Page 349 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

Miscellaneous Potteries 199

types. The body is apparently dark coloured, and shows brown
at the edges where the glaze is thin. This ware is made at Ch'eng-

tu in Szech'uan.

The geographical annals of the province of Shensi are quoted^

with reference to potteries in the T'ung-chou Fu as follows : " The

inhabitants of Lei-hsiang and Pai-shui ^ are good potters, and the

porcelains (tz'il ch'i) which they make are of surpassingly clever
workmanship. These are what are commonly called lei kung chH
(vessels of the Lord of Thunder). Some say that the potteries of
Hsiang only began to be active when the original wares had ceased
to be made. The village of Lei-hsiang is east of Shen Hsien, and
it is the place of the temple of the Hsiang family. The inhabitants
of' the place sometimes dig up castaway Hsiang wares. Their

shape and style are archaic ; the colour of the ware is green {liX),
deep and dark, but brilliant. One kind has slight ornament in
raised clay, but if the hand is passed over it, the surface feels smooth

and without perceptible relief or indentation. ^ When compared with
the Hsiian,* Ko and other wares, it may be said to surpass them."

The description in the last part seems to apply to the older wares
which preceded those made in the district at the time of writing.

The modern potteries at Yo Chou, in Shensi, are represented in

the Field Museum, Chicago, by a black-painted ware in Tz'u Chou
style, by a greyish white ware with sketchy blue designs, and by
a black slag-like earthenware which is extremely light to handle.
It is also suggested that a well known type of pottery, painted
with free floral designs in black and white on a creamy glaze which
is stained a pinkish brown colour, is an earlier product of the same

potteries.

The potteries at Ch'u-yang Hsien ftHril^ in the Chen-ting Fu,
in Chihli, are mentioned ^ in the administrative records of the
Ming dynasty in the Hsiian Te period, and again under the dates
1553 and 1563, as supplying wine jars and vases for the Court.
This place is only a few miles east of Ting Chou, which was cele-
brated for its white wares in the Sung period, and these refer-

ences carry the record of the industry in that district to the last

1 T'u Shu, section T'ao kung pu chi sbih, fol. 2 recto.

'mm and ^7li.

* This appears to mean that the glaze covering up the reliefs filled all the sur-

rounding hollows and made an even surface.

* i.e. ware of the Hsuan Te period (1426-1435 a.d.).

* T'u Shu, section T'ao kung pu hui k'ao, fol. 10.