# China: Its History, Arts, and Literature/Volume 1/Chapter 9

Chapter IX
MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES
WHITE
AMONG the wares belonging to this section the most important is céladon, but enough has already been written about this beautiful though not duly appreciated representative of Chinese keramic skill.
The earliest white porcelain showing any fine technical qualities was the Ting-yao of the Sung dynasty. This, as already seen, was not hard, translucid ware of the type commonly called porcelain in the West; it had soft pâte and though very thin, was not transparent. Something of its opaqueness was due to the nature of the glaze, for even bowls of fine Ting-yao so fragile as to seem capable of being crushed between the fingers, refuse altogether to transmit light. The glaze, though perceptibly thicker than the covering applied to porcelaine dégourdée by the European process of absorption, has not more body than a coat of thin cream, to which, indeed, its soft yet solid appearance and warm tone may not inaptly be compared. Whether owing to original excellence or to skilled manipulation, the porcelain earth of the Ting-yao shows qualities that fully explain the esteem in which the ware was held by old-time connoisseurs. It has ​a pâte as fine as pipe-clay, as tender as vellum, and withal so elastic that good specimens appear to spring under pressure. The Catalogue of H’siang shows that the potters of the Sung dynasty generally took ancient bronzes as models for white Ting-yao, and that they accurately copied not only the shapes of these but also their decorative designs, incised or in relief. Such models were naturally best adapted to vases, censers, libation-cups, and so forth. When there was question of bowls or plates the potter chose ordinary shapes and ornamented them internally with sprays of leaves and blossoms, floral scrolls, or two fishes, incised or in relief, leaving the exterior plain. The glaze was not crackled in Ting-yao proper, but in the Tu-Ting-yao, or Ting-yao pottery, an inferior and comparitively clumsy production, crackle of medium size always appeared. It need scarcely be said that genuine specimens of Ting-yao dating from the Sung dynasty are virtually unprocurable.
It has been shown that the production of northern Ting-yao, or Pai-ting, ceased in the year 1126, and that the ware was thenceforth represented by the Southern Ting-yao, or Nan-ting, manufactured at Nan-chang in Kiang-si. Nan-chang and Ching-tê-chên were virtually synonymous. The keramic industry in this, its metropolitan, district progressed steadily without much reference to changes of dynasty, and when the Yuan Mongols became masters of the whole empire, the production of Ting-yao at Ching-tê-chên went on as before. Thenceforth, however, the porcelain was called Shu-fu-yao, or "imperial ware," to mark the fact that its chief destination was the Court. The materials employed in the manufacture of this Yuan Shu-fu-yao being identical with ​those employed for the Sung Nan-ting, and the potters being the same, it is evident that the wares could have differed only in decorative features, if they differed at all. H'siang, in his "Illustrated Catalogue," referring to the specimen of Shu-fu-yao depicted there, says that "in its paste and form, in the colour of its glaze, and in the engraved design, it is altogether like a Ting piece." Hence the conclusion must be that the Nan-ting of the Sung dynasty and the Shu-fu-yao of the Yuan (1279–1360) represented no points of appreciable difference.
Entering the Ming dynasty an important distinction has to be noted. Researches show that until the close of the fourteenth century hard-paste porcelain was scarcely manufactured at all in China. A few specimens rudely decorated with blue under the glaze are attributed to the Sung and Yuan keramists; but though, if their genuineness be admitted, they demonstrate that the ability to make hard-paste porcelain was not wanting in those early days, they at the same time prove that, comparatively speaking, little care was bestowed on its manufacture. From the Yung-lo era (1403–1424) of the Ming dynasty, however, not only did hard-paste porcelain become one of the choice products of Ching-tê-chên, but also it reached a stage of expert manufacture incompatible with any hypothesis of sudden development or newly acquired knowledge. H'siang says that the white Yung-lo porcelain was made after the Yuan Shu-fu-yao, itself an indistinguishable reproduction of the Sung Ting-yao. It might be concluded, therefore, that the Yung-lo ware also belongs to the soft-paste variety. But here precisely the connoisseur has to make a distinction. Though from the Yung-lo era ​downwards hard-paste porcelain takes its place among the choicest keramist productions of China, the manufacture of soft-paste porcelain loses nothing of its vogue. In the case of ware decorated with blue sous couverte, it has been shown that though the variety upon which, from the Hsuan-tê (1424) era to the close of the eighteenth century, the potter lavished all the resources of his art—the variety alone held in really high esteem by Chinese virtuosi—had soft and nearly opaque pâte, yet large quantities of beautiful and attractive hard-paste porcelain were also produced. So it is with the white Yung-lo ware referred to by H'siang: soft-paste facsimiles of the celebrated Ting-yao and its later representative, the Shu-fu-yao, were successfully manufactured, but there also made its appearance a hard-paste porcelain so excellent and so far in advance of anything previously seen in the same line, that it became and has since remained the keramic feature of its era. This is the white egg-shell porcelain familiar to American and European virtuosi. Its great thinness and transparency suggest the idea that the porcelain clay has been entirely removed and the glazing material alone left. It was accordingly termed To-tai-ki, or ware of which the body (tai) had been removed (to). Concerning this remarkable effort of technical skill, the Tao-lu contains the following information:—"The thin vases called To-tai-ki originated during the reign of the Emperor Yung-lo. At that time people prized vases which were comparatively thick and which are to-day commonly known as Puan-to-tai, that is to say, pieces of which the pâte has been only half (puan) removed. There is another variety, thin as bamboo-paper, which is distinguished from the last by the ​appellation of Chin-to-tai, or true (chin) To-tai. This species was originally produced in the Imperial Factory during the Chêng-hwa era (1465–1487), and subsequently in private workshops throughout the Lung-ching (1567–1572) and Wan-li (1573–1619) eras. During the two last reigns the porcelains most esteemed were those of the Tan-pi, or 'egg-shell,' variety, which were of uniform tint, a pure white. These did not at all resemble the porcelains of later times of which the majority had decoration in blue sous couverte. The cups of pure tone and brilliant white of the Lung-ching and Wan-li eras were infinitely superior in thinness and beauty to those decorated with blue." It would appear from this extract that the manufacture of very thin hard-paste porcelain dates from a period fifty years later than the Yung-lo era. But there is evidence to show that the author of the Tao-lu erred in this matter. He wrote, it will be remembered, in 1815, whereas H'siang, otherwise a more trustworthy authority, compiled his illustrated catalogue nearly two hundred and fifty years earlier. H'siang in fact lived less than a century after the Chêng-hwa era, while Ching was separated from that era by three centuries and a half. Now H'siang in his Catalogue illustrates a cup of white Yung-lo porcelain, appending to the picture a description that the ware was as thin as paper and that it was called To-tai. He adds that several similar cups were extant in his time (second half of sixteenth century), and that they were highly appreciated by collectors of taste. By Chinese connoisseurs of the present day also it is unanimously held that the true To-tai-ki dates from the Yung-lo era. Bowls of the ware are preserved by them with the greatest care. They have a peculiar shape, the ​sides not being curved, but sloping rapidly to the base, which is very small in proportion to the circumference of the upper rim. The porcelain is exceedingly thin and delicate, and the pure white of the glaze offers an immediate contrast to the opaque mellow tone of the Ting-yao. These specimens have decoration either incised or in relief, the usual designs being dragons or phœnixes (or both together) among clouds, or floral sprays. So fine is the technique that in the case of incised decoration it is often necessary to look through the piece by sunlight in order to see the design. On the bottom of genuine specimens, inside the bowl, the year-mark (Ta-Ming Yung-lo nien chi) is always found, either engraved or in relief, in seal character. The glaze, though smooth and shining, does not present the solid glossy or oily appearance so often seen in choice Chinese porcelain. This point is worthy of note, for it constitutes a distinguishing feature between the Yung-lo white porcelain and that of the Kang-hsi and Chien-lung eras of the present dynasty.
In addition to the fact that the student is henceforth confronted by soft-paste and hard-paste porcelains, between which careless or ignorant writers fail altogether to distinguish, he finds now another source of confusion in the name applied to the new To-tai-ki. The Yuan potters' imitation of the Sung Ting-yao was called "imperial ware" (Shu-fu-yao), and to the Yung-lo hard-paste porcelain the appellation Kuan-yao, or "official ware" was given. It is necessary, therefore, to warn amateurs against confounding the Kuan-yao of the Ming and Tsing dynasties with the similarly called and similarly written Kuan-yao of the Sung dynasty, which, as shown in a previous ​chapter, was céladon and céladon only. From the beginning of the fifteenth century until the present day, the term Kuan-yao has been applied in China to all choice wares which had the honour of being specially manufactured for use in the Palace.
Vase (Height, 14 inches) of Kang-Hsi, Eggshell Ting-Yao; Soft Paste.
(See page 263.)
Among the Wan-li experts was one Hao Shih-chiu, famed for his exquisitely delicate white porcelain. He could make wine-cups weighing less than the forty-eighth part of an ounce, and he was also able to imitate the white Ting-yao of the Sung dynasty so perfectly that the connoisseurs of his time failed to distinguish the reproduction from the original. Pieces of his surviving now might evidently pass for Sung ware among any virtuosi. The Tao-lu tells a curious story illustrative of his remarkable ability. One day he called at the residence of an important official called Tang, and begged permission to examine an ancient tripod of Ting-yao which the latter possessed. The tripod was produced. Hao took its measure accurately with his hand. Then he copied the form of the design on a paper which he concealed in his sleeve. Returning immediately to Ching-tê-chên, he passed six months there, and then repaired a second time to Tang's Yamên. Admitted to Tang's presence, Hao took from his sleeve a tripod and said:—"Your Excellency is the possessor of a tripod censer of white Ting-yao. Here is a similar one of mine." Tang was astonished. He compared the new tripod with his own precious piece and could detect no difference. Even the stand and cover of his own tripod fitted that of Hao exactly. The potter made no secret of the fact that his was only a modern imitation, and ended by selling it for sixty pieces of silver to Tang, who placed it in his collection as a companion to the Sung tripod. A few years ​later, a brother virtuoso, who was paying a visit to Tang, saw the tripods and was so enamoured of them that he dreamed of nothing else. Ultimately, after much entreaty, he persuaded Tang to part with Hao's tripod for a sum of fifteen hundred pieces of silver.
This anecdote is interesting, as showing not only the enormous value attaching to specimens of fine and rare porcelain three hundred years ago in China, but also the fact that the soft-paste white Ting-yao was successfully copied at the close of the sixteenth century. Indeed, although there is no direct evidence to that effect, the student may conclude with tolerable confidence that there was produced at Ching-tê-chên throughout the greater part of the Ming dynasty a soft-paste porcelain resembling Sung Ting-yao almost to the point of absolute identity. The one discernible difference is that the Ming keramists did not stove their bowls and cups in an inverted position, as was the practice at the Ting-chou factory. Thus in the older specimens the upper rims are unglazed, which defect is usually hidden by a metal ring. In Japanese collections may be seen not a few choice pieces resembling in all respects the Ting-yao and Shu-fu-yao, but probably produced, for the most part, during the Mzng dynasty.
The true Ting-yao, as already stated, is not crackled. But fine, strongly marked crackle constitutes a principal feature in another variety of soft-paste porcelain dating probably from about the Chêng-hwa era. In thinness and quality of biscuit this ware closely resembles the Ting-yao, but its glaze is more lustrous and distinctly darker in colour. Small bowls of it often have their outer surface fluted so as to resemble the calyx of a flower. Others have floral designs cut in ​the biscuit so that the edges of the pattern are depressed and the centre appears to be in relief. This ware is a great favourite with Japanese collectors who call it Nyo-fu, according to their pronunciation of Kiang-nan, the province where it was manufactured. Like the Ting-yao, it never has any marks of date or factory.
It is necessary now to turn for a moment to the Kiang-nan workshops. The Tao-lu states that of the six factories existing at an early period in the province of Kiang-nan, five were devoted to the manufacture of white porcelain. Of these the most important was at Su-chou. It had its origin during the Sung dynasty and continued active until the end of the seventeenth century, from which time its products ceased to deserve a place among art objects. Its soft-paste porcelain, according to the Tao-lu, resembled the celebrated Ting-yao, and was in large demand, especially when genuine Ting-yao of Pechili began to grow scarce. Su-chou pieces then passed for true Ting-yao, but the author of the Tao-lu pronounces them to have been decidedly inferior. The second factory, at Sz'-chou, also began to work under the Sung, and produced soft-paste porcelain of the Ting-yao type, its quality, however, relegating it to a lower rank than that assigned to the ware of Su-chou. The third factory was at Hsuan-chou. It worked throughout the Yuan and Ming dynasties, producing soft-paste white porcelain of considerable merit. The fourth factory is that at which the potter Pêng (vide Ting-yao, Chapter III.) worked during the Yuan dynasty. Its outcome is said to have supported comparison with true Ting-yao, except that the glaze lacked lustre. Indeed, good specimens of Pêng-yao are described as bearing ​such a close resemblance to the Ting-yao of Pechili that only skilled connoisseurs could detect the difference. Finally there is the factory at Pai-tu-chin (village of white clay) where a ware called Siao-yao manufactured originally turning the Sung dynasty, obtained a large share of public favour. Representative pieces had thin white pâte and brilliant glaze. They were of similar colour to Ting-yao and did not much yield to it in excellence of technique. According to a work quoted in the Tao-lu, this factory, in the days of its prosperity, had about thirty furnaces, gave employment to several hundred potters, and was under the orders of a director-general.
Kiang-nan was not the only province where soft-paste porcelain of the Ting-yao type constituted a staple of keramic industry. In the southern province of Kiang-si a factory in the Ki-chou district followed the same line. Brief allusion has already been made to this factory in the chapter on Sung wares. There were five kilns, all engaged in producing white and purple porcelains of the Ting kind. Among the experts Shu-Hung and his daughter, Chiao, developed special skill. Their pieces commanded high prices and ranked almost on a par with true Ting-yao, though they are said to have been thicker and coarser. The factory ceased to work in the second half of the thirteenth century. Ware of the same character was also manufactured at Yang-chiang in Kwang-tung, and subsequently, at Swatow in the same province.
There is no doubt that as the lapse of time rendered connoisseurs less familiar with the distinctive features—often insignificant—of the porcelains eminating from these various factories, the term "Ting-yao" came to be applied in a sense wider than the ​limits of strict accuracy permitted. It will be well, therefore, for the collector to confine the appellation to specimens having soft pâte, thin biscuit, rich but not brilliant glaze of creamy white or slightly buff tinge, and ornamentation incised or in relief. He may further take it for granted that though small examples—round plates or pyramidal bowls—of early Ting-yao may be found at rare intervals, large pieces are practically non-existent. When there is question of the latter, they may be unhesitatingly referred either to the later Ching-tê-chên potters, or to the factories of Kiang-nan, Kiang-si, or Kwan-tung. The Kwan-tung pieces, now extant, are all comparatively heavy and coarse; Chinese virtuosi place them in the Tu-ting (Ting pottery) rank. The characteristic type is a large vase or ewer, decorated with a scroll of lotus or peony in high relief, and having paint-like creamy glaze of varying lustre and uneven thickness, its buff colour often showing tinges of blue. Crackle, though not an essential feature, exists in the great majority of cases and is usually large and irregular. The biscuit is close, grey stone-ware, too thick and heavy to be properly classed with pâte tendre, but not infrequently approaching that type, especially in well manipulated examples. Among the early specimens of Kwang-yao there were doubtless many that deserve to be spoken of in higher terms. But if they survive they are no longer taken account of by connoisseurs. On the other hand, the old soft-paste porcelains of Kiang-nan stand on a high plane of technical skill. The variety spoken of above—that known in Japan as Nyo-ju—with its oily, lustrous glaze, thin pâte, fine crackle, designs in bas-relief, and warm greyish buff colour, is very charming. Another ​characteristic variety deserves special mention. It has thin and strikingly light biscuit covered with lustreless glaze that shows a distinct tinge of buff and so closely resembles the shell of an egg as to proclaim at once its maker's intention. There is no ornamentation, either incised or in relief, and the ware depends entirely on the softness and delicacy of its general appearance. Judging by the care evidently bestowed on the manufacture of these pieces, it is impossible to class them in an inferior grade of keramic objects, though they may not rank as high as the Ting-yao proper. In Japan they have always been esteemed for the sake of their perfect adaptability as flower vases: their quiet mellow surface consorts admirably with brilliant as with sober blossoms. The most characteristic of these vases are without crackle, but occasionally the glaze is covered with net-work of very fine veining. When this is the case the pâte has usually greater weight and thickness. Indications pointing with any distinctness to the age of the soft-paste Kiang-nan porcelains are difficult to fix. That examples of the work of the Sung or even of the Yuan potters survive only in the smallest numbers, goes without saying. The majority of the best specimens now extant are probably from the hands of Ming or early Tsing experts. The best test of age is that they should fulfil the general rules applicable to good porcelain as to fineness and thinness of biscuit uniformity and lustre of glaze, and careful technique.
According to the author of the Tao-lu, the potters of Ching-tê-chên imitated only the Fang-ting-yao, or rice-flour variety of Ting-yao—that is to say, the Nan-ting type of the ware. It would be more proper to say that they confined their manufacture to this ​class, for, as may easily be conjectured, the developments and improvements introduced by them scarcely justify the term "imitators." Throughout the Ming dynasty and during the eras of Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung they manufactured numerous pieces some of which were facsimilies of Sung Ting-yao, while others resembled it only in the nature of their pâte and the colour of their glaze. Among three beautiful varieties of this later Ting-yao it is difficult to assign the preference. In one the biscuit is so thin that a vase twelve or fourteen inches high only weighs a few ounces. It has boldly crackled glaze—the crackle running in generally parallel lines—and its colour varies from cream grey to light buff. Incised in the biscuit are delicate designs, usually dragons grasping jewels among flames, flying phœnixes, or scrolls of peonies. The pâte is reddish brown, as fine as pipe-clay, and the technique is in all respects perfect. It is impossible to be deceived in these specimens. They commend themselves at once to the most ignorant amateur. In another variety the biscuit, though of the same quality and fineness, is considerably thicker, in order to carry decoration in relief. The designs employed in this case are always purely conventional, copied for the most part from ancient bronzes, and so accurately cut as to resemble impressions in wax. The glaze is crackled, but the crackle differs from that of the last mentioned variety in being round or angular. In lustre the advantage is on the side of the specimens having thicker biscuit, but even in the most highly finished examples of the latter, waxiness rather than gloss or oiliness is to be looked for. Further, the connoisseur will readily recognise that a shining glaze would be incongruous ​on vellum-like egg-shell ware with incised designs, such as the soft, thin Ting-yao of the first class. The third kind is not the least remarkable and is certainly the rarest of the three. It resembles the second in the solidity of its biscuit and in its sharply cut decoration in relief, but its surface, instead of being crackled, is granulated like the skin of a lime. Very graceful shapes were chosen by the modellers of this choice porcelain, and it is impossible to speak too highly of the technical skill shown in its manufacture. The connoisseur's difficulty is to determine the date of a specimen, for inasmuch as only the best experts in each epoch set themselves to produce such ware, age and excellence do not necessarily go together, Examples having the mark of the Yung-ching era (1723–1736) are in every respect comparable with those referred to in a much earlier period. It should be observed, too, that as a rule only ware of the second variety described here has year-marks, and that, like the surface decoration, they are in relief.
Although in the three choice varieties here described, the glaze is of the Fan-ting type—that is to say, yellowish grey or light buff, with a soft, waxy appearance—specimens also occur having a pure white and glossy surface. These are remarkable for the brittleness of their glaze, which, if once chipped, easily crumbles away.
Passing now, once more, from soft-paste to hard-paste porcelain, it appears from the Kang-hsi era downwards many beautiful and valuable specimens were produced. Unfortunately Chinese writers seldom make any distinction based on the nature of the pâte, though Chinese connoisseurs attach much importance to this point. In the list of porcelains ​requisitioned for Imperial use in the year 1529 the following occur under the head of "White Porcelain":—
Rice Bowls with crested sea-waves faintly engraved under the glaze.
Wine Cups and Libation Cups with engraved phœnixes and cranes.
Tea Cups of oval section with foliated rim.
Tea Cups with dragons engraved under the glaze.
Wine Cups of pure white enamel.
Wine Pots of vase form with spouts, of pure white.
Dishes of pure white.
Wine Vessels of oval form with crested sea-waves faintly engraved under the white glaze.
There is nothing in the text to show whether these pieces had hard or soft paste, and the same looseness of phraseology disfigures the Tao-lu's classifications. It is pretty certain, however, that from the Lung-lo era downwards pure white porcelain vessels, such as rice-bowls, wine-cups, tea-cups, and so forth, were chiefly of the hard-paste variety. The delicate To-tat-ki and the feather-like cups of the great Wan-li expert Hao Shi-chiu, belonged to this category, although, as has been seen, Hao devoted much of his skill to reproductions of Sung Ting-yao also. The wave-pattern spoken of in the Imperial Requisition quoted above was a favourite design for incised decoration on hard-paste ware. The lines of the waves were engraved as fine as silk, and the effect of curling crests was obtained very happily. These Ming manufactures did not show a strikingly lustrous surface. Smooth, polished, and highly finished, they were nevertheless without the unctuous gloss so highly esteemed in wares of a more solid character. In ​fact connoisseurs still exacted some resemblance to their favourite and venerable type, the Ting-yao. The epithet Tan-pi (egg-shell) applied to the surface of the most esteemed white porcelain of the sixteenth century, excellently describes its peculiarly soft delicate texture. And if in colour also the hard-pâte porcelain be likened to a hen's egg, the appearance of the Fan-ting-yao may not inaptly be compared to that of an ostrich egg.
It is on coming to the Kang-hsi era (1661) that the connoisseur begins to find a wealth of beautiful white hard-paste porcelain. For at least fifty years the manufacture had virtually ceased, and such specimens as remained from epochs prior to 1600 had become precious as gems and, on the whole, not less scarce. Were there any certain indication of the causes responsible for the cessation of the manufacture, there would also be a clew to the technical secrets of these choice wares. But the reason usually assigned—political troubles—is evidently insufficient. The quotation given above, from the "Memoirs from the Pavilion for Sunning Books," shows that a keen demand for the ware existed among the public, and that its production would have been a lucrative business independently of official patronage. In the Tao-lu it is stated that the best porcelain clay used by the Ching-tê-chên potters came from a locality to the east of the factories; that the supply was exhausted towards the close of the Ming dynasty, but that subsequently new beds were discovered in the same neighbourhood. This temporary failure of supply may account for a break in the manufacture of choice hard-paste porcelain. As for the soft-paste type, the composition of its biscuit is matter of con​jecture. A special kind of clay found at Ta-u-ling, and employed chiefly for glazing material, is said to have been often used for making biscuit by imitators of old-time ware, one reason for its selection being that it gave a peculiarly strong, durable pâte. This would indicate that the old-time ware referred to was of the céladon type, which is wholly different from the Ting-yao. As already seen, M. d'Entrecolles' account of biscuit made, wholly or partially, from steatite, indicates a product closely resembling the soft paste of blue-and-white Kai-pien ware. The same remark applies to Ting-yao porcelain, but unfortunately this point remains obscure. It is at all events certain that the potters of the Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung eras yielded nothing to their Ming predecessors in their knowledge of materials and their skilful methods of combining them so as to produce both hard and soft pâtes of perfect quality. Their hard-paste white porcelain may be conveniently classified according the nature of its decoration—incised or in relief. In the choicest type of incised decoration, the designs—usually dragons, phœnixes, or floral sprays—are sunk in the biscuit so as to be almost imperceptible except by transmitted light. The glaze is of dazzling purity and lustre, conveying the impression of snow-white oil. The paste is fine as pipe-clay, and the timbre is sharp and clear. Nothing distinguishes this beautiful porcelain so much as the peculiar richness and unctuousness of its surface. The slightest symptom of an air-bubble, of pitting, of discontinuity, or of dulled lustre is a fatal mark of inferiority. This class of ware occurs chiefly in bowls, libation cups, and plates: the nature of the decoration is not well suited ​to vases in which the effect of transmitted light would be lost. In a second and not so choice type of incised decoration the design is engraved as though with the point of a fine style. The surface of specimens of this class does not show such velvet-like smoothness and lustre as distinguish the glaze of the fomer variety, but, on the other hand, the decoration is more elaborate: it generally covers the whole surface, floral scrolls being a favourite subject. Large specimens are to be found in this class, graceful vases and capacious ewers. The thinner and lighter the biscuit, the choicer the piece. It is evident that more translucid and less unctuous glazes are especially adapted to these large pieces, but the amateur may take it as a rule, that, in all such wares smoothness, polish, and purity of surface are essential marks of excellence. A watery glaze tinged with blue or green, unevenness of surface, grits in the pâte, and thick biscuit represent inferior workmanship and a degenerate era.
As to decoration in relief a distinction should be noted between soft-paste and hard-paste porcelain, namely, that in the former the designs often have clean-cut edges and angles, like chiselled metal, whereas in the latter everything is round and soft. Not the least pleasing type of hard-paste porcelain thus decorated has the designs formed either with the same clay of which the biscuit is made, or traced in a whiter substance—steatite or fibrous gypsum. When either of the latter materials is used, the decoration shows through the glaze like a tracery of white lace, while the glaze itself, in choice specimens, is of velvet-like smoothness and lustre. Decoration in relief where the porcelain pâte itself is used to trace the design usually covers the whole surface ​in the form of floral scrolls and bands of leaves. Much of the beauty of such ware depends on delicacy of technique and lustre of glaze. Pieces satisfying a high standard in both these respects fully deserve the admiration lavished on them. They are not uncommon in China, but really fine examples have always commanded high figures. Not infrequently the glaze of a specimen otherwise excellent lacks lustre and brilliancy without acquiring compensatory softness. Such pieces cannot, of course, be placed in the first rank of their kind.
Foreign collectors often apply the term Ting-yao to hard-paste porcelain with incised decoration. After what has been written above, the reader need scarcely be told that this is a misnomer. Hard-paste porcelain with incised decoration is known as Chu-hwa-khi in China; a name which, though so far as its meaning goes it might reasonably be used of any ware thus decorated, has come to be applied distinctively to the hard-paste variety. Vases with decoration in relief are known as Tui-hwa-ki.
M. d'Entrecolles, speaking of steatite as a substance employed for decorating porcelain in bas-relief, says that after the mineral has been purified it is made into little bricks. The workman then dissolves one of these in water, forming a liquid of some consistency. Into this he dips his brush, and traces various designs upon the surface of the pâte, which is then left to dry and subsequently covered with glaze. "When the porcelain is stoved," M. d'Entrecolles adds, "these designs appear of a different white from the body of the piece. The effect produced is as though a subtile vapour had crept over the surface. The white of steatite is called 'ivory-white.'" With ​regard to the use of fibrous gypsum, the same writer says:—"Designs are traced upon porcelain with fibrous gypsum as well as with steatite, a white different from that of the body of the piece being thus obtained. There is, however, one peculiarity about the gypsum, namely, that before use it must first be subjected to the action of fire. After this it is pounded and thrown into a vessel of water, which is stirred, and the scum that rises to the surface is gradually removed. Ultimately there remains a pure mass, which is used in the same fashion as steatite." It will of course be understood that the designs traced with these substances vary in degree of relief. Sometimes they stand out prominently from the surface; sometimes they appear as a snow-white satiny tracing.
A rare and beautiful method of treating the surface of hard-paste white porcelain is to channel portions of the biscuit in diapered designs and leave the sunken parts of the pattern unglazed. This troublesome tour de force is seldom found upon large pieces. Occasionally it occurs in combination with blue decoration sous couverte.
In yet another highly esteemed and uncommon variety the surface is cut into lattice-work of marvellous delicacy. Either this reticulation alone suffices for ornamentation, or it is employed to fill the spaces between medallions having decoration in blue sous couverte or white figures modelled in high relief. Sometimes gilding is applied to these figures. Curiously enough specimens of porcelain thus reticulated generally take the form of little cups, which could never have served for drinking purposes: they were intended to contain ashes for setting up sticks of incense.
​In addition to lustre of glaze, purity of colour, and accuracy of technique, the quality of the biscuit is a useful criterion of period in hard-paste white porcelain. The Chien-lung pâte, though fine and close, is softer and more chalky than the pâtes of the Kang-h'si and Yung-ching eras. On the whole, the tests of excellence for hard-paste white porcelain are easily applied. The features of good specimens—thinness, lightness, velvet-like gloss of surface, pure white colour, and dexterous finish—can be appreciated by any one.
Marked distinction is to be drawn between the white porcelains hitherto discussed and the well-known "Ivory White," or "Blanc de Chine," of Western collectors. Confusion has hitherto existed with respect to this latter variety even among the most painstaking and well-informed European connoisseurs. The Ivory White was originally produced at Tê-hwa, in the province of Fuh-kien, and was consequently called Tê-hwa-yao. According to the Tao-lu, the factory was opened during the Ming dynasty, so that it dates no farther back than the second half of the fourteenth century. Like the celebrated wares of the Sung and Yuan potters, the Tê-hwa-yao owed its beauty to texture and tone of glaze rather than to thinness of biscuit or to surface decoration. The pâte is greyish white, close in grain, very hard, and carefully manipulated. The glaze is of wonderful merit. In good specimens it is at once satiny, lustrous, and indescribably soft. The white is of a peculiar delicate creaminess, which, combined with a pinkish tint, conveys such an impression of ivory that the porcelain may be identified at once by its European name. Many of ​the specimens are perfectly plain, relying entirely on the charms of their glaze. Others have incised designs, generally very sketchy in character; and others, again, have decoration in high relief, such as branches of plum, dragons, phœnixes, and so forth. The last variety is the commonest and least valuable, though some pieces of it possess merit. Perhaps the most beautiful and rarest kind is that in which the usually faint pink of the glaze deepens into a distinct tone of rose. The engraved designs, though often indistinct, were never intended to be viewed by transmitted light, as was frequently the case with the hard-paste egg-shell porcelains of Ching-tê-chên. Libation-cups, cylindrical vases, and tripod censers were favourite forms with the Tê-hwa potters, but they enjoyed high reputation as modellers of figures of the goddess Kwan-yin and other Buddhist divinities, as well as of seals with handles shaped into the Dog of Fo, the Kylin, and similar mythical monsters. In the Tao-lu it is said of the factory:—"Most of the cups and bowls manufactured there have their edges slightly turned back. The ware is called Pai-tzu, or white porcelain. It has great lustre and polish, but is very thick. Some specimens, however, are thin. The statuettes of Buddha are extremely beautiful. It is at Tê-hwa that we find at present the ware called Chien-yao, but it bears no resemblance to the ancient ware of the same name." Chien-yao is, in fact, the name by which Ivory-white porcelain is known today in China. It will be remembered that the same term, Chien-yao, was originally applied to one of the most remarkable wares of the Sung Dynasty, the characteristic variety of which had lustrous black glaze with silver lines. No two keramic productions ​could be more unlike than the Chien-yao of the Sung period—which is opaque stone-ware—and the Chien-yao of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties—which is white, translucid porcelain. Both, however, derived their name from the district of their manufacture in the province of Fuh-kien, and on the revival of the keramic industry at that place under the Ming Emperors, it doubtless seemed natural that the later ware should be called Chien-yao, irrespective of the complete dissimilarity between it and its earlier namesake. By way of distinction Chinese connoisseurs often speak of the Ivory White as Ming Chien-yao. Its production, commencing under the early Ming Emperors (circ. 1400), was continued with success until the latter half of the eighteenth century. It appears to have been then virtually discontinued, to be revived, however, in recent years. A considerable number of specimens are now produced, and palmed off upon unwary collectors. But the amateur can easily avoid such deceptions if he remembers that in genuine pieces of Ivory White the ware is always translucid when held up to the light, a property which, if not entirely absent, is only possessed in a comparatively slight degree by the modern product. The general quality of the glaze and the technique of a piece should be sufficient guides, but if any doubt remains an examination of the base of the specimen will probably dispel it. In the old ware the bottom of a vase or bowl, though carefully finished, is left uncovered, whereas the modern potter is fond of hiding his inferior pâte by roughly overspreading it with a coat of glaze.
Ivory-white porcelain has at all times been more highly esteemed outside China than by the Chinese ​themselves, though they, too, set no light value on good specimens. In Japan it was from the first a strong favourite. It seems to have come to that country originally from Korea, an accident that led the Japanese to attribute it to Korean factories and to call it "Haku-gôrai" or "Korean White." The error still survives. Curiously enough, when Christianity began to take root in Japan, at the end of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, statuettes of Kwan-yin (Japanese, Kuan-non) in Ivory-white porcelain were used as substitutes for images of the Virgin Mary. A remarkable collection of these statuettes, blackened by fumes of incense, is preserved in the Imperial Museum of Antiquities in the Ueno Park, Tôkyô, where it forms part of an assemblage of Christian relics. In some cases the goddess carries a baby in her arms; in others, she is accompanied by two or three children. Thus associated with children she is known as Kwan-yin, the Maternal, and from the association bold inferences have been deduced by tracers of Buddhistic and Christian affinities. It need scarcely be observed that a demand in Japan for this form of Kwan-yin would soon have created a supply.
Solid, beautiful, and manufactured in the very province where stood Ch'üan-chou-fu, the principal mart of China's foreign commerce, the Ivory-white Chien-yao naturally went abroad in considerable quantities. In the Dresden Collection there is preserved a little plate, said to be of this ware, with uncut jewels, rubies, and emeralds, let into the paste in gold filigree. The piece is marked below with the seal character fuh, in blue under the glaze. It is said to have been brought by a crusader from Palestine in the twelfth century. There are two difficulties about this ​theory. First, Ivory-white porcelain was not manufactured in China so early as the twelfth century; secondly, the Tê-hwo-yao or Chien-yao is never marked with blue under the glaze. It is most improbable that the plate really came into the Dresden collection in the manner described or that it is a genuine specimen of Chien-yao. Nothing is so misleading as tradition where objects of art are in question. In the temple of Benten at Hakone, in Japan, the priests show among other precious relics a flute said to have been used by the celebrated warrior Yoshitsune, in the twelfth century. Of Ivory-white porcelain, it is in all respects a beautiful example of keramic skill. That the flute never belonged to Yoshitsune and could not have been manufactured until two centuries after his death, are facts scarcely admitting of dispute. Japanese antiquarians, though mistaken as to the orign of Ivory-white porcelain, are correct as to its age; they say that no specimens of it reached their country before the close of the fourteenth century.
Choice examples of soft-paste white porcelain often have the year-mark of their period in relief, though they are not necessarily so distinguished. _Hard-paste white porcelain as a rule has no marks of either date or factory. A notable exception, however, is the Yung-lo To-tai-ki. Genuine bowls of this beautiful ware always carry, on the bottom of the inner surface, the ideographs Yung-lo or Yung-lo Nien-chi, in seal character in bas-relief. The hard-paste white porcelain of the present dynasty, if marked at all—which is exceptional—has the mark painted in blue sous couverte.
Before dismissing this part of the subject, a ware must be noticed one variety of which belongs to the ​white monochromatic class, while another should be included with ware decorated over the glaze. It is the Tsu-chou-yao, so called from a place of the same name originally included in the province of Hônan but now within the Southern boundaries of Pechili. The ideograph tsu, used in writing the name of this place, being identical in sound and shape with the ideograph signifying "porcelain," some confusion has resulted. This point need not be elaborated. The Tsu-chou-yao is undoubtedly one of the old-time wares of China. There is no record of the exact date of its origin, but the factory was certainly active during the Sung dynasty, at which time, according to the Tao-lu, its reputation stood so high that choice specimens commanded higher prices than even Ting-yao. They are further said to have closely resembled the latter ware, but from what is known of their pâte it was heavier and slightly coarser than that of the Ting chou product. The glaze, too, was thinner and less lustrous, but for the rest the two wares may have been easily confounded in the palmy days of the Tsu chou potters. From the Ming dynasty downwards, however, the Tsu-chou-yao deteriorated in quality of pâte and became more or less coarse stone-ware, degenerating finally into faience of a common and unattractive type. Collectors are very unlikely to meet with fine examples of pure white Tsu-chou-yao. If any such exist, they have ceased, apparently, to be identifiable. The best known variety of the ware has decoration over the glaze in pigment ranging from black to light brown. The designs are always of archaic or conventional character—rudely traced floral scrolls, dragons, phœnixes, or mythical animals. A special interest attaches to the ware owing to the esteem in ​which it has always been held by Japanese virtuosi, who, imagining it to be of Korean origin, give it the name of E-gorai, or "Painted Korean." A few specimens, in the forms of geese, ducks, or Dogs of Fo, intended for use as censers, show clever modelling, but on the whole the Tsu-chou-yao has little interest for Western collectors. In very rare instances vitrifiable enamels were sparsely employed for surface decoration, the colours being confined to green and red. Large quantities of the ware are now produced in the shape of coarse utensils for household use.
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