Page 424 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

that many beautiful monochromes have their surface

covered with a net-work of exceedingly fine crackle.

Abemomnag"dewaorfes"tchuucsudmibsetri-nrguiinsdhedgrsepeenci;al" mention may

"
king-fisher

green (the turquo"is"e blue of Occidental collectors) ;
" mustard "
peacock green ; and certain
yellow ;

specimens of Ting-yao. The crackle on the best ex-

amples of these wares takes the form known to
French connoisseurs as "
the " fish-roe " of
truitee,"

Chinese nomenclature. It is the same crackle as that

seen in the Satsuma and Kyomizu faiences of Japan.

The meshes are close, and the crackle polygonal or

nearly circular. It is unnecessary to dwell upon this

part of the subject further than to translate a few
useful words from M. du Sartel's " Porcelaine de

Chine : " " On ancient specimens the crackle, gen-

erally very distinct and tinted black, traverses the

whole thickness of the glaze the mass which is uni-

formly coloured. However numerous the cracks

may be, they do not detract in any way from the

smoothness of the surface. The solutions of contin-

uity are so little appreciable to the touch that even

when the finest pointed needle is passed over them

they are virtually insensible. These little fissures,
infinite in number, combine to form a net-work of

apparent regularity, the meshes of which, almost

uniform in size, are always polygonal, none of them

ever taking a triangular shape. On modern pro-

ducts of a similar character manufactured in the

Orient and in Europe, the crackle presents itself
differently. It is, in the majority of instances, little
marked, colourless, and scintillating. It appears to
be superficial and to penetrate only into the vitreous
colourless coat overlying the coloured glazes of recent

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