Page 476 - Chinese Porcelain Vol II, Galland

KEEN-LUNG.
446
water to dissolve, preparing it in the same manner as the
Kau-lin. It is affirmed that porcelain may be made with
in this manner, without mixture.
Wha-slie alone, prepared any
However, one of my converts, who had some of this kind, told
me, that to eight parts of Wha-slie he puts two parts of pe-tun-tse
and Kau-lin. In this new kind of the Wha-slie
porcelain sup-
the of the Kau-lin ; but one is much dearer than
plies place
the other, for a load of Kau-lin cost but twenty sous, whereas
that of the Wlia-she stands in a crown ; so that no wonder this
sort of chinaware should be dearer than the common.
"
I shall add one observation more concerning Wha-she.
When it is prepared and made into little bricks like pe-tun-tse y
they dissolve a certain quantity of them in water, and, making
a clear of it, with a pencil dipped therein, trace
very paste
several fancies upon the porcelain, to which, after it is dry,
they give the varnish. When it is baked these designs appear,
of a different white from that of the
being body of the ware,
and not unlike a thin vapour spread over the surface. The
'
white of the Wha-slie is called ' white of
ivory (syanc/ ya pe)"
The fine to crack, vellum-like
grain, light weight, liability
of the
appearance painting (particularly in the blue and white)
all point to this description referring to what is known by us
"
as soft The extra cost of the material of which it
paste."
was made explains why there is comparatively so little of it,
while the fact that some were coated with the
pieces merely
accounts for all not
composition, being equally light. Beyond
" "
doubt the light pieces are soft paste throughout, the heavy
with the "vellum "-like are coated therewith.
appearance merely
Pere d'Entrecolles wrote this letter in 1711, so that we
must not be to find soft to the end
surprised paste belonging
of the Kang-he period.
The soft paste, for the most part, is of a very white colour
with an opaque look, and for painting under the glaze seems
to have had the that the colours were not so liable
advantage
to run as on the
ordinary description ; it therefore lent itself
better to the hatching and stippling style of decoration, which
in the later had to a extent the broad
reigns, large superseded
colour washes of the
Kang-he period.
The various of the of which soft
ways mixing composition
paste was made, no doubt accounts for the many descriptions