Page 347 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Miscellaneous Potteries 197

consist of turquoise and aubergine purple or violet and green (the
three colours or san is'ai, all minutely crackled), supplemented by
a white formed by slip and a thin brownish yellow. Occasionally
the purple is so deep as to appear almost black ; and the details

of the designs are often etched in the paste with a fine point. Pre-

cisely similar wares are found with an earthenware body ; and
they are, no doubt, contemporary with the analogous porcelains,

though how long the traditions of this type of ware continued has
never been precisely determined. The porcelain on which washes

of turquoise and aubergine glaze are combined is a development
of this type, and this has certainly survived to comparatively
modern times. Reticulated ornament was used on the three-colour
pottery vases no less than on the porcelain (Plate 55) ; and besides
the covered wine jars and vases there are figures and grotto pieces

of similar style both in pottery and porcelain, many of which must

date from Ming times.
Plate 53 illustrates a beautiful vase in the Eumorfopoulos Col-

lection which belongs to a cognate group. It has a buff stoneware
body, the ornament is outlined in relief, and the glazes which fill
the outlines are very similar to those of our main group, though
some of the colours are more transparent and glassy and wanting

in the solidity of the latter. The chrysanthemum handles are a
frequent feature of the vases of this class, of which a notable in-

stance is in the Salting Collection. Plate 54 illustrates another vase

of similar kind, but with lotus handles, lotus designs, and a fine
turquoise ground. Of the same type, but less rare, are certain
wide-mouthed jars, bowls, and flower pots with bold floral designs,
lotuses, etc., outlined in fillets of clay and filled with the same

kinds of glaze, the background now turquoise and now aubergine

(Plate 58, Fig. 1). The base is usually washed over with a thin

purplish brown. These several types were copied in the Japanese
Kishiu pottery in the nineteenth century, and though the copies

are rarely difficult to distinguish by the eye alone the Japanese
glazes (particularly the aubergine) will be found on handling to
have a peculiar moist and rather sticky surface. Though no
doubt of Ming origin, it is extremely probable that the manu-
facture of the Chinese bowls and flower pots of this class con-

tinued into the last dynasty.
Fig. 2 of Plate 56 exemplifies another kind of pottery with fine

white body like pipeclay, and usually with sharply moulded designs