Excerpt from Chinese Porcelains of the Decorated and Single-Color Types: Ch'ien-Lung Snuff Bottles in Semi-Precious Minerals, Glass and Porcelain; Jade Carvings, Enamels, Pottery, April 15 and 16 at 2: 15; Paintings on Silk of the Ming, Sung, and Other Early Periods, April 15 at 8: 15 Rapid survey of any significant collection of Chinese ceramics will afford A an astonishing yield of antinomic conclusions. The current of taste from, let us say, the eighth to the eighteenth century, in spite of its carefully charted course, remains in the end as bafiling as ever to the navigating student Of Chinese aesthetics. Accepting as a starting point the T'ang pottery horses [no. 442] with their dynamic sculptural balance and cold beauty of line, it is possible without difficulty to bridge the long gap to the days of K'ang-hsi and visualize in the aloof and classic perfection of the great single-color ceramics - the superb peachbloom Chrysanthemum bottles [nos 431 and 432] and the clair de lune coupes and amphora [nos 424 426] - the canons of the same aesthetics in a more luxurious age. Turn then to the technical mastery of the ling lung incense vases [no 516] of a hundred years later, with their delicate enamel colors and pierced myriads of little clouds; or to the Ku Yueh Hsuan blue and white teapot [no 471] and the two enameled glass vessels [nos 159 and or to the finest vases and temple jars of the famille fuerte and [until/e rose; and you will find them canonised by the same age for their qualities of persistent and elaborate detail, derived on the one hand from close observation of nature, on the other from putting down, with meticulous care, the whole vocabulary of a scholar's imagination. The simultaneous appreciation of the classic and the precious in art is a triumph of Chinese catholicity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.