Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/140

 the pieces to which they are applied. Unfortunately the artist employed by H’siang to portray these specimens did not think it worth while to give representations of the under surfaces, showing the nature of the pâte. Neither are his reproductions so accurate as to convey an exact idea of the surface. Were it known certainly either that the pâte was reddish brown, or that the glaze was crackled, these examples could be confidently classed with the soft-paste variety. The descriptions in the text indicate pretty clearly, however, that they do belong to that category. Concerning the tea-cup, which is from the collection of H’siang himself, the author says that it was one of a set of four, purchased from a collector at Wu-hsing for ten taels. It will presently be seen that the value put upon such specimens increased largely in later years.

Among these six specimens there are two which H’siang describes as having millet-like elevations in the glaze. This feature, not without value in the eyes of Chinese connoisseurs, appears to have been produced by combined processes of insufflation and immersion. Glazing material of a certain consistency having been first blown over the biscuit through a tube covered with very thin gauze, and having been sun-dried for a time, the whole piece was afterwards covered with a thinner glaze by dipping. Such a strange and troublesome tour de force was only employed in exceptional cases and is not to be regarded as an essential mark of excellence. The resulting granulations, compared in China to millet seed, were known in Japan as mashihada, or pear's rind. At comparatively modern epochs they became larger, until finally the surface of the glaze assumed a lumpy