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 CHINA

chapter, was cé/adon and céladon only. From the be- ginning 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.

The manufacture of thin white porcelain of the To- tai-ki class continued from the Yung-/o era onwards. Hsuan-té (1426-1435) potters were not less successful — doubtless the Imperial factory remained in the same hands during both the Yung-lo and the Hsuan-té reigns —and the great porcelain period of Chéng-hwa (1465-1488) contributed many fine specimens. It was owing, in all probability, to the copiousness of production during the last named era that the author of the Tao-/u fell into his misconception as to the ware’s history. ‘There are no recognised features by which, in the absence of year-marks, the connoisseur can determine the period of any specimen of To-tai-hi manufactured between 1493 and 1620. Nor indeed is it of the least importance that such distinctions should be drawn, since all the surviving specimens of To-tai-ki dating from the fifteenth and sixteenth cen- turies are of first-rate quality. Towards the close of the Wan-li era (1574-1620) the manufacture came to an end. Ina book called the Tao-shuo, there is quoted a portion of the “ Memoirs from the Pavilion for Sunning Books,” which were written at the end of the Ming dynasty (about 1640). It says that, on the occasion of the new moon and full moon fairs at one of the great Buddhist temples in Peking, the rich men used to throng to look at the old porcelain bowls exhibited. “Plain white cups of Wan-i porcelain were several taels of silver each, and those with the marks of Hsuan-té or Chéng-hwa twice as much and

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