Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/299

 MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES

in the form of floral scrolls and bands of leaves. Much of the beauty of such ware depends on deli- cacy of technique and lustre of glaze. Pieces satisfy- ing a high standard in both these respects fully deserve the admiration lavished on them. They are not uncommon in China, but really fine examples have always commanded high figures. Not infre- quently the glaze of a specimen otherwise excellent lacks lustre and brilliancy without acquiring compen- satory softness. Such pieces cannot, of course, be placed in the first rank of their kind.

Foreign collectors often apply the term T7ng-yao to hard-paste porcelain with incised decoration. After what has been written above, the reader need scarcely be told that this isa misnomer. Hard-paste porce- lain with incised decoration is known as Chu-hwa-khi in China; a name which, though so far as its mean- ing goes it might reasonably be used of any ware thus decorated, has come to be applied distinctively to the hard-paste variety. Vases with decoration in relief are known as Tu1-hwa-At.

M. d’Entrecolles, speaking of steatite as a substance employed for decorating porcelain in bas-relief, says that after the mineral has been purified it is made into little bricks. The workman then dissolves one of these in water, forming a liquid of some consis- tency. Into this he dips his brush, and traces various designs upon the surface of the pate, which is then left to dry and subsequently covered with glaze. “When the porcelain is stoved,” M. d’Entrecolles adds, ‘‘ these designs appear of a different white from the body of the piece. The effect produced is as though a subtile vapour had crept over the surface. The white of steatite is called ‘ivory-white.’””? With

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