Page 261 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Chiin Wares and Some Others 133

mouth, have neither the weight of material nor smooth solidity of

glaze which characterise the true Chien yao. On the other hand,

they are more varied in the play of black and brown, and in some
cases they have designs and patterns which are clearly intentional.
The two extremes of colour are a monochrome black, usually of
purplish tint but sometimes brownish, and a lustrous brown often
decidedly reddish in tone. Between these come the black glazes
which are more or less variegated with brown in the form of mottling,
streaks, tears, irregular patches, and definite patterns. The glaze
in these bowls usually extends to the foot rim, and sometimes re-
appears in a patch under the base. The ornament in some cases
takes the form of rosettes or plum blossom designs in T'ang style

incised through the glaze covering ; in others, as in Fig. 1 of

Plate 43, we find a leaf design (evidently stencilled from a real
leaf) expressed in brown or dull tea green ; and occasionally there
are more ambitious designs, such as a hare or bird or foliage,
incised. On a red brown bowl in the Museum fiir Ostasiatische
Kunst at Cologne there are traces of a floral pattern in a lustrous
medium which resembles faded gilding.

We have already noted how the purplish black glaze of the

Tz'ii Chou ware breaks into lustrous brown ; the black Ting ware
and the debateable red Ting have been discussed ; and if we add

this family which may perhaps be provisionally described as Honan

iemmoku, it would appear that glazes analogous to those of the
Chien yao " hare's fur " bowls were widely used in Northern China

at an early date.

A word of explanation may appropriately be added here of

the expression wu-ni yao,^ which occurs in several passages in
Chinese books on pottery. It means " black clay ware," and as
a general term would naturally include the " hare's fur bowls."
Indeed, one passage ^ actually speaks of the wu-ni yao of Chien-an,
and the T'ao lu, which gives the ware a paragraph to itself, states

that it was made at Chien-an, in Chien-ning Fu, beginning in

the Sung dynasty, and that its clay was black. It further adds
that the glaze is " dry and parched " and that it was sometimes
green {ch'ing). It is clear from the above quotations that wu-ni
yao was a general expression for the dark-bodied Chien ware ; and
there the matter would have ended had not early works, such

as the Cho king lu and Ko ku yao liin, mentioned it in the cate-

^ Bi\ll% ^ Ii^ the Liu ch'ing jib dm.