Page 169 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Lung-ch'iian yao 85

There are, however, quite a number of ambiguous celadons with
a brownish green glaze, usually bowls, of which some are decorated
inside with beautiful carved and moulded designs of bold foliage (Plate
18, Fig. 1) and even with the design of boys among flowering branches
and the slight combed patterns which are found on the Corean white
wares. Were it not for the apparently Chinese provenance of so

many of these bowls, and the absence of the Corean characteristics in

their bases, one would be tempted to class them as Corean on the
strength of their general appearance. Probably we have in this
group both the Chinese prototypes and the close imitations made by
the Corean potters who followed these models just as they followed
the white ware of Ting Chou. One of the combed bowls formerly
treasured as a tea bowl in Japan is now in the Kunstgewerbe
Museum, Berlin, but unfortunately the Japanese name shuko-yaki,

by which Dr. Kiimmel informs me it was known in Japan, sheds

no light on the question of its origin.
The Sawankalok wares of Siam, too, have already had a passing

mention. These are easily distinguished by their coarse grey body,
reddish at the base, and thin, watery green glaze, very trans-
parent and showing a bluish efflorescence where it has run thick.
Once seen, they are hardly likely to be confused with any Chinese
celadon, except a few of the coarser Ming and later types, in
which the glaze happens to be very pale and thin. The Siamese
wares, moreover, usually have a small raw irregular ring under
the base, made by the end of a tubular kiln support, and differing
from the broad regular ring on the Lung-ch'iian dishes described

above.

But the most puzzling of the external celadons are those made
at various times and places in Japan. They are, as a rule, close

and careful copies of Chinese types, with which they are readily
confounded by persons not familiar with Japanese peculiarities.

In many cases, too, they will puzzle the most expert. It is well-

nigh impossible to put into words any distinctive criteria of these
wares. The biscuit is usually white and porcellanous, and though
it sometimes assumes a natural tinge of red at the base, the colour
is not so deep and decided as on the Lung-ch'iian wares. The
chief distinction is an inevitable Japanese flavour in the form and
decoration of the ware, but this, again, is an intangible feature which
can only be realised by the practised eye. Finally, it should be said
that remarkably close copies of the celadon green glaze (and of the