Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/300

 CHINA

regard to the use of fibrous gypsum, the same writer says: —‘‘ Designs are traced upon porcelain with fibrous gypsum as well as with steatite, a white dif- ferent from that of the body of the piece being thus obtained. There is, however, one peculiarity about the gypsum, namely, that before use it must first be subjected to the action of fire. After this it is pounded and thrown into a vessel of water, which is stirred, and the scum that rises to the surface is gradually removed. Ultimately there remains a pure mass, which is used in the same fashion as steatite.”’ It will of course be understood that the designs traced with these substances vary in degree of relief. Some- times they stand out prominently from the surface; sometimes they appear as a snow-white satiny tracing.

A rare and beautiful method of treating the sur- face of hard-paste white porcelain is to channel portions of the biscuit in diapered designs and leave the sunken parts of the pattern unglazed. This troublesome four de force is seldom found upon large pieces. Occasionally it occurs in combination with blue decoration sous couverte.

In yet another highly esteemed and uncommon variety the surface is cut into lattice-work of marvel- lous delicacy. Either this reticulation alone suffices for ornamentation, or it is employed to fill the spaces between medallions having decoration in blue sous couverte or white figures modelled in high relief. Sometimes gilding is applied to these figures. Curi- ously enough specimens of porcelain thus reticulated generally take the form of little cups, which could never have served for drinking purposes: they were intended to contain ashes for setting up sticks of in- cense.

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