Page 149 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

yao and its successors, tradition says nothing, and no
analysis has been made in modern times. But the

soft pate of the Hsuan-te blue-and-white ware is said

to have been obtained by adding to porcelain-stone

clay taken from the bed of the river at Ching-te-chen.

The Tao-lu speaking of the vases manufactured at
y

the imperial kilns reddu,rpilnagstitchicslaeyp;o"ch,thsaatysthtehirat"tbhiesy-

were made with "

cuit was like cinnabar," and that " the materials

all

employed were of the finest quality." M. Salvetat

was led by this description to conjecture that the

author of the Tao-lu referred to fine stone-ware of

the Grts de Flandre class. Such was not the case,

however. The Hsuan-yao is the type of a large num-

ber of porcelains manufactured continuously by Chi-
nese keramists from 1426 to 1810, and regarded by

the connoisseurs of the Middle Kingdom as the

choicest and most valuable ware of their kind (blue-

and-white). Its distinctive features are great thinness

and lightness of pate though many beautiful speci-
mens lack these special qualities a peculiar crackled

glaze, differing essentially from all other glazes run
over blue decoration, and a waxy white ground, the
snow-like purity of which contrasts exquisitely with

the colour of the decoration. The glaze being per-

fectly translucid, it is evident that the blue decoration

cannot have been applied directly to the reddish

brown biscuit. The latter had to be previously cov-

ered with some white opaque substance, on the

preparation and application of which much of the

specimen's beauty depended. Possibly steatite was

employed for the purpose. M. d'Entrecolles speaks

as follows of this mineral :

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