Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/340

red; an indescribable tint. The Chün-yao glaze was exposed to the full temperature of the porcelain kiln, but the purple of seventeenth and eighteenth century wares is an enamel applied to the biscuit after baking. It was employed by the Chinese keramists in most bizarre fashions; as for example, to cover the manes and tales, and even the bodies of Dogs of Fo, or the faces and breasts of mythological personages. In these cases it is usually associated with green, or turquoise blue. As a pure monochrome it is rare, especially in large pieces, and many connoisseurs hesitate to give it high rank among single-coloured porcelains owing to its glassiness and want of solidity. Nevertheless, fine examples are undoubtedly of great beauty and value. Their essential features are purity of colour, lustre and uniformity of surface, and close-grained, white pâte. Many of them have designs incised in the biscuit or in low relief. Occasionally, however, a glaze irreproachable as to texture and colour is run over dark, coarsish pâte; such specimens belong usually to the Chia-tsing, Taou-kwang, or Hien-fung kilns—i.e. to the period included between 1796 and 1862.

Just as the Chinese potter sought to imitate jade in his choicest green porcelain, so he took glass as a model for some of his finest purple and blue monochromes. He succeeded so perfectly that a specimen is occasionally seen having glaze scarcely distinguishable from glass in texture and lustre. Examples of this kind are highly and deservedly prized in China. They often perplex the tyro who discerns nothing to distinguish them from glass except their want of