Page 339 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES

could be more unlike than the Chien-yao of the Sung
period which is opaque stone-ware and the Chien-
yao of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties which is white,

translucid porcelain. Both, however, derived their

name from the district of their manufacture in the

province of Fuh-kien, and on the revival of the

keramic industry at that place under the Ming Em-

perors, it doubtless seemed natural that the later ware

should be called Chien-yao^ irrespective of the com-
plete dissimilarity between it and its earlier name-

sake. By way of distinction Chinese connoisseurs
often speak of the Ivory White as Ming Chien-yao.
Its production, commencing under the early Ming
Emperors (arc. 1400), was continued with success

until the latter half of the eighteenth century. It

appears to have been then virtually discontinued, to
Abe revived, however, in recent years.
considerable

number of specimens are now produced, and palmed

off upon unwary collectors. But the amateur can

easily avoid such deceptions if he remembers that in
genuine pieces of Ivory White the ware is always

translucid when held up to the light, a property

which, if not entirely absent, is only possessed in a

comparatively slight degree by the modern product.

The general quality of the glaze and the technique

of a piece should be sufficient guides, but if any doubt

remains an examination of the base of the specimen

will probably dispel it. In the old ware the bottom

of a vase or bowl, though carefully finished, is left
uncovered, whereas the modern potter is fond of

hiding his inferior pate by roughly overspreading it

with a coat of glaze.
Ivory-white porcelain has at all times been more

highly esteemed outside China than by the Chinese

VOL. ix. 18 273