in the "Illustrated Catalogue" of H'siang a miniature box of that period is depicted having spiral scrolls in green on a yellow ground. The box is shaped like a cash of the time, and is said to have come out of the palace where it had been used by one of the Court ladies