The Porcelain on Yongzheng Period of Qing Dynasty
1 min readThe two reigns of Yongzheng and his celebrated son Qianglong, who succeeded his father in 1736, are taken together on account of the general similarity of their ceramic productions. Jingdezhen and its imperial manufactory still monopolised ceramic production, its official directors including Tang Ying, who was made assistant director in 1728 and became director in 1736, retaining sole charge up to 1749. Tang Ying was a prolific writer as well as an enthusiastic cultivator of the ceramic arts, and much of our knowledge of the craft and its history is thanks to his work.
He devoted his powers to the repro duction of archaic wares, specimens of which were sent down from the palace at Peking (modern-day Beijing) so that they could be copied. He also encouraged the invention of new methods of decoration. The brilliant greens that dominated the enamels of the painted decoration of the reign of the Kangxi Emperor earned for it the name of famille verte.
In later periods, the greens become paler in tone, and even these hues have been gradually supplanted by rose-reds of crimson and pink shades derived from gold, hence the name of famille rose for these enamels, a term that is often applied to the entire scheme of decoration in colours that rose to popularity in the 19th century.
