Page 80 - Chinese Art, Vol II By Stephen W. Bushell

14 CHINESE ART.
religious images, sacred figures and grotesque animals, besides an
infinity of smaller ornamental and fantastic curiosities. These
potteries are distinguished for the qualities of the glazes with
which the dark brown body is invested. One of them, a sojtfflr
blue, was copied in the imperial porcelain manufactory by T'ang
Ying, from a specimen specially sent from the palace at Peking for
the purpose.
The glazes are usually of the mottled and variegated class, the
prevailing ground being cobalt blue, which may be streaked and
flecked with green and pass into olive-brown towards the rim.
But several other colours occur, such as manganese purple, camellia-
leaf green, and crackled greys ; they are usually colours of the
demi-grand feu, but include a brilliant red of sang-de-bceuf tone
running down in thick lustrous waves. In some pieces the sur-
face is only partially covered, the glaze stopping short in an irregu-
larly curved line before it reaches the bottom, congealing in thick
drops, so that a third of the vase may be left bare. In this it
resembles some of the ancient wares of the Sung dynasties with
which it may be confounded if special attention be not paid to the
distinctive characteristics of the paste.
Three typical specimens of Kuang Yao have been selected from
the Museum for illustration, without attempting to refer them
to any of the particular potteries of the province. The first.
is a vase of dense kaolinic faience modelled in relief with
Fig. 4,
ornamental motives taken from the lotus, covered with a gray
crackled glaze ; the base is encircled by a double tier of lotus
petals, a conventional blossom is seen in the foreground springing
from a scroll on the shoulder of the vase, and its swelling lip dis-
plays a ring of studs, simulating the seeds of a lotus pod.
The second, Fig. 5, is a tall, gracefully shaped vase of grayish
stoneware, with a pear-shaped body tapering to a long slender
neck, bulging at the top, ornamented with archaic dragons (ch'ih
lung) coiling round the shoulder of the vase executed in high