Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/48

 nine cases out of every ten, the clay required to imitate their pâte exactly was not procurable. The Ting-yao of Ching-tê-chên resembles the Sung ware of Pechili in having tender pâte, soft lustrous glaze of the colour of rice-flour (white with a tinge of buff), and decorative designs incised or in relief. But, for the rest, it may be regarded as a special and independent manufacture of great beauty and high artistic quality. Precisely by what characteristics—except excellence of technique and generally harder pâte—it may be distinguished from the Sung ware, there is no possibility of explaining. The species of Ting-yao chiefly manufactured at Ching-tê-chên was the Fan-Ting-yao, or "rice-flour" glaze. The grape-coloured and black varieties were not produced, so far as is known.

Among the keramic manufactures of the Sung dynasty, a ware of some importance was the Ki-chou-yao, produced at Kichou, in the province of Kiang-si. It does not, however, deserve to be separately classified, since it was virtually nothing more than an inferior variety of Ting-yao. The pâte is said to have been thick and somewhat coarse, but the glaze was rich and lustrous, showing the same white and grape-purple colours as the Ting-yao. Associated with its production are the names of a potter, Shu Hung, and his daughter, Shu Chiao, who were noted for their skill. Vases made by the latter were valued, according to the Tao-lu, at several ounces of silver each.

There is some reason to suppose that the celebrated "transmutation," or flambé, ware—to be spoken of by and by—had its origin at the Ki-chou potteries. For a tradition is handed down to the effect that a batch of vases, which happened to be in the oven just as a