Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/346

 CHINA

after rain”’ (u-4wo-tten-ts’ing) has already been spoken of in connection with cé/adon. There can be little doubt that the colour originally conceived under this name showed a strong tinge of green. But the pot- ter of the three great eras of the present dynasty pro- duced a porcelain bearing no resemblance to cé/adon which has come to be known as “blue of the sky after rain.’’ It is a hard-paste porcelain, fine-grained, excellent in every technical detail, and’ covered with a monochromatic glaze of the utmost lustre and delicacy. The colour is light cerulean. This ware commands the admiration of Chinese virtuosi. The year- -mark is generally found on the bottom of fine pieces in seal character, blue sous couverte.

All the above varieties of blue monochromes were manufactured at the full heat of the porcelain kiln, the colour being developed and the biscuit fired at the same temperature. There remains to be noticed another blue of very great beauty, exceptionally ap- preciated by Western connoisseurs, which, being applied to the surface of ware already balled) was subjected only to the temperature of the chmaelions furnace. This is the colour called ‘‘ Turquoise Blue’’ by Europeans, but in China known as Tswi-se, or the blue of the king-fisher’s feathers. It was obtained from an oxide prepared by mixing old copper and saltpetre with water. The manufacture dates from the Ming dynasty. In one of the imperial requisi- tions for porcelains to be used at the palace during the Lung-ching era (1567-1572), bowls and plates covered with Tsuz-se glaze are included. But the colour is not mentioned in any record of choice wares manufactured earlier than the sixteenth cen- tury. It is certainly one of the most delicate yet

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