Page 416 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

PEACOCK GREEN VARIEGATED WITH BLUE, AND
TURQUOISE WITH METALLIC SPOTS.

A glaze of great decorative beauty was obtained by

running deep rich blue, or indigo, over peacock green
so that the surface of the latter seemed streaked or

tesselated by the former. Of cognate type were

glazes of turquoise or king-fisher blue variegated
with metallic spots. In both these kinds lustre, fine-
ness of crackle, and richness and variety of colour are

easy tests of excellence. As a rule, however, the
paste is inferior, for though light and thin, it belongs
to the stone-ware class and shows a marked tinge of
reddish brown. Such polychromes were manufac-
tured with success up to so late a time as the Taou-

Kwang era (18211851).

FANG-CHUN-YAO.

The term Fang-chun-yao, or " imitation Chun-yao"

is chiefly applied in China to ware of remarkable

beauty, having soft, delicate clair-de-lune glaze among
which float clouds of peach-bloom red ; the latter not

a solid colour but an agglomeration of tiny flecks and
speckles, pervaded by a more or less distinct tinge of
buff or light brown. It will at once be seen that this
glaze might have been classed as a variety of the red
polychromes described above, but owing to its pecu-
liar merits and to the fact that Chinese connoisseurs

specially distinguish it, it is here placed in a separate

category. It is certainly one of the choicest among

polychromatic glazes, considered either from the
point of view of aesthetic delicacy or from that of
decorative effect. That a certain element of accident

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