Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/294

 CHINA

on vellum-like egg-shell ware with incised designs, such as the soft, thin 77mg-yao of the first class. ‘The third kind is not the least remarkable and is certainly the rarest of the three. It resembles the second in the solidity of its biscuit and in its sharply cut deco- ration in relief, but its surface, instead of being crackled, is granulated like the skin of a lime. Very graceful shapes were chosen by the modellers of this choice porcelain, and it is impossible to speak too highly of the technical skill shown in its manufacture. The connoisseur’s difficulty is to determine the date of a specimen, for inasmuch as only the best experts in each epoch set themselves to produce such ware, age and excellence do not necessarily go together, Examples having the mark of the Yung-ching era (1723-1736) are in every respect comparable with those referred to in a much earlier period. It should be observed, too, that as a rule only ware of the second variety described here has year-marks, and that, like the surface decoration, they are in relief.

Although in the three choice varieties here de- scribed, the glaze is of the Fan-ting type — that is to say, yellowish grey or light buff, with a soft, waxy appearance —-specimens also occur having a pure white and glossy surface. ‘These are remarkable for the brittleness of their glaze, which, if once chipped, easily crumbles away.

Passing now, once more, from soft-paste to hard- paste porcelain, it appears from the Kang-Ast era downwards many beautiful and valuable specimens were produced. Unfortunately Chinese writers sel- dom make any distinction based on the nature of the pate, though Chinese connoisseurs attach much importance to this point. In the list of porcelains

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