Page 427 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINESE POTTERY

ruins of the Summer Palace, taking it for old flambe

porcelain, till he walked up and tapped it and ex-
claimed contemptuously * Wa-te ! ' (it is pottery).

The Chinese have no word for stone-ware, and, in

truth, there is no scientific distinction between these

three substances, which pass into each other by

imperceptible gradations." And yet it is evident

from this very narrative that to the Chinese connois-

seur there is nothing imperceptible in the difference

which struck Prince Kung so forcibly. The truth is

that while a stone-ware pate and a translucid porce-

lain pate are often difficult, if not impossible, to dis-

tinguish, especially when each is overlaid by thick

glaze, no such confusion exists in China between

either of these pates and pottery or faience in the

Western sense of the terms. The latter was not

largely manufactured in the Middle Kingdom, its

principal uses being for glazed tiles and architectural

ornaments. Numerous specimens of architectural

ornaments in faience, as statues, mythical monsters,

and so forth, existed in the Summer Palace at Peking,

and caelgeobroadteedx"amPpolreceolafinglaTzoewdertil"es is furnished by
the Nanking, the
of

greater part of which consisted of glazed earthenware.

The glazes most commonly found in decorative speci-

mens of faience are green, yellow, turquoise blue, and

purple, the two last being often combined. Ware of

this type has already been spoken of in connection
with " Three-colour Porcelain." Its place of pro-

duction is the province of Shan-si, and specimens are

still procurable without great difficulty. Their deco-

rative and brilliant character have won them favour

with amateurs, and many pieces are to be seen in

European collections as for example, vases with
;

349