Page 150 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

The potters conceived the idea of employing this stone

instead of kaolin. It is named Hwah (soapy) because it is

unctuous and in some degree resembles soap. Porcelain
made with steatite is rare and much dearer than the other.

It has an extremely fine grain, and for purposes of painting

it is to ordinary porcelain pretty much what vellum is to

paper. Moreover, its lightness appears astonishing to a

hand accustomed to other porcelains. It is also much more

fragile than common ware, and there is difficulty in obtain-

ing the right temperature in baking it. Some experts do

not use steatite for the porcelain mass. They content

themselves with making a solution of it into which they

plunge the ware when the latter is dry, in order that the

body of the piece may become coated with the mineral be-
Afore receiving the decoration and the glaze.
certain

degree of beauty is thus acquired.

The conspicuous fault of a vast majority of blue-

and-white porcelains is that the body of the piece has

a watery, bluish tint, offering a weak and unsatisfac-

tory contrast to the colour of the decoration. But in

the ware now discussed the pure white of the wax-

like covering applied to the pate constitutes an inimi-

table field for the blue decoration, which stands out

with dazzling brilliancy and distinctness and is yet

charmingly soft. The manufacture of such ware in-
volved much labour. The pate having been prepared
with great care and worked down to almost wafer-

like thinness, had to be sun-dried until it became

tough enough to handle. It was then dipped in a
solution of kaolin or steatite, and set once more to

dry. Either of these drying processes might have
been easily accomplished in the kiln. But the Chi-

nese potter did not stove his pieces before applying

Hethe decoration sous couverte and the glaze. pre-

ferred to take the trouble of drying them for months,

108