CHINESE PORCELAIN IN WEST
elled description manufactured so profusely in the Wan-li era. After 1670, the outcome of the great Kang-hsi workshops began to come into the market, and enamelled ware of fine quality would then have been included in the exports. The history of the keramic industry in China is alone sufficient to establish these facts, but strong corroborative testimony is furnished by Western writers. Thus Gersaint, cataloguing the collection of the Viscount de Fonspertuis, in 1747, says:—"The most usual kind of porcelain has a white ground with blue flowers, landscapes, and figures or animals. Of late years, however, there has appeared a new kind, which is called 'enamelled porcelain.' Its colours are bright, but they lack harmony." The same writer gives the following interesting account of the porcelains which, at that time, constituted the staple of European collections:—"Porcelain is made of all colours in China. Yellow destined for Imperial use; grey that approaches the tint of céladon. The latter is seldom seen. It is generally covered with a number of irregular little lines crossing each other as though the vase had been broken all over. Large lines are also met with, the effect of which is more marked. Porcelains of this kind are called 'truitées' or 'craquelées' according to the smallness or largeness of the lines. Blue, red, and green porcelains are also to be procured, but it is dificult to obtain a uniform surface with these colours. They rarely succeed; and perfect specimens are consequently very costly. I have seen black porcelain also; it is very rare, and, for the rest, is only valuable on account of its scarcity, being too sombre to be decorative. There is also white porcelain painted with blue under the glaze, which
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