Page 100 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

brown in colour. The paste consists of white porcelain, but

it appears that the red-brown colour of the ring has its origin
in certain changes of colour produced on the surface of the
paste in such parts as are not covered by the enamel, that
is, the ring on which the vessel stood while being fired.

The ring on the bottom is characteristic of these old cela-
dons, and so is the heaviness and the colour. The musters

are of all possible kinds. Thus, for instance, the fluted pat-
tern is often seen. It is, like all ornaments shown in these

porcelains, produced by first impressing or engraving it on

the paste previous to the enamelling. By putting on the

enamel, the concave parts of the surface, representing the

pattern, were filled up deeper with this semi-transparent
material than the plain parts of the surface, for which reason

the white paste shines through in brighter tints where the
enamel is thin, whereas the pattern appears in a somewhat

darker shade. I have seen the lotus flower in the middle

of these dishes, or the fish ornament, or some sort of a

checkered pattern spread over the whole surface. These

dishes never bear a mark underneath the enamel it appears
;

therefrom that they were made at a time when the custom

of marking the period of manufacture did not yet exist.

It is a point of some interest to ascertain how Chi-
nese celadons found their way in these early days to

almost all the countries included in the region be-

tween Japan and the Key Islands. Dr. Hirth has

investigated the subject with infinite pains and wide

reference to sources of information. The results of

his researches may be summarized here, as embodied

in a pamphlet published in 1888 in Shanghai.
In the thirteenth century there were two impor-

tant channels of traffic from the keramic centres of

the Middle Kingdom to the outer world. The ter-

mini of these channels were at Hang-chow, the capi-
tal of Chekiang (spoken of by Marco Polo under
the name of "Quin-sai") and at Zaitun, a place

66