Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/175

 but they are exceedingly rare, and, if without blemish, command almost prohibitive prices. On smaller specimens of Kai-pien-yao the Kang-hsi year-mark frequently occurs, but larger pieces seldom have this indication. The clear and pure quality of their blue is the safest and readiest means of distinguishing them from their successors. Further reference will be made to this point by and by.

Exceedingly thin, hard-paste porcelain, decorated with blue under the glaze, was also produced with signal success by the Kang-hsi potters. This exquisitely delicate ware, as thin as paper and nearly as translucid as glass, stands on the same plane as the Kai-pien-yao from a technical point of view, but is artistically inferior, lacking, as it necessarily does, the dazzling contrast presented by the wax-like white body and brilliant blue decoration of soft-paste porcelain. Chinese connoisseurs, however, set much store by hard-paste blue-and-white "egg-shell," and it unquestionably occupies a high place among the chefs-d'œuvre of the period. Cups, bowls, plates, and so forth, appear to have been chiefly manufactured. Vases, ewers or fish-bowls of any considerable size scarcely exist for the ordinary collector. The year-mark of the era often occurs on hard-paste egg-shell pieces, but it will be understood from what has been already said, that such a distinction is neither essential nor trustworthy. Deception need not be greatly feared, however, in the case of such specimens. If the decorative design is well executed, the blue of fine, clear but not necessarily deep tone, the glaze lustrous, the biscuit thin, and the general technique plainly excellent, the collector may be confident that he has to do with a genuine example.