China (ceramic)

“ This China is greatly superior to every other English Manufactory (sic) . Its texture is fine, exceeding the East India and its strength so great that water may be boiled in it. It is a true Porcelain composed of a native clay and is thus distinguished from every other English China which being composed of a Number of Ingredients mix’d together the principal part being Glass occasions it soon to get dirty in the wear renders it continually liable to Accidents and in every respect only an Imitation and therefore stiled by Chemists, a false Porcelain. ”

“ Early in the present century china was made at these works, and continued to be produced, though not to a large extent, to the time of the close of the works. Of the china produced several examples may be seen in the Mayer museum. In 1822 it was ordered by proprietors at a meeting held in that year, that “to give publicity and identity to the china and earthenware manufactured by the Herculaneum Pottery Company, the words ‘Herculaneum Pottery’ be stamped or marked on some conspicuous part of all china and earthenware made and manufactured at the manufactory.” ”

“ The account of the materials used by the Chinese is very justly given by the Jesuit missionaries, as well as their manner of preparing and mixing them into the China-ware paste. They observe, the Chinese have two sorts of bodies for porcelain; one prepared with Petunse and Caulin, the other with Petunse and Wha She or Soapy Rock. The Petunse they describe to be prepared from a quarry stone of a particular kind, by beating it in stamping-mills, and washing off and settling the parts which are beaten fine. This ingredient gives the ware transparency and mellowness, and is used for glazing it. ”

“ In china, which in body and glaze is of the highest quality and of peculiar durability, an immense variety of services and articles are produced, and all are equally good in point of artistic decoration; the ground colours, whether rose du Barry or otherwise, of a remarkable purity and evenness, and the gilding, both dead and burnished, of unusual solidity. The same remarks apply with equal force to the dessert ware, some of the patterns of which are of surpassing loveliness and give evidence of the highest and most successful cultivation of decorative art. ”

“ The “Ironstone China,” from its extreme hardness and durability (for it is not easy to break even a plate) is specially adapted, in its simpler styles of decoration, for services used by large steamship companies, hotels, clubs, colleges, and other places where hard usage has to be undergone; while in its more elaborate and rich styles—and it is capable of the very highest degree of finish—it is eminently fitted for families of the higher ranks. No climate affects this ware. ”

“ All Chinese porcelain has been classed as hard. The only kind about which any doubt has been entertained is the white, variously ornamented in relief. To this ought, however, to be added certain rare but superb specimens which come from China as well as from Persia. The process by which they were manufactured is not known, but it seems clear that they belong to the same family as the pate tendre of France, that is to say, that their vitrification is due to an alkaline frit, and that the glaze is also alkaline. ”

“ The greater rapidity of execution necessitated by increasing orders from abroad, and the influence of European models, had no doubt their effect. All the best pieces were retained for native use, and only the inferior qualities were exported. The estimation in which the Chinese hold the rarer pieces is further illustrated by the fact that specimens which have found their way to Europe have been sent back to China to be sold, because there they would realize higher prices. Many of the better kinds have never been seen in Europe ”

“ Japanese porcelain and pottery differ from those of China in the following general respects: perspective is permissible in painting; as a rule, there is greater simplicity of design, and the ornamentation is more chaste and less profuse; and, as already noticed, nature is more closely followed. To explain the greater purity and refinement of Japanese art, there are three points to be noticed. While the Chinese degraded art by degrading the artists, the best and noblest Japanese were themselves artists. Princes are said to have engaged in lacquer-work. ”

“ This new ware was first made public at the Great International Exhibition of 1851, and from its peculiar qualities of durability, hardness, and freedom from cracking with heat, attracted considerable attention. The surface of the semi-porcelain bears every characteristic of the finest china, and, of course, in colour, in painting, and in gilding can be made quite equal to it; but it has the additional advantage of being so completely vitrified that the inside, in case of being chipped or broken, remains of its original whiteness. ”

“ A third quality of ware is called “Semi-china,” and is nearly as translucent as porcelain. It is made from American kaolin clay, with a large admixture of felspar. It is decorated in styles{459} similar to those found upon the iron-stone china. Mr. Carr also makes statuettes and busts in terra-cotta, of a warm, rich tint, and in a fine, partially translucent parian. Besides these, the works produce cream-colored ware and majolica. The latter is made into a great variety of forms—jars, pedestals, seats, boxes, and cups, the leading colors of which are a clear deep blue, yellow, and green. ”

“ He had several [321] samples of the chinaware of their making with him, which were, I think, equal to the Asiatic. ’Twas found in the back of Virginia, where he was in quest of mines; and having read Du Halde, discovered both the petunse and kaulin. ’Tis the latter earth, he says, is the essential thing towards the success of the manufacture. He is gone for a cargo of it, having bought the whole country of the Indians where it rises. They can import it for £13 per ton, and by that means afford their china as cheap as common stone ware. But they intend only to go about 30 per cent. ”

“ Further evidence is not wanting, and has been referred to under China, of the rarity and high value of Japanese porcelain in China.
In any event, the time for servile imitation has passed with all that was worth imitating. Instead of devoting themselves, as the Chinese{166} have done for two hundred years, to vain attempts at rivalling the attainments of their ancestors, the Japanese have shown an inclination to return to their old and renounced standards as bases from which to reach a new originality. They are, in one word, progressive in the best sense. ”

“ China was at one time made here, but the productions have latterly been confined to printed, enamelled, and gilt earthenware, in which all the usual services are made; stoneware for telegraphic purposes; fine red ware for useful and ornamental goods; jet ware in a variety of articles; and sanitary goods. These they export largely both to the colonial and foreign markets. Messrs. Pinder, Bourne, and Co.’s ornamental goods, notably their “red ware,” or terra cotta, is of fine, hard, and durable quality, and much taste is evinced in some of the designs of its decoration. ”

“ China. At the Manufactory in Castle Green, Bristol, are sold various kinds of The True Porcelain, Both Useful and Ornamental, consisting of a new assortment. The Figures, Vases, Jars, and Beakers are very elegant, and the useful ware exceedingly good. As this Manufactory is not at present sufficiently known, it may not be improper to remark that this Porcelain is wholly free from the Imperfections in Wearing which the English China usually has, and that its Composition is equal in fineness to the East Indian, and will wear as well. ”

“ The crane, turtle, pine, and bamboo are the emblems of longevity.
In view of all that Japan owes to China and Corea—a great part of its religion, its knowledge of art processes, and its symbols, one would expect to find little that is original in its ceramics. There is, on the other hand, often visible a decided individuality and independence. ”

“ Some time ago he made a few pieces, including a tea-service and two statuettes (Fig. 431) of artificial porcelain, using bone and kaolin from Chester County, Pennsylvania. The table-pieces are decorated with festoons of flowers, in pink and green, and a rim of blue and gold. The statuettes are well modelled and very tastefully colored. The staple product of the factory is stone china, which is largely sought in biscuit by decorators. The quality is probably as fine as it is possible to make stone china, and styles of decoration are followed which are rarely found on a similar body. ”

“ In earthenware—toilet and all the usual table services and numberless useful articles of the best designs and highest finish are made. In stoneware—jugs, tea-pots, and other articles are produced; in these many excellent shapes and designs have been introduced. In china—tea, breakfast, dinner, dessert, trinket, toilet, and other services; jugs of various kinds; vases, and an endless variety of ornamental and highly decorated goods, are made. The quality of the china is remarkably fine and good, and the glaze of more than average excellence. ”

“ The Mogul territory touched the western boundaries of China, so that it is quite possible, that to the specimens of Chinese porcelain brought to Persia by sea may have been added a number of Chinese artists and potters arriving with the Moguls by land. In view of these facts it is not difficult to account for the prevalence in Persia of imitations of the Chinese, nor is it altogether incomprehensible that a question should have been raised whether what is called Persian porcelain is not in reality Chinese.{192}
Fig. ”

“ Cochran, “by bringing skilled workmen and artists from the principal seats of china manufacture. Figures, porcelain basket work and flowers, were produced by workmen who had acquired their skill in the old and celebrated porcelain works of Derby, while Coalport and several of the most famous Staffordshire china works supplied a general staff of potters, together with gilders, and flower and landscape painters. ”

“ There is no proof that any blue and white Oriental china, except during the most recent times, was ever decorated on a transfer-printed ground. All of the blue and white Nankin and Canton ware was painted by hand under the glaze. When we consider the immense amount of labour necessary to keep up the supply of porcelain to Europe, and also to the United States early in the nineteenth century, it is astonishing that no process work showing transfer printing can be discovered, although the invention must have spread to China before 1796 when Keen-lung died. ”

“ In the working of metals, the Chinese are not unskilled, and produce implements for use suited to all the business of life. [1] Metallic mirrors have been made by them, for the use of the fair sex, by which means the ladies of China were enabled to survey their features and adjust their dress, before the invention of glass, or its introduction into that country. The Chinese still imagine that they possess, so exclusively, the material, and the art of working in iron and steel, that a standing order, in Canton, to this day, is, that the barbarians shall not export iron from the country. ”

“ None are produced for the home trade. The works are carried on by Messrs. W. Baker & Co., who were awarded a medal at the Paris Exhibition.
Fenton Pottery.—This was established in 1825, by Messrs. C. J. & G. M. Mason, for the manufacture of their famous “Ironstone China” ware (which see) . “The works of C. J. Mason & Co.,” says Ward, in 1843, “standing obliquely to two turnpike-roads, and on the line of the Canal Company’s railway, present an extensive front of four stories in height, inscribed in large letters ‘Patent Ironstone China Manufactory.’ For this article of trade, which Messrs. ”

“ The seeds of decay may be considered to have been planted about27 the beginning of the seventeenth century, when the establishment of the European trading companies brought China into close and constant touch with the Western world. The new markets thus opened for Chinese products inevitably brought about the creation of a new style in Chinese art to suit the taste of European buyers. Traces of Western influence may be discerned, if not in the decoration, at all events in the forms of Chinese porcelain all through the seventeenth century, and in K’ang Hsi’s reign its effect is fully apparent. ”

“ The weak and the beautiful will be placed side by side, as in the human family a dwarf may be full brother to an Adonis.
From what has been said it will be inferred that the Chinese held in the highest admiration the beauty to be found in color alone. In producing it, they stand at the head of the ceramic artists of the world. The old white porcelain—that is, porcelain decorated with white, and not the undecorated ware—is by some considered the most{146} ancient quality, and is most carefully preserved by the Chinese. ”

“ Everywhere articles of foreign manufacture are in demand, and shrewd Chinese merchants are stocking their shops with increasing quantities of European and American goods. The new Chinese Presbyterian Church at Wei-hsien typifies the elements that are entering Asia for it contains Chinese brick, Oregon fir beams, German steel binding-plates and rods, Belgian glass, Manchurian pine pews, and British cement. ”

“ There is little to be said of Chinese porcelain during the 19th century. The European demand was practically killed by the growth of porcelain works at home, and the imperial patronage, so great a factor in the production of artistic wares, was fitful and uncertain. Tao-Kwang (1821-1850) gave some attention to porcelain, and the pieces made for him and marked “Shen-te-t’ang” are valued by collectors. The so-called Peking bowls of his reign (made of course at King-tê-chên) are also of repute. But the political difficulties of China left little leisure for the cultivation of the arts ”