Page 51 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

CHINESE POTTERY AND PORCELAIN

E term pottery used in its widest sense includes

THevery production of the fictile art, and com-
prises all kinds of earthenware and stoneware,
as well as porcelain, its highest achievement.
Porcelain has been evolved from ordinary pottery by a
gradual improvement in the selection of materials and
in finish of work, and there is hardly a straight line of
demarcation between the two, either chemically or
microscopically. Ceramic knowledge is derived partly
from literary records and traditions, partly from ac-
tual specimens, and is more convincing when the two
sources of information are carefully combined. There
is a voluminous ceramic literature in China, but there
is no space to approach the subject here, and the in-

quirer may be referred to the special chapter on Chinese

ceramic bibliography in the Walters Catalogue.*

POTTERY

The general Chinese for pottery, as defined above,

is t'ao, a very ancient character, the construction of

which shows that it originally meant "kiln," although
now it is applied to all kinds of ware fired in kilns,
from the commonest earthenware to the finest porce-

*Oriefttal Ceramic Art, Chap. XII. By S. W. Bushell. New

York, 1899.

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