Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/340

 CHINA

red; an indescribable tint. The Chin-yao glaze was exposed to the full temperature of the porcelain kiln, but the purple of seventeenth and eighteenth cen- tury wares is an enamel applied to the biscuit after baking. It was employed by the Chinese keramists in most bizarre fashions; as for example, to cover the manes and tales, and even the bodies of Dogs of Fo, or the faces and breasts of mythological person- ages. In these cases it is usually associated with green, or turquoise blue. As a pure monochrome it is rare, especially in large pieces, and many connois- seurs hesitate to give it high rank among single- coloured porcelains owing to its glassiness and want of solidity. Nevertheless, fine examples are undoubt- edly of great beauty and value. Their essential fea- tures are purity of colour, lustre and uniformity of surface, and close-grained, white pate. Many of them have designs incised in the biscuit or in low relief. Occasionally, however, a glaze irreproachable as to texture and colour is run over dark, coarsish pdte ; such specimens belong usually to the Chza-tsing, Taou- kwang, or Hien-fung kilns —z.e. to the period included between 1796 and 1862.

BLUE.

Just as the Chinese potter sought to imitate jade in his choicest green porcelain, so he took glass as a model for some of his finest purple and blue mono- chromes. He succeeded so perfectly that a specimen is occasionally seen having glaze scarcely distinguish- able from glass in texture and lustre. Examples of this kind are highly and deservedly prized in China. They often perplex the tyro who discerns nothing to distinguish them from glass except their want of

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