MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
Chapter XIV
MANUFACTURING PROCESSES
THE questions of the preparation of pâte and glazing material by Chinese potters, of the application of the glaze and of the mode of selecting and employing colouring matter, though investigated from time to time by Europeans residing in China, are still more or less obscure. It would be useless, therefore, to attempt to enter into the minutiæ of these matters. Brief reference may be made, however, to processes of which a general knowledge has been acquired; namely, those followed at the Ching-tê-chên factories in the times of their great prosperity; that is to say, during the reigns of Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chieng-lung, the period comprised between 1661 and 1795. Whether these processes differed from those in vogue during the Ming dynasty, and if so, in what the difference consisted, there are unfortunately no means of determining. But it may reasonably be assumed that the differences were not considerable, for certainly in many directions the achievements of the Ming potters were at least equal to those of their successors in the Tsing dynasty. Information with respect to these questions of manufacture is chiefly derivable from the Annals of Fu-liang, as translated by M. Julien, from the letters of Père d'Entrecolles, from the annotations of M. Salvétat, and from minor sources.
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