Page 129 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

PORCELAIN. 23

2. In gold (over blue, black, and red).
3. In mixed enamel colours on crackled or monuclirome
grounds.
4. In medallions of diverse form.
Class III. Special Fabrications.
Section A. Etched patterns and embossed designs.
B. Open-work or reticulated.
C. Open-work filled in with glaze (" grains of rice ").
D. Imitations of other materials—agate, marble, and other
stones, patinated bronze, veined wood, carved cinnabar
lac, etc.
E. Laque burgautee.
Class IV. Foreign designs.
Section A. Plain white.
B. Painted in blue.
C. Paiuted in enamel colours.
D. Decorated in Europe.

The productions of the Sung dynasty come entirely under Class I.
of the above Table, being covered generally with glazes of single
colours, either of uniform or mottled tint, and exhibiting either
plain or crackled surfaces. Among the monochrome glazes are
found whites of various tones, grays of bluish or purplish tints,
greens from pale sea-green celadon to deep olive, browns from
light chamois to dark shades approaching black, bright red, and
dark purple. Especially notable are the pale purple, often splashed
over with red : the brilliant grass-greens of the Lung-ch'iian
porcelain, called ts'img-lii, or "onion-green" by the Chinese:
the yueh-pai, or " clair de lune," a pale gray-blue, and the deep
purple, or aubergine {ch'ieh Izn), of the Chiin-chou wares : these
last kilns were also remarkable for the brilliance of their yao-pien,
or "transmutation" mottled tints, due to the varied degree of oxida-
tion of the copper silicates in the glaze. Polychrome decoration
at this period, which is rare, comes under the heading of Class I.,
Section F, consisting, as it does, of glazes of different colours applied
sur biscuit. A prominent example of this method of decoration
in glazes of several colours is the celebrated image of Kuan Yin
8941. N