Page 408 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

is tolerably well described by the American appella-

tion. Its ground colour is light claret or brownish
red, over which is run, in flakes and flecks, delicate

bluish green ; or this order is reversed, the ground being
liquid green in which float spots of russet-red or dusky

claret. The general effect is very charming. Fre-

quently the bluish green colour appears as fine, uniform
mottling a comparatively tame and uninteresting

style which was doubtless easily achieved by the pro-
cess of insufflation, and which ranks decidedly below
the glazes with fleecy and marbled variegation.
Choice examples of this ware generally have a year-
mark impressed in seal character. Their biscuit is

close-grained, white porcelain, but the rim at the
base is usually covered with black or reddish brown

glaze. Nothing is recorded about the date when the

ware was first produced. No specimens older than

the Kang-hsi era appear to be in existence, and on the
whole it seems reasonable to conclude that the manu-

facture reached its highest point of excellence in the

Tung-ching period (17231736), since the finest pieces

bear the year-mark of that period, and since, speak-

ing generally, it is established that the Tung-ching

potters directed their attention specially to polychro-

matic glazes.

There is great difficulty in determining the limits
"
of the name Tao-pien" Every attempt to classify

involves incompleteness. Take the Lu-yao-pien (green
Tao-pieri) for example. The description given above

is general and fairly applicable, yet in rare cases it

fails conspicuously. For in one variety the collector

finds an exquisite purplish blush peeping out from

among green and brown (or chocolate) marbling, as

though the Tung-ching potter had taken the tints of

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