Page 347 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MONOCHROMATIC WARES

of the subject are, first, that having a portion of the

surface red and the remainder white and second,
;

that having its whole surface red. Examples of

both varieties are depicted by H'siang in his Illus-

trated Catalogue. Of the first he shows a censer,

three inches high and three and a half inches in

diameter. The upper part is covered with deep red
glaze of " rosy dawn tint," and the lower with snow-

white glaze, the two colours showing a dazzling

contrast. The surface is described as having millet-

like marks in faint relief. Of the second variety he

gives two examples, a wine-pot and a " palace saucer-

shaped dish." The glaze of the former he calls
" of the latter "
" and that bright red." In
deep red

both cases the surface of the specimens is covered

with engraved designs, a favourite addition to choice

pieces. At the time when H'siang wrote, three hun-

dred years ago, this tiny censer was valued at a thou-

sand taels, and the owner of the wine-pot had paid

some three thousand dollars (gold) for it. It is

quite evident, therefore, that the Hsuan-te experts

were veritable masters in the production of red mono-

chromes, and it is almost equally evident that speci-

mens of their best work need not be looked for by
Howforeign collectors of the present time.
then

was this wonderful red obtained ? The Tao-lu re-
t

ferring to the Chi-hung porcelains of the Hsuan-f?
era, says that
there were two kinds, " "
bright red

(Hsien-hung\, and "precious stone red" (Pao-shi-

hung}, but this distinction was not radical: it re-
"
ferred only to a difference of tone, the precious

" being fuller and deeper than the " bright
stone red

red." Both were obtained from silicate of copper,

but the manufacturing processes remain to this day

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