Page 350 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

no connoisseur who has written of their era ascribes

to them any particular proficiency in the manufacture

of red monochromes, though there is no reason to

suppose that they were much, if at all, less skilled in

this direction than their Hsuan-te predecessors. Dur-

ing the Cheng-te period (1506-1522), however, the

production of fine reds was certainly carried on. The

potters of this time succeeded admirably in the two

tones of red, rouge vtf and ruby, and left behind them

a reputation for such work. But of the Chia-ching

era (1522-1566) it is recorded: "In this epoch

the clay used for rouge vif porcelains was exhausted,

and the mode of stoving them ceased to be the same

as before. With difficulty could they make vases of

the colour called Fan-hung" that is to say, red ob-

tained from peroxide of iron. This is an important

fact. What special kind of clay is referred to there

is no means of determining, inasmuch as it is only

known that in preparing the porcelain mass for red

monochromes of Chi-hung type, the earth used for

craquele ware was employed in part, and there is

nothing recorded as to a failure in the supply of this

petrosilex. But the question of colouring material is

plain. Peroxide of iron was incomparably easier to

manipulate than silicate of copper, and the result

obtained with it was correspondingly inferior. The

manner of its preparation, as described by M. d'En-

trecolles, and confirmed by the Tao-lu and Dr. Bushell,

was to roast sulphate of iron to a red heat, add to each

ounce of this five ounces of carbonate of lead, and

mix the two with glue. M. Salvetat, speaking of
" In order that this colour should
this process, says :

vitrify, it must evidently borrow a sufficiency of silica

from the porcelain itself. One sees that such a colour

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