Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/354

 CHINA

found: a thin glaze having the sheen of metal, its surface often showing iridescent hues of dark green or blue, and a more solid glaze of noir-mat type. The “ mirror black”’ is happily named, being a deep, soft colour, glossy, polished, and reflecting images like a mirror. M. d’Entrecolles, speaking of mirror black, says: — ‘This black is produced by dipping the porcelain in a liquid mixture of prepared azure. It is not essential that the best blue should be em- ployed, but it should be a little thick, and it must be mixed with glazing material obtained from powdered petrosilex, to which is added “ dead-leaf’’ glaze with some lime and fern ashes. No other glaze is applied. In stoving this species of ware, it must be placed in the middle of the kiln and not where the tempera- ture is highest.’’ ‘This process would evidently have given a pure black monochrome, and in point of fact many beautiful specimens of perfectly uniform, glossy black porcelain were thus produced. during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. But M. d’En- trecolles’ description tells nothing of a feature that distinguishes the choicest variety of mirror black, namely, the addition of golden speckles. Strictly speaking, such ware should not be classed with mono- chromes, but the dust of gold speckles floating in the glaze is so fine that it conveys an impression of sheen and softness rather than of colour. Examples of this charming ware are very rare. Like the blue-and- white Kai-pien-yao and several of the most prized monochromes, their pate, is seldom pure white porce- lain, but close-grained, reddish stone-ware. This is an interesting point for the connoisseur; and it may be supplemented by saying that generally in the choicest pieces of mirror black neither the bottom

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