Page 466 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

CHINA

The material employed in the manufacture of Chi-

nese porcelain is composed of two ingredients, petun-

tse and kaolin. Of these the former is fusible and

gives to the ware that transparency which characterises
true porcelain ; the other is infusible, and its presence

enables the mass to support the temperature necessary
to transform the fusible element into glass. Both are
found in the mountains of a district distant about

sixty miles from Ching-te-chen, whither they are

brought by boat, having first undergone preliminary
manipulation and been reduced to the form of bricks.

M. Salvetat's analysis shows that these materials prac-

tically correspond in all their constituents with those
drawn from the mines at Saint-Yrieix and used at the

Sevres factories. At Ching-te-chen the bricks undergo
further treatment, which need not be described here,

since it presents no novel or noteworthy features.

The kaolin and the petuntse are then mixed in equal

portions for the finest porcelain ; in the ratio of four

parts of kaolin to six of petuntse for middle-class ware
;

and in the ratio of one part of kaolin to three of

petuntse for inferior ware. M. Salvetat has analysed

the masses of four qualities of Chinese porcelain.

His results, side by side with corresponding figures

for the Sevres pate, are as follows :

CHINESE PORCELAINS. CJ, D .