Page 308 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

172 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

With regard to the dates of the Fat-shan Chiin types, the remarks

made on the Canton stoneware apply equally to them. Many are
frankly modern ; the finer pieces may be assigned to the eighteenth
centm-y, and a few perhaps go back to the Ming dynasty. From
the current name we infer that they are made at Fat-shan, but this

is the only evidence existing on the question. Fat-shan is situated
a few miles south-west of Canton with which it is connected by
railway. It is a large town, " renowned for its vast silk manu-
factures, cloth-making, embroidery, cutlery, matting, paper, and

porcelain." ^ No doubt the word porcelain in this context is a

comprehensive term, and includes stoneware and pottery, if, indeed,
it means anything else. But the precise provenance of the various

kinds of Kuang yao is far from clear. All that we learn from the
T^ao lu is that the Kuang yao originated at Yang-chiang. Probably

the type of mottled glaze which characterises the Canton stone-

ware was first made there, and was afterwards adopted in the

factories which sprang up in the neighbourhood of Canton. Other
localities in the province of Kuangtung in which the ceramic in-

dustry is represented include ChaO'Ch'ing Fu,^ which may be only

a trading centre for the wares ; Shih-wan, in Po-lo Hsien, a few
miles east of Canton, which is said ^ to supply the Canton markets
with " pots, dishes, and jars of every needed shape and size, some
of the latter as large as hogsheads, glazed and unglazed, together

with a large variety of imitation grotto work and figures for
gardens, gallipots, little images, etc." ; and the prefecture of Lien-
chou, in the extreme south of the province, which exports its wares

from Pak-hoi. A few specimens bought in the neighbourhood of

the Shih-wan potteries, and no doubt of local make, are in the
British Museum. They consist of lion joss-stick holders, crab-
shaped pots for growing lily bulbs, and small figures of a hard,
rough stoneware of buff or drab colour. The bulb pots have an
opaque green glaze with passages of transparent fambe colours,
not unlike the Yi-hsing or Canton Chiin glazes, and the other

' Richards, Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire, 1908, p. 210.
== Richards, op. cit., p. 209. " Considerable trade is carried on in tea, porcelain,

etc."

' S. Wells Williams, Commercial Guide to China, 1863, p. 13. Speaking of pottery
the author says : " The charges for freight forbid it to be carried far, and manufactures

of it are numerous ; that for Canton is at Shih-hwan." No doubt this is Shih-wan
5?!?. Another name for Canton pottery is Shakwan ware, which is probably a

variant of Shih-wan.