Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/366

 CHINA

to produce? He may have sought to exercise a gen- eral control over these forces, but he knew that the less he limited their influence, the wider was the range of his creative resources. This conception, to which doubtless is due the exquisite Yao-pien ware, with its graded tones, its colours blending with and merging into one another, its richness, depth, bril- liancy, softness, and glow, remained utilised, perhaps unappreciated by Western potters, until in recent years some of its effects were happily reproduced in the beautiful wares of Linthorpe and Haviland. The collector of Chinese porcelain and pottery owes to the Yao-pien the pleasure of knowing that his field is never exhausted. He may always hope to find novel- ties as charming as any of his most treasured familiars.

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES OF THE RED FAMILY.

There are a number of polychromatic glazes which belong to the Yao-pzen species inasmuch as no two of them are exactly alike, but which fall naturally into one class owing to the predominance of red in their colours. Of these the commonest though not the least beautiful, has two colours only, clazr-de-lune and red. Generally the clair-de-lune appears as a ground colour, the red cropping out in rich fields and flashes; but sometimes this order is reversed, and sometimes again the clazr-de-lune occupies a very secondary place, barely over-lapping the upper rim of a vase and thence running downwards in thin streaks. ‘The ware is evidently a modification of the Yuan-tsi, described in a previous chapter, where clouds of carmine appear among a c/air-de-lune envi- ronment. Some pieces, indeed, are plainly an imita- tion of the latter, and since the keramic skill of the

336