Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/369

 entered into the manufacture is proved by the fact that no two specimens are exactly alike. Not only does the manner vary in which the clouds of red are disposed, but the colour also passes from rose to light claret, and is sometimes marked with metallic or agate-like flecks. Sometimes, again, the red, or brownish red, clouding is distributed more or less uniformly over the whole surface of the piece. This last type generally occurs in large specimens, and though very restful and charming, cannot be regarded as the choicest kind of Fang-Chün-yao. Another variety, very rarely seen, has its entire surface dappled with clair-de-lune and claret red. This Fang-chün-yao seems to have been a production of the Yung-ching potters. Its pâte is of fine texture, but opaque and showing a tinge of brownish red.

Attempts to classify wares offering such infinite varieties as the polychromatic glazes of China, necessarily involve some perplexity. In the above heading, however, care has been taken to follow the nomenclature of the Chinese themselves, who use the ideograph siu, or "grain," to distinguish three glazes of much merit and curiosity, namely, the Chin-siu-hwa, or "gold grained" glaze; the Tung-siu-hwa, or "copper grained" glaze, and the Tieh-siu-hwa, or "iron grained" glaze. In all three kinds the ground colour is brownish red, and in the glaze there appear to float scales or grains of gold, copper, or iron. The "gold grain" is rarest of the three and most highly esteemed. Its gold specks are plainly seen, held suspended in the glaze, seemingly in the form of pure metal, though it