Page 325 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Yi-hsing Ware i8i

or the Portuguese imitations." ^ But the protests of purists were

unavaihng, and buccaro seems to have become a regular term

for unglazed pottery, even the archaic black ware from the Etruscan

tombs receiving the name of huchero nero.

Another important group of Yi-hsing wares presents an entirely

different aspect, and indeed it is little understood in Europe, though

it is probably bought by unwary collectors for the Sung types

which it purports to imitate. This is the Yi-hsing Chiin, to which

allusion has already been made in discussing the imitation Chiin

wares. The traditions of this manufacture go back to the Ming

^dynasty, when a potter named Ou gained a great reputation

for his glazes, which " copied the Ko ware in crackle and the

Kuan and Chiin wares in colour." ^ This is, no doubt, the manu-

facture mentioned in the Po wu yao Ian in the passage dealing

with Chiin yao : " At the present time (i.e. 1621-1627), among

the recent manufactures this kind of ware is all made with the

sandy clay {sha fu) of Yi-hsing as body ; the glaze is rather

like the original, and in some cases beautiful, but it does not

wear well."

Though the original glazed wares of Ou are probably rarer

to-day than their Chiin Chou prototypes, there is no reason to

suppose that Ou's successors have not kept up the continuity of

the manufacture. It is certainly very much alive to-day, and

an early eighteenth century reference to " the applied glaze of

Yi-hsing " ^ seems to imply its existence at that time. I have

* For this and other information on the subject, see M. L. Solon's paper on " The
Noble Buccaros " in the North Staffordshire Literary and Philosophic Society's Pro-

ceedings, October 23rd, 1896.

'' See Tao lu, bk. vii., fol. 11 verso : " (Ou ware) was made in the Ming dynasty
by a man of Yi-hsing . . . who took the name of Ou, and everybody called it Ou's
ware. It included wares which imitated Ko ware in crackle, Kuan and Chiin wares

in colour. Ou's bright coloured glazes were very numerous. The wares consist of
flower dishes, stands for boxes, etc. The glazes with red and blue markings are par-
ticularly choice. At Ch'ang-nan the factory of T'ang used to imitate them." The last
sentence refers to the celebrated T'ang Ying, who supervised the Imperial factory at
Ching-te ChSn from 1728-1749. The statement that T'ang's factory imitated them is
no doubt based on the oft-quoted list given in the Chiang hsi i'ung chih of wares made
at the Imperial factory about 1730, which include " glazes of Ou. Imitations of the
old ware of the potter named Ou, including two kinds, that with red and that with

blue markings."

' In the list quoted in the last note. The words are tiC^^f-i, Yi hsing kua yu.
The word kua, which means " suspended, applied," is probably inserted because the
Yi-hsing ware was usually unglazed.