Page 33 - The art of the Chinese potter By Hobson

AN INTRODUCTION

There is only one manufactured material which has been identi-
fied so closely with a nation in the eyes of the English-speaking

races that the name applied to it is that of the country of its origin.
China is the name given not only to that vast empire of the East

inhabited by the Chinese, but to the product for which that empire

is most famous in Western estimation. The children of this
country become familiar with the word china as signifying the cup

or plate from which they eat long before they learn that there is a
country of that name.

China is the term used popularly to denote pottery, earthenware,

and porcelain ; and vessels were made from all these materials by

the Chinese in different ages.
But while the Chinese have been regarded as the master potters

of the world, and their art has been the inspiration of their fellow-
craftsmen elsewhere, it is interesting to note that their skill was
obtained comparatively late in the world's history. Egypt, Persia,

and Greece were certainly in the field before the Chinese, who
derived much of their knowledge, especially in regard to glazes,
from contact with the West. The patience and industry for which

they are noted soon placed the Chinese ahead of all their rivals,
and their supremacy was hardly challenged before the 19th century.

Prior to the 2nd century before the Christian era, the potter's
art in China was limited to fashioning vessels of utility in pottery,
and it is generally believed that glaze was first employed during

the Han dynasty (b.c. 206-221 A.D.). Recently1 some criticism of

this theory has been put forward, and the counter-suggestion has

been made that the introduction of glaze dates from about the 5th

or 6th centuries.

This is not an appropriate occasion to enter upon a full discussion
of the arguments advanced which in any case are of a negative

character. It is sufficient to say that they have not shaken our

faith in the Han attribution of the earliest lead-glazed wares. The
reference made below to the finds at Samarra of fine porcelain

with high-fired felspathic glazes affords definite proof of the exist-
ence of wares of this kind as export products in the T'ang dynasty.

Before examples could have been available for export to Mesopo-
tamia, manufacture on an extensive scale and for a considerable

1 Chinesische Friihkeramik, by Dr. O. Riicker Emden.

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