Page 163 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

PORCELAIN DECORATED

and softness. With regard to general technique, how-

ever, the Cheng-hiva blue-and-white ware is not at

all inferior to that of Hsuan-te. Some connoisseurs,

indeed, give the palm to the former, and all agree
that the artistic skill shown by the Cheng-hwa deco-
rators was distinctly superior to that of their prede-

cessors. The Tao-lu says of the Cheng-hwa-yao ware :

" As for the blue employed, it was of ordinary quality.
In so far as this point is concerned, the Chen-hwa
ware fell far below the ware of Hsuan-te. But the

former surpassed all antecedent and subsequent pro-
ductions in regard to painting and coloured enamels.
Its merit consisted in the skill of the painters and the

fineness of the colouring matters." The author is

here speaking chiefly of porcelain decorated with
verifiable enamels over the glaze, a class of produc-
tion that does not belong to this section of the sub-
ject. But his verdict as to the pictorial skill of the
Cheng-h'wa decorators certainly embraces blue-and-
white porcelain also. It will be understood, of

course, that allusion is here made to Kai-pien-yao
(soft-paste porcelain). In all eras this ware stands

at the head of blue-and-white specimens.

Need it be said that genuine examples of soft-paste

Hsuan-yao and Cheng-hwa-yao are well-nigh unpro-
curable ? Their Chinese possessors set an almost
prohibitive value on them. In judging their authen-
ticity, what the connoisseur has to examine first is the
colour and nature of the pate. It should be fine as

pipe-clay and of distinctly reddish brown tinge.
Sometimes in Cheng-h<wa specimens the colour of the
biscuit shows through its covering, and imparts a

pearly grey tinge to the surface of the piece. Soft
and beautiful as is the effect of this transmitted tone,

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