Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/320

though a tour de force, deprive the surface of solidity and softness, and the red has a shallower and less pure tone. The crackle shows with greater distinctness owing to the vitreous character of the glaze.

The fourth variety is a lighter red than any of the preceding: sometimes, indeed, it may be described as salmon-colour. The tone of a good specimen is perfectly uniform throughout, and the crackle becomes an important feature, being both larger, more regular and more strongly marked than in any of the other varieties. This type would scarcely be reckoned as Lang-yao by many Western collectors, but Chinese connoisseurs unhesitatingly place it in the family.

The fifth variety scarcely deserves, perhaps, to be separately classed, since it differs from the fourth chiefly in having spots of darker colour and sometimes mottling of greenish white. Generally, too, its under surface is not glazed, as is always the case with the first four varieties. This mark of inferior technique causes some Chinese connoisseurs to exclude it from the Lang-yao species, but it ought to be admitted for the sake of its other points of similarity.

The pâte of all true Lang-yao is of fine texture, absolutely free from grit, hard, white, and close. The amateur cannot pay too much attention to this point. He must not expect to find very thin biscuit: the rich red glazes required a solid body. But it is absolutely essential that every genuine specimen should have perfectly manipulated, pure porcelain pâte, the rim at the base neatly finished, and the lower surface, as well as the inside glazed. With regard to the auxiliary glaze used on under and inner surfaces, it is of three kinds:—First, white or buff coloured, usually but not necessarily crackled, sec-