Page 236 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

66 CHINESE ART.

green celadon as well as dark brownish reds, while gold affords
graded rose pinks deepening to crimson. The intensity and purity
of the colouring, according to M. Paleologue, give sometimes to the
material the appearance of a hard stone, of a flawless oriental
agate. The Chinese are skilful also, as M. Paleologue remarks,
in fusing together glasses of different colours, either without mingling
them, or by introducing into the mass itself one of the component
materials in the form of spots, veins, or ribbons.
All the technical processes, in fact, used in the West in the
working of glass have been employed in their turn in the Middle
Kingdom. Blowing, pressing, and casting in moulds have long
been known : but it is by cutting, and especially by deep chiselling
and undercutting of pieces made of several layers of different
colour that the Chinese have created their most original productions.
In this particular line they have attained a surety of touch, with
refined taste and perfect finish of workmanship, that have not been
surpassed even by the masters of the craft .of the sixteenth century
in Bohemia. Chinese carvers in glass have always been inspired
by glyptic work in jade and other hard stones, and they use the
reciprocating treadle wheel and all the other lapidary tools which
have been described in the chapter on jade in Vol. I. Chap. VII.
Their work in these lines is comparatively easy, as no glass is so
hard as nephrite, jadeite, and rock-crystal, not to mention precious
stones hke the ruby, and emerald, which are also sculptured into
small images of Buddha and the like by the Chinese lapidary
working with the same lapidary tools.
' The glass objects made by the Chinese are generally of small
dimensions, not larger than the jadeite or agate carvings which
are posed as models. The ground is either translucent' or opalescent,
and it is tinted to give an illusory resemblance to the model of
which it is a counterfeit presentment ; to be detected onlj' by a
minute examination, or by tapping it, in Chinese fashion, with the
finger-nail, so that its characteristic ring may betray it. The little