Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/343

chrome or associated with blood-red spots or clouds. It is a glaze of wonderful richness and softness, and some connoisseurs place it next in rank to the fine reds of Pin-kwo-ts’ing, Lang-yao, and Chiang-tou-hung porcelains. During the Ming dynasty excellent examples of it were produced at the Yang-chiang factory in Kwang-tung province. Their special beauty lay not alone in the delicate, velvety aspect of the glaze, but also in flashes of deeper colour breaking its uniformity. The impression conveyed is that a film of lighter tint overlies a ground of deep, steely blue. The pâte of this Kwang-tung ware, or Kwang-yao, is not porcelain, but a tolerably fine, reddish stone-ware, like its predecessors of the Sung and Yuan dynasties. The glaze is very thick, and its thickest portions, especially at the bottom of cups and bowls, show the profound, semi-transparent blue characteristic of the type. Vases or other large specimens of clair-de-lune Kwang-yao are very rare, but cups and bowls may be found without much difficulty. There is no doubt that, like the Yuan-tsu and Sung Chün-yao, the Kwang-yao was successfully copied by the Ching-tê-chên potters of the present dynasty; but inasmuch as its manufacture at Yang-chiang continued until the end of the eighteenth century, the great majority of surviving examples may be ascribed to the latter kiln. There are, as a rule, no marks, and the connoisseur must be guided by lustre of glaze, richness and delicacy of colour, fineness of pâte, and generally careful technique.

Belonging to the same family though easily distinguishable from the thick oily glazes of the Kwang-yao, are lilac monochromes manufactured at Ching-tê-chên during the Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung