European  forms  of  pieces  not  used  by  the  Chinese
themselves  are  often  found.  The  process  seemed  to
have  been  something  like  this.  The  East  India
Company,  all  the  captains  and  officers  of  the  East
India  Company's  ships,  when  visiting  China  took
with  them  orders  for  services  to  be  decorated  with
crests  or  armorial  bearings,  with  English  landscapes,
or  with  sporting  or  religious  subjects.  Blue  and
white  was  made  in  vast  quantities  owing  to  the
demand  from  Europe.  It  needs  but  one  sentence
of  description.  It  was  poor.  About  this  time  the
Chinese  potters  copied  the  Japanese.  Imari  ware,
with  its  flowers  in  conventional  forms,  various  Cela-
dons in  blue,  lilac,  grey-white  on  good  fine  porcelain,
are  traced  to  this  reign.  Perhaps  it  was  most
celebrated  for  the  reproductions  of  the  porcelain  of
earlier  periods  in  which  both  pattern  and  mark  were
constantly  recopied.
Taou-Kwang  (1821-1851).
In  this  period  there  was  a  special  development  of
the  enamelled  rice  bowl,  although  beautiful  vases  so


TAOU-KWANG  143

decorated  with  enamel  as  to  cover  the  whole  surface
are  not  uncommon.  The  use  of  two  shades  of  green
produces  a  very  pleasing  and  comparatively  new
effect.  Unfortunately,  the  Chinese  potteries,  as  in
the  previous  reign,  seemed  to  have  devoted  much  of
their  time  to  reproductions.  The  rice  bowls  were
often  decorated  in  graviata,  graffito,  or  sgraffito
patterns,  in  which  the  enamel  was  scratched  with  a
point  into  a  variety  of  twists  and  turns,  forming
beautiful  variations  from  the  ordinary  plain  enamel
surface.  This  surface  was  also  painted  with  flowers
and  figures.  The  process  seems  to  have  been  first
adopted  by  Keen-lung,  and  many  pieces  have  the
Keen-lung  mark.  In  a  set  of  four  very  fine  examples
which  came  under  our  notice  three  had  the  Keen-
lung  mark,  and  the  fourth  that  of  Taou-kwang.
