Page 47 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly
P. 47
WARES OF "SUNG'1 DYNASTY
mens having ornamental designs cut into the paste are
the most excellent. Plain pieces are also good.
Those which have ornaments worked into (or painted
on) the glaze are of the second quality. The best
specimens were made during the periods Cheng-ho
(1111-1117) and Hsuan-ho (1119-1125); but these
are difficult to procure. Brown ware was also made at
Ting-chou, and a black variety resembling black lac-
quer in colour." Dr. Hirth, who gives this extract,
quotes further from another Chinese work to the ef-
fect that the ornaments of the Ting-yao were i en-
()
graved, or cut into the paste; (2) worked into the
glaze or painted, and (3) printed or pressed on with
a mould. It will be well to explain at once that the
is not to be understood here in its
term ""
painted
ordinary sense. Keramic decoration by painting with
colours under or over the glaze, was not practised by
the Ting-chou potters. The process described as
"painting" probably meant decoration with slip,
whether above or below the glaze, but there are no
means of determining this with certainty. The gen-
eral description of the Sung Ting-yao is that it was
semi-porcelain, with fine, greyish pate, tolerably thin
and sonorous, and a creamy glaze, seldom crackled,
closely resembling the shell of an egg in colour, but
sometimes showing a pronounced tinge of buff. The
decorative designs, usually incised in the pate, con-
sisted, for the most part, of the Fei-feng (flying
phoenix), the dragon, the peony, arabesques and
scrolls. The pure white variety was called Pai-ting ;
that showing a tinge of buff was called Fan-ting.
With regard to the "tear-marks" mentioned by the
Chinese writers quoted above, they were nothing
more or less than technical imperfections. When