Page 403 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

Chapter XI

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

TRANSMUTATION OR FLAMBfi GLAZES

"^HERE are many varieties of Chinese porce-

1 lain and stone-ware the glaze of which
shows more than one colour. Indeed,

some of the porcelains included above in

the monochromatic family would, if more strictly

classified, find a place in the present chapter as, for

example, Lang-yao with bright flashes or dark spots

in the red field king-fisher blue and peacock green
;

with metallic dappling ; Chung-yao with red haw-

thorn and clair-de-lune glazes ; metallic black with

green and blue iridescence mirror black with gold
;

dusting ; olive green with yellow spots ; the red Pin-

kwo-ts'ing glaze with plum-green clouding, and so

forth. It has not been deemed advisable, however,

to enter these in the polychromatic category, inas-

much as the marked predominance of their principal

colour has always led collectors to regard them as

monochromes. For this section, therefore, are re-

served only those glazes in which two or more colours

are distinctly visible. Of these the most remarkable,

and perhaps the most beautiful, is the Tao-pien, or
ware " transmuted in the furnace," called by French

connoisseurs " Flambe" M. d'Entrecolles refers to