Page:Every Woman's Encyclopedia Volume 1.djvu/27

 WOMAN'S HOME THE ROMABJCE OF OLD CHSBJA By Mrs. WILLOUGHBY HODGSON Atiihor Of " How to Identify Old China;' and " H<nf to Identify Old Chinese Porcelain^ OVERS of the antique are apt to use the probably never have known porcelain at all. expression, " old china " as a too compre- Of marvellous inventions and industries hensive term, meaning, as it does ^yith them, both pottery and porcelain. I have frequently been invited to " come and see some old china," and have found the collection to consist of Staffordshire figures, jugs, and mugs, pieces of Wedgwood, and other pottery ; but the old Worcester, Chelsea, or Derby china which I had expected to see has been conspicuous by its absence. Let me, therefore, advise women readers to begin by learning to distinguish between the two. This, like everything else, is quite easy when the way has been pointed out. Pottery is opaque, porcelain translucent. If a piece of porcelain is held before a strong light and the hand passed between it and the light, a shadow will be seen more or less distinct, according to the porcelain, some makes being less transparent than others. The same test applied to a piece of pottery will demonstrate the fact that no ray of light, however strong, can be seen through it. Then, porcelain, being a better con- ductor of heat, is colder to the touch than pottery, and it has a more metallic ring when tapped with the finger-nails. The potter, the potter's wheel, and the potter's thumb are as old as the hills — it would seem that they have always been. Can we say the same of porcelain ? Not in our own country, or. in Europe for the matter of that ; but if we turn to the East, to that wonderful land of the in- scrutable Chinese, we might almost say porcelain has always been. It is wonderful in these days, when china is in common use even in the homes of the very poor, to reflect that had it not been for the Chinese the world would An example of Chinese porcelain of the Ming Dynasty all the world over none has such an inter- esting, tragic, and romantic history as that of the beginnings of porcelain in our own country and in other parts of Europe. Pieces made by the Chinese had been brought from the East by travellers, by Crusaders, and by merchants trading in the Persian Gulf. These fired the ambition of the potter. Then began those attempts to copy the wonderful " porcelain of the Indies," as it was called, attempts which brought disap- pointment, persecution, and ruin upon the potter, who cheerfully sacrificed youth, health, fortune, and even life itself, in vain attempts to discover the secret of its ingre- dients. The Western world was still wrapped in' barbaric gloom when porcelain was invented in China. The discovery is attributed to the prehistoric Emperor Yu-ti- Shun, 2255 B.C., who reigned it is said, for a hundred years. Of course, we must look upon such statements as legendary, but there is better evidence that during the Han Dynasty, 206 b.c. to A.D. 220, porcelain was really being made. Mr. Stanislas Julian, the translator of old Chinese documents, believed that it was invented during that dynasty, between the years 185 B.C. and A.D. 87. More modem authorities, however, without giving any precise date, say that the industry came into existence during the T'ang Dynasty, a.d. 618 to 906. Certain it is that seven manufactories were working at this time, each making a different ware, though whether of pottery or porcelain it is impossible to say. In the ninth century we have the