Page 67 - J. P Morgan Collection of Chinese Art and Porcelain

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION

chou wares; these last kilns were also remarkable for

the brilliance of their yao-pien, or "transmutation"

mottled tints, due to the varied degrees of oxidation

of the copper silicates in the glaze. Polychrome dec-

oration at this period, which is rare, comes under the

heading of Class I., Section F, consisting as it does, of

Aglazes of different colors applied sur biscuit. prom-

inent example of this method of decoration in glazes

of several colors is the celebrated image of Kuan Yin

enshrined in the Buddhist temple Pao-kuo-ssu at

Peking, the early date of which, the thirteenth century

of our era, is authenticated by the records of the mon-

astery. Painted decoration was still more sparingly

employed, although we learn from Ko kit yao lun^

that in the province of Chihli, both the Ting-chou

and Tz'ii-chou porcelains of the time were occasionally

painted with ornamental designs in brown. Cobalt
blue, it is recorded in the annals, was brought to China

by the Arabs as early as the tenth century, and was

first used, probably, in the preparation of colored

glazes, as we know nothing of painting in blue under
the glaze until the Yuan dynasty. The earliest "blue
and white" dates from the thirteenth century, when

the technical process of painting in cobalt on the raw

body of the porcelain seems to have been introduced,
perhaps, from Persia, where it had long been used in
the decoration of tiles and other articles of faience,

although porcelain proper was unknown to the Per-

sians, except as an importation from China.

There were many potteries in China during the Sung

dynasty, but Chinese writers always refer first to four

kinds of ceramic production (yao) as the principal,

vi{., Ju, Kuan, Ko, and Ting; placing the celadon
ware of Lung-ch'uan and the flambe faience of Chtin-

* A learned work on antiquities, literary and artistic, in 1 3 books,

by Tsao-cli'ao, published in the year 1387.

Iv