Page 423 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES

applied bands of crackle alternately with bands of un-

broken glaze. Fine specimens of this nature were
Amanufactured during the Chien-lung era.
frequent

type had grey, or light green, body glaze, distinctly

crackled, while round the vase ran belts of chocolate

glaze uncrackled but having incised diapers and leaf-
fringes. Skilled technique and carefully prepared

materials being essential to the successful manufacture

of such vases, it is easy to distinguish the compara-
tively clumsy, crude outcome of the Taou-kwang and

later kilns. Another and much rarer tour de force was

to vary the nature of the crackle in one and the same

glaze, preserving, however, sufficient uniformity to

avoid any suggestion of accident. Thus the crackle

round the upper part of a vase assumes a circular form,

while below it is angular, the distinction being em-

phasised by a marked difference in the size of the
Atwo kinds of mesh.
technical curiosity of this

kind is of course highly valued, but that it could be

produced at will seems most improbable. It will of

course be understood that in almost every case crackle

is merely a decorative accessory. The one exception

is white porcelain, the crackle of which constitutes

its only ornament. In choice specimens of this

variety the thick, lustrous glaze shows a faint tinge of
buff, and the crackle is bold and strongly marked.
Such porcelain, being admirably suited for flower vases,

used to be esteemed in the East, but it is without

delicacy, and can scarcely be classed among choice

wares.

The above remarks apply only" to crackle having
the " starred But a
large meshes, ice variety.

reader who has followed the descriptions given in

previous pages of various kinds of porcelain, knows

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