Page 367 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MONOCHROMATIC WARES

covered with white glaze ; there is no crackle, and

the mark of the Kang-hsi era is generally written in

blue under the white glaze.

A third special variety of choice red glaze is called

Fan-hung by the Chinese. It has been shown that

the ideograph Fan (rice when used with refer-

flour),

ence to the Ting-yao, implies the presence of a grey-

ish buff shade. Its employment in the case of a red

glaze indicates that the red is permeated by a soft
whitish tone, a rime, as though the glaze had been
partially frozen. Fine specimens of Fan-hung are not

inferior to either the Lang or the Pin-kwo-ts* ing
porcelains. Sometimes they have patches or spots

of transparent green similar to that seen in the finest
Atype of Pin-kwo-ts'ing.
rare variety of Fan-hung

is decorated with designs in blue sous couverfe amid

the red ground. In specimens of Fan-hung regarded
by Chinese connoisseurs as the most delicate in tone
and admirable in technique, the glaze at the lower

part of the vase passes into an exceedingly soft clair-
de-lune tint, as though the latter were the base of the

general colour. The effect of this transition is very

beautiful. Marks of date are less frequent upon Fan-

hung than upon Pin-kwo-ts'ing pieces, and sometimes
the bottoms of the former are left entirely without

glaze. The pastes of all these grand reds alike are

white, fine and carefully manipulated, and there is no

crackle.

The Pao-shi-hung, or precious ruby glaze, for which,
as described above, the Hsuan-te potters of the Ming

dynasty were so famous, made its appearance again in

the Kang-hsi era. It is scarcely to be distinguished

from some specimens of Lang-yao in colour, but it
has no crackle, and the glaze on the inner and under

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