Page 188 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

io8 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

The province of Fukien apparently contained several factories
besides the important centre at Te-hua. The Annals of Ch'iian-
chou Fu (celebrated as a trading port in the Middle Ages), for
instance, are quoted with reference to a porcelain (te'w chH) manu-
facture at Tz'u-tsao in the Chin-chiang Hsien, and three other places
in the district of An-ch*i are named as producers of white porcelain
which was inferior to that of Jao Chou. Similarly, the Annals of
Shao-wu Fu, on the north-east border of the province, allude to
white porcelain made at three places, ^ the factory at T'ai-ming
in An-jen being the best, but all were far from equalling the Jao
Chou ware.

The district of Wen-chou Fu (formerly in the south of Fukien
but now transferred to northern Chekiang) was noted for pottery
in the distant days of the Chin dynasty (265-419 a.d.), and for
the " bowls of Eastern Ou." ^ Of its subsequent ceramic history
we have no information, but there is an interesting specimen in
the British Museum which seems to bear on the question. It is an

incense burner in the form of a seated figure of the god of Longevity
on a deer, skilfully modelled in strong white porcelain and painted
in a good blue in the Ming style ; and on the box in which it came
was a note to the effect that it is Wen-chou ware. If there is any
truth in this legend (and it would be quite pointless if untrue), then
a blue and white porcelain in the style of the better class of Ming
export ware was made at Wen-chou,

Another interesting specimen in the same museum, which should
also be mentioned here, is a bottle with wide straight neck, of fine
white ware thickly potted, with soft, smooth-worn glaze painted in
a greyish blue with a medley of flowers, fruit, insects, and symbols,
completed by borders of fn-i heads and stiff leaves. It is marked
under the base in a fine violet blue, fu fan chih ts'ao, which,
rendered "made on the borders of Fukien," might refer to the
factories at Shao-wu Fu or even Wen-chou Fu. This is another
piece which has many affinities with the late Ming export blue
and white.

But the Fukien porcelain par excellence is a white ware of dis-
tinctive character and great beauty which was and still is made

1 The others were the Ch'ing-yun factory at Ssu-tu, and the Lan-ch'i factory in
the Chien-ning district. The latter district was mentioned in vol. i., p. 130, in con-
nection with the hare's fur bowls of the Sung period.

« See vol. i., p. 17,