Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/296

 CHINA

fact connoisseurs still exacted some resemblance to their favourite and venerable type, the Timg-yao. The epithet Tan-pi (egg-shell) applied to the surface of the most esteemed white porcelain of the sixteenth century, excellently describes its peculiarly soft deli- cate texture. And if in colour also the hard-péte porcelain be likened to a hen’s egg, the appearance of the Fan-ting-yao may not inaptly be compared to that of an ostrich egg.

It is on coming to the Kang-hsi era (1661) that the connoisseur begins to find a wealth of beautiful white hard-paste porcelain. For at least fifty years the manufacture had virtually ceased, and such speci- mens as remained from epochs prior to 1600 had become precious as gems and, on the whole, not less scarce. Were there any certain indication of the causes responsible for the cessation of the manufac- ture, there would also be a clew to the technical secrets of these choice wares. But the reason usually assigned — political troubles——is evidently insufh- cient. The quotation given above, from the “ Me- moirs from the Pavilion for Sunning Books,” shows that a keen demand for the ware existed among the public, and that its production would have been a lucrative business independently of official patronage. In the Tao-/u it is stated that the best porcelain clay used by the Ching-té-chén potters came from a locality to the east of the factories; that the supply was exhausted towards the close of the Mig dynasty, but that subsequently new beds were discovered in the same neighbourhood. This temporary failure of supply may account for a break in the manufacture of choice hard-paste porcelain. As for the soft-paste type, the composition of its biscuit is matter of con-

266