Page 113 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

THE CELADON

specimens of porcelain that can be referred to as hav-
ing been brought to England before the Reformation,

viz., the cup of Archbishop Warham, at New College,

Oxford, is of this kind. By Persians and Turks it is
termed martabani, and it is much valued by them as a

detecter of poisonous food. Specimens of this pdrce-
lain were sent to Lorenzo de Medici in 1487 by the
Sultan of Egypt. It owes its preservation, no doubt,

to its great thickness." Probably the best examples
of the ware to be found in Europe are those in the

Kremlin at Moscow, where they were placed by the
Empress Catherine.

Apart, too, from the historical aspect of the ques-

tion, Chinese celadon is interesting for its own sake.

Nothing but the evidence of actual observation could
convey an idea of the enthusiastic admiration lavished
upon this ware by both Chinese and Japanese ama-

teurs. An estimate of its value, however, can be

formed from the fact that for single pieces prices
have been given far in excess of any European prece-

dent. Even now the choicest specimens are so highly

prized in China and Japan that very few find their
way westward, more especially as the merits of the
ware are by no means calculated to strike an unedu-
cated eye. Like everything possessing real excel-
lence, it improves upon acquaintance, and the collector
can be very certain that, long after he has grown
weary of elaborately decorated and brilliantly enam-
elled pieces, he will experience an ever-growing
appreciation of the refined celadon, with its glaze of
velvet-like lustre and its delicate green or bluish-green
colour, which has baffled the skill of all Western

workmen and can no longer be produced by the

Chinese themselves.

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