Page 23 - Chinese porcelains collected by Mr. and Mrs. Charles P. Taft, Cincinnati, Ohio, by John Getz

HISTORICAL

BRIEF outline of the early history of Chinese Porce-

lain is deemed not out of place here, as an introduc-
tory to the following pages. Documentary evidences

concerning porcelains of remote epochs are rather
abstruse; either the specimens described cannot be

traced, or they are now entirely lost through progres-
sive diminution. The literature remains abundant,

but for practical purposes is useless without accompanying illustrations.

M. Stanislas Julien.^in his translations of early Chinese records, refers to
a certain blue glazed ware called "Tong Ngeou-thao "or "Tung-ou-t'ao,"

said to have been produced during the Chin dynasty (A.D. 265-419),
and Dr. Bushell, in his splendid work, alludes also to this dynasty as
producing a blue ware called "P'iao-tzii," which is described as "re-
sembling in color the pale-blue shade (P'iao) of certain silks."

Sinologues proved by their researches that the kaolinic paste which

properly constitutes porcelain, as we know it to-day, had not yet appeared

at this early period; that, in fact, all the products referred to in the

' Histoire de la Fabrication de la Porcelaine Chinoise, Psuis, 1856.