Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/116

 readily be mistaken. The glaze is unusually thick and lustrous, carrying with it an idea of wonderful depth and richness. Crackle is sometimes present, but many of the finest pieces are without this addition. The ware being very solid and durable, examples are not infrequent. They are chiefly bowls and small cups, the latter of the choicest description and very highly valued by Chinese connoisseurs. Imitations made in the Ming and Tsin dynasties are, however, tolerably common and not easy to distinguish from the genuine pieces. The chief differences are that the glaze of the former is comparatively thin, the pâte finer, and the bottom of the specimen more neatly finished. The connoisseur will of course understand that when later experts of Ching-tê-chên, possessing all the materials and more than the ability of their predecessors, undertook to imitate the latter's pieces, they may have excelled, but were not likely to fall short of, their originals. It is not by any means to be supposed that the richly glazed and delicately coloured specimens of so-called "Yuan-tsü" offered for sale by Chinese dealers are all genuine examples of the Yuan ware. A majority of them are imitations, generally more beautiful than the real Yuan-tsü itself.

Although under the Yuan, as well as under the Sung, dynasty the ChinChing [sic]-tê-chên factories continued to be specially distinguished by imperial patronage, they did not entirely monopolise the duty of supplying the palace. Pieces of exceptional excellence appear to have been either purchased at the ordinary workshops or presented by manufacturers in lieu of taxes. According to the author of the Tao-lo [sic], the nature of the service required of the official factories was so onerous that only private kilns enjoyed prosperity.