Page 483 - Oriental Series Japan and China, Brinkly

MANUFACTURING PROCESSES

furnace is as much as a hundred and eighty charges.

Judging by what Chinese books tell us, this quantity

of wood could not have sufficed in former times.

We are assured that although the furnaces were only

half as large then as they are now, two hundred and

forty charges of wood were fed to each, with an

additional twenty in wet weather. The preliminary

burning was kept up for seven days and seven nights,

and on the eighth day, the fire was raised to its

strongest heat. The conclusion cannot be avoided

that the porcelain of former times was much thicker

than that of the present day (1720). Another point

of difference is also observable. Formerly the fur-

nace was not opened until ten days had elapsed from

the time of extinguishing the fire, in the case of large

Anpieces, and five days in the case of small. inter-

val of some days still separates the opening of the

oven and the extinction of the fire where large porce-

lains are concerned, since otherwise they would

crack. But as for small pieces, if the fire has been

put out in the evening, for example, they are taken

from the oven the following morning/' M. d'En-

trecolles' deduction is doubtless accurate with regard

to the greater body of the heavy stone-wares of early

epochs. But something must be placed to the ac-

count of the thick, viscous glazes, which required to

be stoved more gradually as well as more intensely,

giving results that well repaid the labour and cost

expended in producing them.

Speaking generally, it may be said that the genius

of the Chinese keramist was mechanical rather than

artistic. His choicest pieces owed their value to ex-

cellence of glaze, delicacy of colour, or infinitely

patient use of the graver's and moulder's tool. When

397