Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/352

 CHINA

the rarest colours to be found in the Chinese bric-a- brac market.

Another variety of green is the Cf/iao-/i, or light green, a grass tint, partially transparent, having metal- lic lustre, and generally showing iridesence.. The glaze on this ware is thin and the pdéée fine porcelain. Incised decoration is usually added, the colour not lending itself happily to the purposes of a perfectly plain monochrome. The Cf/zac-/i does not rank with choice wares, except when it occurs in combi- nation with other colours or with enamel decoration.

The rarest of all the green monochromes is the “‘crab-shell green,” or Hiat-chia-ts' ing. It is difficult to add anything to the description embodied in the name of this curious ware. The colour is a some- what impure mottled green, showing with remarka- ble accuracy the partial translucidity of a crab’s shell. Hard, fine-grained pare and all the technical qualities indicate most careful manipulation. So few are the genuine specimens still surviving, that it seems almost misleading to place them in a separate category. Nothing is on record as to the history of the ware, but the rare example seen in China seem to belong to the Kang-hsi or Yung-ching era.

The last and appreciable kind of green resembles the C/zao-/i in tint, but is fuller and more opaque. The glaze of this variety is thick and the majority of the specimens date from the latter half of the CAzen- Jung era, and from the Chza-tsing, Taou-kwang, or even later periods. The ware deserves no special men- tion, being simply porcelain covered with thick, lustreless and uninteresting grass-green glaze, often

tricked out with ill-fired gilding.

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