The important part played by moulding, both as a direct process and subsidiary to throwing on the wheel, is well brought out in this description. I will give a rendering of the passage in which the process of moulding is described, as in an English translation in a recent work there is some apparent confusion. ‘When the piece to be copied is of such a nature that it cannot be imitated with the potter’s hands on the wheel, a special kind of clay used only for moulds is impressed upon it [_i.e._ upon the model]. In this way a mould is made of several pieces, each of a considerable size. These pieces are now dried, and when they are required for use they are held near the fire for some time, after which they are filled with the paste to the thickness desirable in the porcelain. The paste is pressed in with the hands and the mould is again placed near the fire. The impressed figure becomes at once detached from the mould by the heat that consumes the moisture that has made it adhere. The different parts of a piece separately moulded are now joined together with a somewhat liquid slip, made of the same material as the porcelain.’ Great numbers of these moulds are kept in stock, so that an order from Europe can be quickly executed. The porcelain painters, he tells us, are just as ‘poor beggars’ (_gueux_) as the other workmen; and he has evidently a very mean opinion of the art of painting as practised at that time in China: ‘_Ils ignorent les belles règles de cet Art_.’ But such an estimate of Oriental art was universal at that time, when everything was measured from the standpoint of Versailles and the _roi soleil_. ‘The work of the painter is divided in the same laboratory among a great number of workmen. It is the sole business of one to trace the coloured circle that we see near the edge of the vessel; another draws the outline of the flowers, which a third fills in. One painter does the mountains and the water, another the birds and the animals. It is the human figure that is the most badly handled.... As for the colours on the porcelain, we find all sorts. Little is seen in Europe except that with bright blue on a white ground. I think, however, that our merchants have brought over other kinds.’ (The implication is, no doubt, ‘since I have left France.’ This helps us to fix the date of the introduction of coloured porcelain into Europe.) ‘Some we find with a ground like that of our burning mirrors.’ (This is doubtless the _Wu-chin_, or metallic black of the Chinese. This ‘mirror-black’ is compared to a concave glass blackened behind.) ‘Other kinds are wholly red, and among them some are _d’un rouge à l’huile_ (_yu-li-hung_), and some of a _rouge soufflé_ (_chui-hung_), and covered with little points almost like a miniature. When these two varieties are executed with perfect success--and to do this is difficult enough--they are highly esteemed and are very dear.’ The _yu-li-hung_, literally ‘red inside the glaze,’ may be taken to