Page 34 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

xxii Introduction

shall see that we have fixed our boundaries too rigidly, and that

the Han types must be carried forward and the T'ang types carried

back to bridge the gap. Meanwhile, we can only make the best

of the facts which have been revealed at present, keeping our classi-
fication as elastic as possible. Probably the soft lead glazes belong
to the earlier part of the T'ang period and extend back to the Sui

and Wei, linking up with the green glaze of the Han pottery, while

the high-fired glazes tended to supersede these in the latter part
of the dynasty.

The high-fired feldspathic glazes seem to have held the field
entirely in the Sung dynasty, and the lead glazes, as far as our
observation goes, do not reappear until the Ming dynasty.

The Sung is the age of high-fired glazes, splendid in their lavish
richness and in the subtle and often unforeseen tints which emerge
from their opalescent depths. It is also an age of bold, free pot-
ting, robust and virile forms, an age of pottery in its purest mani-
i'estation. Painted ornament was used at certain factories in black
and coloured clays, and, it would seem, even in red and green enamels

;

but painted ornament was less esteemed than the true ceramic

—decoration obtained by carving, incising, and moulding processes

which the potters worked with the clay alone.
If we could rest content with a comprehensive classification of

the Sung wares, as we have had perforce to do in the case of the

T'ang, one of the chief difficulties in this part of our task would
be avoided. But the Chinese have given us a number of important
headings, under which it has become obligatory to try and group

our specimens. Some of these types have been clearly identified,
but there are others which still remain vague and ill-defined ; and
there are many specimens, especially among the coarser kinds of
ware, which cannot be referred to any of the main groups. But the
true collector will not find the difficulties connected with the Sung

wares in any way discouraging. He will revel in them, taking
pleasure in the fact that he has new ground to break, many

riddles to solve, and a subject to master which is worthy of

his steel.

Apparently a coarse form of painting in blue v,as employed