Page 47 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

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