Page 168 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

92 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

for " blue and white." This glazing material was softened with

varying quantities of ashes of lime burnt with ferns or other frond-
age. Neither time nor toil was spared in the preparation of the
Imperial porcelains, and according to the T'ung-ya ^ the vessels were,
at one time at any rate, dried for a whole year after they had been

shaped and before finishing them off on the lathe. When finished

off on the lathe they were glazed and dried, and if there were any
inequalities in the covering they were glazed again. Furthermore,
if any fault appeared after firing they were put on the lathe, ground

smooth, and reglazed and refired.
It was not the usual custom with Chinese potters to harden the

ware with a slight preliminary firing before proceeding to decorate
and apply the glaze, and consequently such processes as under-

glaze painting in blue, embossing, etc., were undergone while the

body was still relatively soft and required exceedingly careful

—handling. The glaze was applied in several ways by dipping in

a tub of glazing liquid (i.e. glaze material finely levigated and mixed
with water), by painting the glaze on with a brush, or by blowing it
on from a bamboo tube, the end of which was covered with a piece
of tightly stretched gauze. One of the last operations was the
finishing off of the foot, which was hollowed out and trimmed and
the mark added (if it was to be in blue, as was usually the case)
and covered with a spray of glaze. To the connoisseur the finish

of the foot is full of meaning. It is here he gets a glimpse of the
body which emerges at the raAv edge of the rim, and by feeling it

he can tell whether the material is finely levigated or coarse-grained.
The foot rim of the Ming porcelains is plainly finished without the
beading or grooves of the K'ang Hsi wares, which were evidently
designed to fit a stand ^ ; and the raw edge discloses a ware which
is almost always of fine white texture and close grain (often almost
unctuous to the touch), though the actual surface generally assumes
a brownish tinge in the heat of the kiln. The base is often unglazed

in the case of large jars and vases, rarely in the cups, bowls, dishes,

or wine pots, except among the coarser types of export porcelain.

A little sand or grit adhering to the foot rim and radiating lines

under the base caused by a jerky movement of the lathe are signs

A^ sixteenth-century work. See p. 2.

* Many observers positively assert that the grooved foot rim does not occur on pre-

K'ang Hsi porcelain. If this is true, it provides a very useful rule for dating but
;

the rigid application of these rules of thumb is rarely possible, and we can only regard

them as useful but not infallible guides.