Page 278 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

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150 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

most part without decoration, they can only be judged by their

forms, and in view of the conservative habits of the Chinese,

it would be rash to assert too emphatically their Sung origin.

Yiian and even early Ming dates are suggested by the more

cautious critics ; but the possibility of a Sung origin having been

amestablished, I inclined to give the evidence of form its full

weight.

There are, besides these, other well-defined types of translu-

cent porcelain which may confidently be attributed to a period

—as early as the Sung, but here the possibility nay, probability

of a Corean origin has to be considered. It is certain that many

of them have been found in Corean tombs ; the provenance of the
rest is doubtful. One type is a delicious smooth white porcelain
with glaze of faintly bluish tinge, highly translucent, and worked
ver}'^ thin at the edges. The base of the vessels (usually small
shallow bowls or saucers) is unglazed, and shows a soft-looking
sugary body of close texture, rather earthy than glassy, and slightly
browned by the fire. They have, in fact, almost the appearance

of a " soft-paste " porcelain like that of Chelsea. These are so

different from any known Chinese type that I strongly incline to

a Corean origin for them. Another type is of hard but trans-

Alucent ware with glaze of distinctly bluish tinge. bowl in the

British Museum is a good example of this. Of the usual conical

form, it has a plain outside, and the inside is decorated with an

incised design of not very clear meaning, but apparently a close

foliage ground with highly formalised figures of boys. If this

interpretation is correct, it is a conventional rendering of the well-

known pattern of boys in foliage, Chinese in origin, but frequently
used by the Corean potters. The design ends in Corean fashion,
about an inch below the rim, leaving a plain band above it. The

glaze is a faint bluish colour all over, and is powdered with specks,
a fault in the firing ; the base is almost entirely unglazed, and
the biscuit, where exposed, has turned reddish brown. The style
of this piece is strongly Corean. The same peculiarities in the
base are shared by another type of small bowl, usually decorated

inside with a sketchy design in combed lines. Some of these are

creamy white ; others are bluish white with a decided blue tinge
in the well of the bowl where the glaze has formed thickly. ^ Another

group, which is also said to be represented among the Corean tomb

1 See Cat. B. F. A., 1910, F 9 and 14.