Excerpt from Colors and Coloring in China Painting
Keramic art is of extreme antiquity, examples having been found in the ruins of Nipper, a city that flourished 6,000 years ago. Most beautiful examples of enameled pottery have been found in the ruins of the palace of Ramesis II in Egypt, dating 3,300 years ago. In former times it was next to impossible for a person to obtain the necessary colors, much less the knowledge of using them. The art was practiced by a family and the secrets were handed down through many generations.
Keramic artists have, therefore, labored under many difficulties, and it is only in recent years that china painting has been robbed of its mysteries, although some of the older teachers even today will tell you that the colors cannot be mixed; that gold colors and iron colors are incompatible; that grounding colors are different from painting colors; that a steel palette knife is injurious to certain colors, and especially to gold; that the colors look entirely different after firing than before firing; that certain colors must be fired at certain temperatures, and others at different temperatures; that tube colors are different from powder colors, and cannot be used together and similar fallacies.
Now the real truth is, that years ago certain colors were made by one individual, and other colors by another, and as each color maker used different fluxes, each color required a certain firing different from the others, and likewise, as the fluxes were of a different nature, the colors were not entirely successful when mixed.
This, however, has all been changed. The Royal overglaze colors, for instance, are all prepared from the same base; they can be used for painting, tinting or grounding; they can be mixed, and all of them are fired properly at a moderate temperature, which is equivalent to 700 degrees centigrade. Little firing tests are provided, whereby one is placed in the kiln, and as soon as it melts down, which is observed through the peep hole, the firing is judged sufficient. So that today, china painting is reduced to an exact Art, and the colors are as easily used as water colors.
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. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Colors and Coloring in China Painting (Classic Reprint) (Keramic Supply Co)