Page 316 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

appellation of Chin-to-tai, or true (chin} To-tai. This
species was originally produced in the Imperial Fac-
tory during the Cheng-hwa era (1465-1487), and

subsequently in private workshops throughout the

Lung-ching (15671572) and Wan-li (15731619)
eras. During the two last reigns the porcelains most

esteemed were those of the Tan-pi, or *

egg-shell,'

variety, which were of uniform tint, a pure white.

These did not at all resemble the porcelains of later

times of which the majority had decoration in blue

sous couverte. The cups of pure tone and brilliant

white of the Lung-ching and Wan-li eras were infi-

nitely superior in thinness and beauty to those deco-
rated with blue." It would appear from this extract

that the manufacture of very thin hard-paste porcelain
dates from a period fifty years later than the Tung-lo

era. But there is evidence to show that the author

Heof the Tao-lu erred in this matter. wrote, it will

be remembered, in 1815, whereas H'siang, otherwise
a more trustworthy authority, compiled his illustrated
catalogue nearly two hundred and fifty years earlier.

H'siang in fact lived less than a century after the

Cheng-hwa era, while Ching was separated from that
Nowera by three centuries and a half.
H'siang in his

Catalogue illustrates a cup of white Tung-lo porcelain,

appending to the picture a description that the ware

Hewas as thin as paper and that it was called To-tai.

adds that several similar cups were extant in his time

(second half of sixteenth century), and that they were

highly appreciated by collectors of taste. By Chinese

connoisseurs of the present day also it is unanimously
held that the true To-tai-ki dates from the Tung-lo

era. Bowls of the ware are preserved by them with

the greatest care. They have a peculiar shape, the

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