Page 90 - Chinese pottery and porcelain : an account of the potter's art in China from primitive times to the present day

32 Chinese Pottery and Porcelain

The survival of the leaf green glaze of Han type has already

been noted. It occurs in Plates 12 and 13.

A pale bluish green glaze, somewhat akin to a later variety

of celadon, appears on a few small bowls and jars Avhich have the
characteristic T'ang finish : I have seen several figures of lions
with a crackled light greenish brown glaze ; and a considerable
class of bowls and melon-shaped vases have been found in Shansi
with a hard buff stoneware body, coated with white slip under a
transparent and almost colourless glaze, the combination pro-
ducing a solid white or ivory colour (Plate 11, Fig. 3). These
bowls have been considered by some Chinese authorities to be a

production of the Ta Yi ^ kilns in Szechuan, but as there were fac-

tories in Shansi,2 where wares of this type are reputed to have been

made in T'ang times, it seems more probable that they are of local

make. It should be added that the brown, tea dust, black, celadon
and white glazes are high-fired and essentially different from the

soft, crackled lead glazes previously described.

Apart from modelling in the round, an art in which we have

seen that the T'ang potters excelled, the decorative ornament of

the pottery hitherto discussed has been confined to applied reliefs.

The processes of carving and engraving come earlj' in the evolution

of the potter's art in China, and we should expect to find in the
T'ang wares some indications of the skill in these methods for which

the Sung potters were so celebrated. Plate 12, Fig. 2, illustrates

the use of engraved ornament under a green glaze, and the piece is

remarkable not only for its elegant design, but for the beautiful lines

Aof its simple form. few years ago I saw for the first time one or

two stands and boxes with patterns intricate as brocade work, floral

scrolls, and geometrical designs, engraved with a point, and the spaces

filled in with coloured glazes. They were reputed to be of T'ang

date, and though no further evidence existed to prove that objects

of such advanced technique and mature design really belonged to this

remote period the proposition did not seem an impossible one. The

textiles, inlaid woodwork, and painted lacquer in the Nara collections

have just such designs which at first sight fill one with amazement

Aat their modern feeling. piece of brocade of undoubted T'ang

origin, figured by Sir Aurel Stein, ^ with floral scrolls worked in silk,

^ See A. W. Bahr, Old Chinese Porcelain and Works of Art in China, Plate IV.
* At P'ing-yang Fu, at Ho Ghou, and elsewhere (see p. 97).

' Ruins of Desert Cathay, vol. ii., fig. 197.