uction of painted
decoration under a white transparent glaze, the idea of which (and
perhaps the necessary cobalt mineral) was brought from Persia.

King-te-chen was already a pottery centre when its factories were
rebuilt in 1369 by Hung-Wu, the founder of the Ming dynasty, who made it
the imperial factory, so that the best porcelain workers were attracted
thither, and in the other old centres the industry was abandoned or some
earlier manufacture was continued, as in the southern province of
Kiang-su. In the province of Fu-kien a distinct kind of porcelain
manufacture has also continued. We have already mentioned the black
glazed cups, "hare's fur," &c., made in this province in Sung times,
and, while King-te-chen was to be the scene of the developments of the
coloured and painted porcelains, Te-hwa in Fu-kien perfected the
manufacture of the famous and beautiful white porcelain in bowls,
dishes, cups and statuettes, best known under its French title of _blanc
de Chine_.

The earliest painted Chinese porcelains, which are referred to the
beginning of the Ming period, though some of them may be older, speak
strongly of ideas imported from the west of Asia. The pieces are massive
both in form and substance, and the ornament, consisting of figures
mounted or on foot, animals, bands of diaper or foliage, or pendant
necklaces, is strongly silhouetted by a raised outline recalling the
decorative methods of the Assyrian brickwork. The technical methods also
recall the methods of western Asia, for the ware was fired before it was
glazed, and then yellow, turquoise, green or purple glazes, similar in
nature to the glazes of Egypt, Syria and Persia, and quite unlike the
Chinese Sung glazes, were filled into the outlined spaces and melted at
a lower temperature. The Grandidier collection in the Louvre, the
Franks collection at the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum,
as well as all the great private collections of Chinese porcelain,
contain samples of this primitive and archaic-looking ware.

The great stream of porcelain decoration was, however, to take an
entirely different direction. The Persian pottery with its brilliant
painted decorations in blue, green and purple on a pure white ground,
exercised its natural fascination over men as keen in colour-sense as
the Chinese potters. With the concentration of the industry at
King-te-chen, and the rapid improvement in technical skill and knowledge
that followed, the