Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/359

 POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

Chapter XI

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

TRANSMUTATION OR FLAMBE GLAZES

HERE are many varieties of Chinese porce-

lain and stone-ware the glaze of which shows more than one colour. Indeed,

some of the porcelains included above in

the monochromatic family would, if more strictly classified, find a place in the present chapter — as, for example, Lang-yao with bright flashes or dark spots in the red field; king-fisher blue and peacock green with metallic dappling; Chdng-yao with red haw- thorn and c/air-de-lune glazes; metallic black with green and blue iridescence; mirror black with gold dusting ; olive green with yellow spots; the red Pzn- kwo-ts'ing glaze with plum-green clouding, and so forth. It has not been deemed advisable, however, to enter these in the polychromatic category, inas- much as the marked predominance of their principal colour has always led collectors to regard them as monochromes. For this section, therefore, are re- served only those glazes in which two or more colours are distinctly visible. Of these the most remarkable, and perhaps the most beautiful, is the Yao-pzen, or ware “transmuted in the furnace,” called by French connoisseurs ‘‘ Flambé.’ M. d’Entrecolles refers to

329