Page 125 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Ju, Kuan, and Ko Wares 53

ware), pale blue or green,^ and " egg white " ^ which seems to
imply a white ware with a faint greenish tinge. The author of
the Ch'ing pi tsang,^ a work of considerable repute published in
1595, gives a first-hand description of the ware : " Ju yao I have
seen. Its colour is ' egg white ' and its glaze is lustrous and thick
like massed lard. In the glaze appear faint ' palm eye ' mark-
ings like crabs' claws.* Specimens with sesamum designs (lit.
flowers), finely and minutely engraved on the bottom, are genuine.

As compared with Kuan yao in material and make, it is more rich
and unctuous {tzil fun).''' Two mysterious peculiarities have been

attributed to the Ju ware, viz. that powdered cornaline was mixed
with the glaze, and that a row of nail heads was sometimes found
under the base. The first has been taken as merely an imaginative
explanation of the lustre of the glaze, but it is certain that some kind
of pulverised quartz-like stone was used in the composition of later
glazes, such as the " ruby red " (see vol. ii., p. 123). The second,
which has been seriously interpreted to mean that actual metal
nails were found protruding from the glaze (a physical impossi-
bility, as the metal would inevitably have melted in the kiln), is

probably due to a misunderstanding of a difficult Chinese phrase,

cheng ting,^ which may mean " engraved with a point " or " cut

nails." The former seems to satisfy the requirements of the case,
though it would be possible to render the sentence, " having sesa-

mum flowers on the bottom and fine small nails," referring to the

little projections often found on the bottom of dishes which have
been supported in the kiln on pointed rests or " spurs."

In the list of porcelains made at the Imperial potteries about
the year 1730^ we read of imitations of Ju ware from specimens
sent down from the Imperial collections. These imitations had

in one case an uncrackled glaze on a copper-coloured body, and

in the other a glaze with crackle like fish roe ; and we may fairly

^ ^ff /art ch'ing, according to the Ko ku yao lun.

^ &^ '"Q" po^ > according to the Po wu yao Ian. Of three specimens figured

in Hsiang's Album (op. cit., pp. 19, 22 and 34), two are described as yiX Ian (i.e. sky

blue), and fen ch'ing (pale blue or green), and the third is undescribed.

3 Pt. i., fols. 8 and 9.

* It is not clear what these markings were, whether spots in the glaze -or a kind
of crackle. The simile of " crabs' claws " is applied to crackle in other passages.

* This interesting list, given in the Chiang hsi t'ung chih, bk. xciii., fol. ii., is sum-
marised in vol, ii., ch. xii. It is also quoted in the T'ao lu, and translated by

Bushell, 0. C. A., p. 369.