Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/57

 cular meshes, not inaptly likened by connoisseurs to the roe of fishes: in the second, the crackle assumed an appearance distinguished as the "crab's claw" fashion. Julien's words are:—"Suivant l'ouvrage intitulé khe-kou-yao-lun, ceux qui offraient dans le vernis des yeux (boutons) de Tsong (Aralia) imitant les raies des pattes de crabes, étaient encore plus beaux:" Concerning this perplexing passage M. Salvétat makes only the following remark:—"Les pièces de cette sorte sont extrêmement rares." What is to be understood by crackle—if indeed there is question of crackle at all—compared, at the same time, to crab's claws and Aralia leaves? Dr. Bushell, than whom no higher authority is to be found among Western connoisseurs, says that these "crab's-claw" marks, so far from being an embellishment, were imperfections that they were simply little holes in the glaze, as though a crab had walked over it before firing. How pieces showing such blemishes can have been highly esteemed, one is at a loss to understand. The simile of "boutons de Aralia" has reference to chagrined glaze, something quite different from the so-called "crab's-claw" marking. In the glaze of these antique wares—especially in choice specimens of Sing Chün-yao, to be presently described—serrated, or V-shaped, lines are sometimes found that have been erroneously supposed to belong to the "crab's-claw" type. These lines are not crackle: they may be better described as dappling. They are not continuous, and it is almost inconceivable that they can have been produced at will. Resulting, probably, from more or less accidental conditions of temperature in the kiln, their effect, nevertheless, is to impart to the surface of the piece an appearance