Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/135

 sometimes even for a year, until they acquired sufficient consistency to be manipulated. This seemingly superfluous labour was well repaid by the ultimate appearance of the glaze, differing palpably as it did from the comparatively weak, lustreless covering obtained by the easier process of application after preliminary stoving. A second drying was of course necessary after the coating of steatite or kaolin had been given. The decorative design was then traced in cobalt, and finally the whole was covered with perfectly colourless, translucid glaze, which, expanding more slowly than the body of the piece under the influence of heat, became covered with a net-work of crackle that imparted an aspect of indescribable softness. From this crackle the ware derives the name Kai-pien, or open edges, by which it is known in China. By some connoisseurs it is also called Wei-tsü, a term possessing no distinctive significance, as its literal meaning is simply "baked porcelain." It is the "blue-and-white egg-shell" of Western collectors, who, however, apply the same appellation to another and not less remarkable species of ware similarly decorated, namely, hard porcelain as thin as paper, manufactured in the ordinary manner and without crackle.

Among all the blue-and-white wares of the Ming epoch, that of the Hsuan-tê reign ranks highest in China. But its superiority to some of the later products of the same dynasty is not marked. The only appreciable difference lies in the quality of the blue, concerning which it is not possible to give any written description other than that it is deep, brilliant, and clear, and that it seems to be actually inlaid in the pâte, so intimately are the two associated. Undoubt-