Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/376

 CHINA

that many beautiful monochromes have their surface covered with a net-work of exceedingly fine crackle. Among wares thus distinguished special mention may be made of “‘cucumber-rind green;” “ king-fisher green’’ (the turquoise blue of Occidental collectors) ; “peacock green;”’ ‘“‘ mustard yellow;” and certain specimens of Ting-yao. ‘The crackle on the best ex- amples of these wares takes the form known to French connoisseurs as ‘“ truitée,’”’ the “ fish-roe”’ of Chinese nomenclature. It is the same crackle as that seen in the Satsuma and Kyomizu faiences of Japan. The meshes are close, and the crackle polygonal or nearly circular. It is unnecessary to dwell upon this part of the subject further than to translate a few useful words from M. du Sartel’s ‘‘ Porcelaine de Chine: ’’ — “On ancient specimens the crackle, gen- erally very distinct and tinted black, traverses the whole thickness of the glaze the mass which is uni- formly coloured. However numerous the cracks may be, they do not detract in any way from the smoothness of the surface. The solutions of contin- uity are so little appreciable to the touch that even when the finest pointed needle is passed over them they are virtually insensible. These little fissures, infinite in number, combine to form a net-work of apparent regularity, the meshes of which, almost uniform in size, are always polygonal, none of them ever taking a triangular shape. On modern pro- ducts of a similar character manufactured in the Orient and in Europe, the crackle presents itself differently. It is, in the majority of instances, little marked, colourless, and scintillating. It appears to be superficial and to penetrate only into the vitreous colourless coat overlying the coloured glazes of recent

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