Page 320 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

later, a brother virtuoso, who was paying a visit to

Tang, saw the tripods and was so enamoured of them
that he dreamed of nothing else. Ultimately, after

much entreaty, he persuaded Tang to part with Hao's
tripod for a sum of fifteen hundred pieces of silver.

This anecdote is interesting, as showing not only
the enormous value attaching to specimens of fine
and rare porcelain three hundred years ago in China,
but also the fact that the soft-paste white Ting-yao
was successfully copied at the close of the sixteenth
century. Indeed, although there is no direct evi-

dence to that effect, the student may conclude with

tolerable confidence that there was produced at
Ching-te-chen throughout the greater part of the

Ming dynasty a soft-paste porcelain resembling Sung

Ting-yao almost to the point of absolute identity.

The one discernible difference is that the Ming kera-

mists did not stove their bowls and cups in an in-
verted position, as was the practice at the Ting-chou

factory. Thus in the older specimens the upper rims
are unglazed, which defect is usually hidden by a
metal ring. In Japanese collections may be seen not
a few choice pieces resembling in all respects the

Ting-yao and Shu-fu-yao, but probably produced, for

the most part, during the Ming dynasty.
The true Ting-yao, as already stated, is not crackled.

But fine, strongly marked crackle constitutes a prin-

cipal feature in another variety of soft-paste porcelain
dating probably from about the Cheng-hiva era. In
thinness and quality of biscuit this ware closely resem-

bles the Ting-yao, but its glaze is more lustrous and

distinctly darker in colour. Small bowls of it often
have their outer surface fluted so as to resemble th^

calyx of a flower. Others have floral designs cut in

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