Page 409 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

the Chun-yao as a basis and supplemented them by the

resources of his own more expert technique. The

delicacy and richness of this variety would justify
special classification if the collector could be sure of
finding more than one or two specimens to which the
same description was applicable. But that is precisely

the difficulty. The conceptions of the keramist him-
self may have been tolerably definite, but in addition

to the fact that their range was bewilderly wide, an
element of chance entered into their realisation.

Every conceivable nuance of colour had a charm for
the Chinese potter. His inspiration, however, was
generally taken from natural objects. Agate, coral,

jasper, lapis lazuli, dead leaves, jade, the rind of fruits,
grass, flowers, rice, plums, peaches, marble, and innu-

merable other models suggested tints which he suc-
cessfully reproduced. If at one time his glazes recall

fleecy green jade or the surface of a ripe peach, at
another they appear to represent the geranium blos-
som, with its blending of velvety red and white. But
it was inevitable that in this superposition or combina-
tion of various colouring materials, accidents of tem-

perature and oxidisation should become a recognised

factor. M. Jacquemart, as already seen, is disposed
to resent the idea. To such an enthusiast it sounds

almost sacrilegious to suggest that chance had any-
thing to do with the success of the foremost technical

keramists in the world. But there is another way of

viewing the question. May not the Chinamen have

understood that no artificial processes, however deli-
cate and elaborate, could possibly be trusted to obtain
the marvellous and never-ending variety and beauty
which nature herself, represented by the capricious
action of her forces in the furnace, was always ready

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