Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/339

 MONOCHROMATIC WARES

to the lemon yellow of the Famille Rose porcelains, the colours of which were first employed towards the end of the reign of Kang-hsi, either as monochromes or for painting over the glaze.

PURPLE.

Purple was a favourite colour with Chinese potters from the tenth century downwards. In two of the celebrated wares of the Sung dynasty —the Ting-yao and the Chin-yao— purplish glazes occurred. The purple Ting-yao (Tsu-Ting-yao) is compared some- times to ripe grapes, sometimes to the skin of the aubergine (47a-pi), while the purple Chzn-yao is likened to the aubergine flower (4za-Awa), which is dusky indigo rather than purple. Indeed many of the so-called “ purple monochromes”’ of China might be more properly described as dark blue or indigo. The illustrations in H’siang’s Catalogue show that a true purple did appear in the T77mg-yao, as may also be inferred from the fact that the glaze is compared to ripe grapes. But the same is not true of the Chiin- yao. In truth the ideograph fsu, used by the Chinese to designate purple, has no distinct signification: it is employed of a colour varying from purple to nankeen brown. With some defining addition, as e aubergine purple,” or “ ripe-grape purple, a clear idea is conveyed, but when a Chinese writer merely says ¢su or Azao-tsu (tsu of light tint), it is impossible to be quite sure of his meaning. The principal Chiin-yao glaze was red: it is sometimes spoken of as Mei-kwet-tsu, or precious-garnet colour. In certain varieties, however, especially those manufactured by the Kang-hsi and Yung-ching potters, their appears a curious dusky indigo more or less permeated with

Jon

>]