Page 420 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

LACQUERED PORCELAIN.

Brief allusion may be made here to a ware that

does not fall into any of the classes hitherto discussed.
It is porcelain decorated with lacquer. In France,
where this curious keramic freak used to be admired,

it goes by the name of" Porcelaine laquee burgautee,"

the term being derived from the shell called " burgau,"
under the dark surface of which a prettily variegated

coat of mother-of-pearl is found. The decoration, in

fact, consists of mother-of-pearl mosaics in lacquer,

with which the surface of the porcelain is covered.

There is no record that tells when this variety of
ware first came into vogue in China, and since its

decoration concerns the lacquerer not the keramist, it

may be dismissed without further comment.

MODERN FLAMB GLAZES.

Before concluding the subject of polychromes it is

necessary to remind the amateur that during the past

twenty or thirty years large quantities of flambe and
" "
splashed have been manufactured in
glazes China,

and that, being decorative, brilliant, and attractive,

many of them are mistaken for choice specimens of

good period. In general they are grey, lilac, or

dusky blue, with clouds or streaks of red and patches

of brown. Whatever may be said of the indepen-

dent merits of these polychromes, without reference to

their incomparably finer prototypes, they can always

be identified by their muddy tone, fissure-like crackle,

crude technique, and coarse, dark stone-ware pate.

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