Page 172 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

88 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

a local Solomon decided that it should be divided between the

disputants. One large fragment of it is now in Sir John Kirk's
collection, which includes many interesting dishes, crackled and

plain, and ranging in colour from dark olive green to the pale watery
tint of the Sawankalok ^ wares. Other specimens of interest are
the large, wide-mouthed, bowl-shaped vases with sides deeply
ribbed or carved in high relief with bold floral designs. They have

the peculiar feature of being constructed at first without a bottom,

which was separately made in the form of a saucer and dropped

in, the glaze holding it firmly in position. Similar vases ^ have

been found in India and elsewhere. One of the first pieces of

celadon to arrive in this country was the celebrated Warham bowl,
which was bequeathed to New College, Oxford, in 1530 by Arch-

bishop Warham. It is of dull grey green celadon, the outside
faintly engraved with four lotus petals, each containing a trefoil, and
in the bottom inside is the character chHng ffl (pure) surrounded
by rays. It has a fine silver-gilt mount of English make.^ It

would be possible to multiply references to the traffic in celadon
wares which was carried on briskly between China and the West
in the Middle Ages, but enough has been said to give some idea
of the extent and nature of the trade, which was mainly in the
coarsest types of ware. Apart from the unlikelihood that very
fine or precious porcelains would be embarked on such long and
hazardous journeys, there was actually a law in force in China
as early as the eighth century * which forbade, under penalty of
imprisonment, the exportation of " precious and rare articles,"
anticipating by a thousand years the restrictive legislation of the
Italian Government.

^ See Burlington Magazine, June, 1909, p. 164, Other pieces, apparently of Siamese
make, have been found in Egypt, and it is most probable that Siamese celadons were
shipped by the traders at Martaban in Pegu and sold by them along with the Chinese
goods.

^ See Catalogue of the Early Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, Burlington Fine Arts

Club, 1910, B. 27.

E•^ See Cat. B. F. A., 1910, 20, and Plate.

* See Chau Ju-kua (translated by Hirth and Rockhill), p. 9.