Page 384 - The art of the Chinese potter By Hobson

PLATE LXXXIII

Vase of baluster form with high shoulders, short neck,
and small mouth. Reddish stoneware, as seen at the base,
which is unglazed, with coating of white slip and designs
finely painted in black under a soft transparent blue glaze.

On the body are two panels with figure subjects in garden

landscape. In one, three persons grouped round a table with
a musical instrument, representing Music, which is one of the
Four Liberal Accomplishments (see Plate CXVI). In the
other, Checkers is represented by two players seated at a
table ; another figure stands behind, and a fourth approaches

with a bundle of wood on his shoulder. This last is doubtless

Wang Chih, the Rip van Winkle of China, who watched a

game of chess played by Immortals in a mountain grotto.
One of the players, the story goes, gave him an object like a
date stone to put in his mouth, and he became oblivious to

hunger, thirst, and time. When advised at length to go home,

the handle of his woodman's axe had powdered into dust, and
on his return he found all his kith and kin long since dead.

On the shoulder, a band of floral scroll ; and stiff leaves

above the base.

Tz'u Chou type. 14th century. H. 10-25".
In the possession of Mr. George Eumorfopoulos.