Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/344

 CHINA

eras, and known as Yueh-paz, or blanc-de-lune. These vary slightly in tint. ‘The surface of the best exam- ples shows exceedingly fine dappling— so microscopic as to be scarcely perceptible — apparently produced by the process of insufflation. The biscuit is thick and solid, but white and close-grained. Later speci- mens are marked by impurity of colour and more or less faulty technique; their lilac assumes a dusky shade, their pate is comparatively coarse, and their glaze is often disfigured by pitting or blisters. The potters of the Taou-kwang and later eras were fond of using this impure lilac glaze as a field for designs — generally lions playing with balls—in maroon, brown, and black.

Lapis blue monochromes are among the rarest and choicest of the blue family. Their intense, brilliant colour justifies the esteem in which they were held. They were undoubtedly manufactured with success by the later Mzng keramists, but the best examples familiar to Western collectors are from the Kang-hsz, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung kilns. Not infrequently they have decorative designs — dragons, phcenixes, and so forth — finely engraved under the paste, and sometimes the monochrome is interrupted by yellow- ish white spots or veins, as though the potter had set himself expressly to imitate /apzs /azuli. The best specimens have close-grained, white porcelain pée, but even in pieces dating as far back as the close of the eighteenth century comparatively coarse brown biscuit is occasionally found.

Mazarin blue is the commonest monochrome of this family. With regard to period the same remarks apply to it as to Lapis blue. The points of excel- lence are velvet-like lustre of surface, depth and

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