Page 389 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MONOCHROMATIC WARES

purity of colour, and microscopic dappling, showing

that the colouring material has been applied by in-

sufflation. Many porcelains of this class have colour

so intense and full-bodied as to verge upon purple.

Incised decoration is frequently added, and in pieces

of comparatively modern manufacture the surface is

often covered with designs in relief. Large quanti-

ties of porcelain having Mazarin blue glaze were

manufactured in the Taou-Kivang era. They are

generally disfigured by impurity of tone and clumsy

technique, defects which become more marked the

later the period of manufacture. Bowls having cela-

don glaze inside and deep dusky blue outside belong
Ato this inferior category.
frequent though not

essential characteristic of modern and faulty specimens

is that the bottom of the piece, instead of being cov-

ered with white glaze, is unevenly smeared with a

thin coat of dark brown pigment-like substance.

Watered blue, called by the Chinese Chiao-ching,

is found on the outer surface of finely manipulated

specimens of porcelain, the interior of which is cov-

ered with pure white glaze, sometimes having beauti-

fully executed designs incised and in relief. The
method of manufacturing this monochrome was to

add native silicate of cobalt to the ordinary white

glaze. According to the proportion of cobalt vari-

ous hues of colour resulted. Choice examples gen-

erally date from one of the three great eras Kang-

hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung of the present

dynasty, for though the Chiao-ching was certainly

produced in the Ming factories also, pieces of that

period do not seem to have survived in appreciable

numbers.

The colour known in China as " blue of the sky

3*5