Page 301 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Kuangtung Wares 167

satisfactory, and seems in part to refer to the porcelain decorated
at Canton (see vol. ii., p. 211), or more probably to the Canton
enamels. It is only in the last passage that we come into touch
with a ware which is readily recognised as the familiar Canton
stoneware. This is a hard-fired ware, usually dark brown at the
base, but varying at times to pale yellowish grey and buff, with a
thick smooth glaze distinguished from other ceramic glazes by its
characteristic motthng and dappling. The colour is often blue,
flecked and streaked with grey green or white over a substratum
of olive brown, or again green with grey and blue mottling. At
times the brown tints predominate, but the most prized varieties
are those in which the general tone is blue. These were speci-

ally selected for imitation at the Imperial factories under T'ang
Ying, and they are highly valued in Japan, where the ware in

general goes by the name of namako.^ In other specimens the

glaze has a curdled appearance, and sometimes it seems to have
boiled up like lava. The mottled glazes at times have a superficial
resemblance to the dappled Chiin wares, and there is no doubt that
in recent times these imitative effects have been studied.

The dating of the mottled Kuangtung wares, or Canton stone-
wares as they are commonly named, is always a difficult matter.
They are still made and exported in large quantities, but it is cer-
tain that they go back at least to late Ming times. Sir Arthur
Church exhibited a tray of this ware at the Burlington Fine Arts
Club in 1910^ which bore a date corresponding to 1625, and the
name of the maker, Chin-shih. The glaze of this interesting piece

is remarkably deep, rich and lustrous, and it may be regarded as

typical of the finest period of the ware. The tray illustrated by
Fig. 1 of Plate 48 closely resembles it in colour and quality.
Stamped marks occasionally occur in these wares, the most frequent

and cloisonne enamels. The remark on " imitation of the Yang-tz'u ware" could by no
stretch of imagination be applied to the mottled Kuang yao ; but it does apply to
the large group of porcelain obtained in the white from Ching-te ChSn and painted
at Canton precisely in the style of the Canton enamels (see vol. ii., p. 243). This is no doubt
what ,the author had in his mind. The sentence about the unsightly flaws can apply
to either the enamels or the Kuang yao, but more particularly to the latter. For
the rest, " T'ang's factory " is the Imperial factory at Ching-te Chen, which was under
the management of the celebrated T'ang Ying between 1728 and 1749.

1 From its supposed resemblance to the colour of the sea-snail {namako).

K- Cat. B. F. A., 1910, 43. Like so many Chinese dates, this was cut in the ware

after the firing, but there is every reason to suppose that it indicates the true date
of the manufacture. Sir Arthur has since presented this tray to the British Museum.