Page 341 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES

theory. First, Ivory-white porcelain was not manu-
factured in China so early as the twelfth century ;
secondly, the Te-hwo-yao or Chien-yao is never marked

with blue under the glaze. It is most improbable
that the plate really came into the Dresden collection
in the manner described or that it is a genuine speci-

men of Chien-yao. Nothing is so misleading as tradi-

tion where objects of art are in question. In the

temple of Benten at Hakone, in Japan, the priests

show among other precious relics a flute said to have

been used by the celebrated warrior Yoshitsune, in the

twelfth century. Of Ivory-white porcelain, it is in

all respects a beautiful example of keramic skill.
That the flute never belonged to Yoshitsune and could

not have been manufactured until two centuries after

his death, are facts scarcely admitting of dispute.
Japanese antiquarians, though mistaken as to the
orign of Ivory-white porcelain, are correct as to it?
age ; they say that no specimens of it reached their
country before the close of the fourteenth century.

Choice examples of soft-paste white porcelain often
have the year-mark of their period in relief, though

they are not necessarily so distinguished. Hard-paste

white porcelain as a rule has no marks of either date
Aor factory.
notable exception, however, is the

Yung-lo To-tai-ki. Genuine bowls of this beautiful

ware always carry, on the bottom of the inner surface,

the ideographs Yung-lo or Yung-lo Nien-chi, in seal

character in bas-relief. The hard-paste white porce-

lain of the present dynasty, if marked at all which
is exceptional has the mark painted in blue sous

couverte.

Before dismissing this part of the subject, a ware
must be noticed one variety of which belongs to the

275