Page 60 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

10 CHINESE ART.

quantities, other Chinese factories have continued to work all
the time in the old lines, producing various kinds of faience and
stoneware, of which select examples occasionally find their way
abroad. Some of the pieces exhibit curiously archaic character-
istics and are consequently sometimes classed, even by the expert,
among relics of the Sung dynasty, in spite of the fact that the
potters' marks, stamped under the feet, betray a much more recent
origin. A short account of two of the principal factories, of which
the names have been mentioned on a former page, may be given
here, to clear the ground for the consideration of porcelain proper.
These two wares are—i. Yi Hsing Yao, from the province of
Kiangsu 2. Kuang Yao, from the province of Kuangtung.
;
Yi Hsing Yao.—When landing from a steamer at Shanghai
one sees on the wharf a number of pedlars offering for sale teapots
and cups of quaint form, and a variety of small, useful and orna-
mental objects, made of a fine fawn-coloured or reddish-brown
stoneware. This one finds, on inquiry, is pottery {yao) produced
on the western shores of the T'ai Hu, the celebrated lake which
has Suchou on its eastern bank, at the potteries of Yi-hsing-hsien,
in the prefecture of Chang-chou-fu. The Chinese prefer this
finely levigated ware to any other, even to porcelain, for infusing
tea, and for jars to preserve the flavour of delicate sweetmeats.
The teapots are often made in fantastic forms, such as a dragon
rising from waves, a phoenix or other bird, a section of bamboo,
the gnarled trunk of a pine, or a branch of blossoming prunus
;
a fruit, such as a peach, a pomegranate, or a finger citron ; a flower
like the nelumbium, the Chinese lotus. The body tints of the ware
range from pale buff, red, and brown, to chocolate—reds pre-
dominating ; and differently coloured clays may be used in com-
bination on the same piece, embossed designs, in red, for instance,
being relieved by a fawn-coloured background. Some pieces
derive their sole charm from the simple elegance of the form and
the soft self-colour of the faience in which it is modelled. Others