Page:Brinkley - China - Volume 1.djvu/346

after rain" (u-kwo-tien-ts’ing) has already been spoken of in connection with céladon. There can be little doubt that the colour originally conceived under this name showed a strong tinge of green. But the potter of the three great eras of the present dynasty produced a porcelain bearing no resemblance to céladon which has come to be known as "blue of the sky after rain." It is a hard-paste porcelain, fine-grained, excellent in every technical detail, and covered with a monochromatic glaze of the utmost lustre and delicacy. The colour is light cerulean. This ware commands the admiration of Chinese virtuosi. The year-mark is generally found on the bottom of fine pieces in seal character, blue sous couverte.

All the above varieties of blue monochromes were manufactured at the full heat of the porcelain kiln, the colour being developed and the biscuit fired at the same temperature. There remains to be noticed another blue of very great beauty, exceptionally appreciated by Western connoisseurs, which, being applied to the surface of ware already baked, was subjected only to the temperature of the enameller's furnace. This is the colour called "Turquoise Blue" by Europeans, but in China known as Tsui-se, or the blue of the king-fisher's feathers. It was obtained from an oxide prepared by mixing old copper and saltpetre with water. The manufacture dates from the Ming dynasty. In one of the imperial requisitions for porcelains to be used at the palace during the Lung-ching era (1567-1572), bowls and plates covered with Tsui-se glaze are included. But the colour is not mentioned in any record of choice wares manufactured earlier than the sixteenth century. It is certainly one of the most delicate yet