Page 400 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

merit. Many specimens made during the nineteenth

century, though sombre and heavy, are often purchased
by collectors as genuine examples of choice old

mirror black. They are invariably of common,

inelegant shapes, and indications of faulty technique

may be detected either in air-bubbles and pitting in

the glaze, or in crude, ill manipulated biscuit. Ex-
amples of black monochromes older than the present
dynasty are scarcely ever to be found in the hands of

Chinese bric-a-brac dealers. They are much com-

moner in Japan, where the Tea Clubs always valued
them highly and preserved them carefully.

BROWN.

A monochrome of great merit is the Tzu-chin, or

golden brown. This is ti\z fond laque of French con-
noisseurs. It has also been called " dead-leaf" glaze,
a term which fairly describes its colour but conveys
a false idea of its gloss and brilliancy. It is of con-
siderable antiquity, being found on the Chien-yao of
the Sung dynasty, where it is used either as a mono-
chrome on the outer surface of cups and bowls, or as
a ground for bluish white spotting and dappling. Its

manufacture was revived under the Ming dynasty.
The fact is mentioned in the " History of Ching-te-
chen Wares," and among the articles requisitioned
for imperial use in the Lung-chin era (15671612)

there are included rice-bowls of deep brown, and
light golden brown, with dragons faintly engraved
under the glaze. This question of date deserves

special notice, because M. d'Entrecolles erroneously
speaks of the Tzu-chin as a new invention of his time

(1715). For the rest, his note on the subject is

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