Page 63 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

WARES OF "SUNG" DYNASTY

ally perplexed by so strange a device, misinterpreted
it. Most Western collectors have doubtless observed

that bowls and cups of early-period Chinese wares

generally have their rims protected, or, to speak more
correctly, concealed by strips of metal, but few are

likely to place much reliance on such a feature as a

means of identification.

It is stated in the Tao-lu that on the bottom of Ju-
"
yao vases flowers of the sesame were painted." The

same criticism applies to this as to the so-called

"painted" designs of the Ting-yao : the Sung potters

did not paint their wares by way either of decoration

or of mark. The sesame flowers referred to here

wrere either engraved in the paste, or moulded in
slight relief under the glaze. Whether they were
invariably employed to mark choice examples of the

ware it is impossible to tell, but the specimens figured
in H'siang's catalogue do not appear to be thus dis-

tinguished.

Not less important than the Ting-yao and the yu-

yao among wares of the Sung dynasty was the Kuan-
yao, or " Imperial Ware." The quality of the ware

did not procure for it its distinguished title. It was
called " "
simply because the Emperor him-
Imperial

self (1107 A.D.) established the factory where it was

produced, at Peng-Hang or Kai-feng-fu, in the prov-

ince of Honan. The clay is said to have been fine,

but that it was not a porcelain stone may be gathered

from the fact that the rims of the pieces, after stov-

ing, sometimes had a purple-brown tint, and that the
pate at the base showed an iron-red colour. It was,
in short, stone-ware. Wherever the thickness of the

glaze did not suffice to conceal the paste completely,

the dark colour of the latter became more or less

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