Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/69

 Among early Chinese wares the Lung-chaun-yao bequeathed to later generations incomparably the largest number of specimens. Genuine but inferior examples are procurable with little difficulty. Plates and bowls are most common, but vases, censers and so forth, may often be found. With exceptions so rare as to be scarcely worthy of mention, these pieces are of the clumsy thick variety. Their pâte is heavy and dense, well calculated to resist the effects of ordinary accidents; their glaze is olive or sea-green, and their decorative designs, whether impressed, engraved, or in relief, generally consist of floral scrolls and diapers. They owe their preservation to their solidity. "My enquiries among the natives," writes Dr. Hirth, "have convinced me of one thing, namely, that whereas with regard to many other antiquities it is often difficult to find two Chinese that agree, a most decided uniformity of opinion prevails about this class of porcelain. There is not an intelligent native student (connoisseur) in China who is not able to pick out a piece of Lung-chaun-yao, or a Lung-chaun-ti, for such is the colloquial designation in the north, from a large collection of similar objects without the slightest hesitation. Further, there is only one opinion as to the age of specimens which are not wanting in any of the characteristics. For, since the paste is originally white, which may be proved by examining a broken specimen, whereas all parts of the surface not covered by enamel have turned red or brown in the fire, we have before us an earth possessing a natural quality not possessed by the produce of other kilns, viz., that of changing colour in the fire. I understand from my Chinese informants that this peculiarity cannot be imitated, not even at