Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/305

 MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES

theory. First, Ivory-white porcelain was not manu- factured in China so early as the twelfth century ; secondly, the 7é-hwo-yao or Chien-yao is never marked with blue under the glaze. It is most improbable that the plate really came into the Dresden collection in the manner described or that it is a genuine speci- men of Chien-yao. Nothing is so misleading as tradi- tion where objects of art are in question. In the temple of Benten at Hakone, in Japan, the priests show among other precious relics a flute said to have been used by the celebrated warrior Yoshitsune, in the twelfth century. Of Ivory-white porcelain, it is in all respects a beautiful example of keramic skill. That the flute never belonged to Yoshitsune and could not have been manufactured until two centuries after his death, are facts scarcely admitting of dispute. Japanese antiquarians, though mistaken as to the orign of Ivory-white porcelain, are correct as to its age; they say that no specimens of it reached their country before the close of the fourteenth century.

Choice examples of soft-paste white porcelain often have the year-mark of their period in relief, though they are not necessarily so distinguished. _Hard-paste white porcelain as a rule has no marks of either date or factory. A notable exception, however, is the Yung-lo To-tat-kt. Genuine bowls of this beautiful ware always carry, on the bottom of the inner surface, the ideographs Yung-lo or Yung-lo Nien-chi, in seal character in bas-relief. The hard-paste white porce- lain of the present dynasty, if marked at all — which is exceptional has the mark painted in blue sous couverte.

Before dismissing this part of the subject, a ware must be noticed one variety of which belongs to the

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