Page 80 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

brown." There will be occasion to speak hereafter
of the Yao-fieUy or Transmutation ware. Here it

will suffice to say that these accidental changes of

colour in the kiln, owing to the oxidation of the

copper in the glaze, suggested to the early potters a

variety of celadon much admired and greatly prized by

amateurs in subsequent centuries. In this exceedingly

rare ware the uniformity of the surface is relieved by
metallic spots, distributed with more or less regularity.

In choice specimens the colour of the spots is lustrous,
golden brown, and they seem to float suspended, as

it were, in the velvety green, or bluish green,

glaze. Good examples of this spotted celadon are

practically unprocurable, and the estimation in which

they are held, added to their scarcity, gives them an

extravagant value. In Japan the ware is called Tobi-
ASeiji.
few pieces exist there in ancient collections,

but among the many grand celadons presented by the

Shogun Yoshimasa (1490) and the Regent Hideyoshi
(1580) to the principal temples throughout the em-

pire, there is not a single vase of the spotted variety.

One interesting specimen of Sung Ko-yao ware and

ten examples of the Lung-chuan-yao are to be seen
depicted in the " Illustrated "
Catalogue of H'siang.

The colour of the Ko-yao piece is pale green ; that
dLeuenpge-mcehruaalnde"xatmop"legsrasvsargireseefnr"oman"ddtahrek"gbrreiegnh"t
of the
and "

green of fresh onion sprouts." Only one piece of the

Lung-chuan-yao is crackled. The forms and decora-

tive designs are borrowed, in almost every case, from

ancient bronzes.

To Western eyes one of the most attractive wares

manufactured during the Sung dynasty was the Chun-

yao. In point of antiquity this ware ranks first

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