CHINA
PORCELAIMIDHCORATED
seurs have been disposed to find evidence of the origin of decoration over the glaze, but their inference, whether correct or not, is evidently unwarranted. The Chinese themselves do not affect to pronounce a decided verdict. It has never been their habit to attach much importance to historical specimens of a ware. ‘They did not value it until its qualities, tech- nical or artistic, became really attractive, and from this point of view they are unanimous in attributing the first noteworthy use of vitrifiable enamels to the early eras of the Mzng dynasty. Japanese traditions give some aid. Highly prized by the Tea Clubs of Japan is a stone-ware of medium quality, decorated with diapers and conventional flowers in red and gold with green in asubordinate role. The designs are of an ar- chaic character, and the method of applying the pig- ments and enamels indicates imperfect technique. The white body-glaze, on the contrary, is lustrous, of fine texture, and in choice specimens possesses an ivory tint of much beauty and softness. Such ware is precisely what the Yuan potters would have produced on the hypothesis that, despite their highly developed skill in the manipulation of glazing materials, they were still inexperienced in the application of vitrifiable enamels. By Japanese connoisseurs the ware is unani- mously ascribed to the Yuan dynasty. They call it Gosu Aka-e, or “red-picture Gosu.” This word Gosu is written with ideographs which in China would be read Wu-shuan, a name identifiable as that of an an- cient division — the most easterly — of the province of Chékiang. Now it is known that Hang-chow, in Chékiang, was one of the principal starting points of China’s export trade during the Sung and Yuan dynasties, and that at Ch’tiah-chou-fu, in the neigh-
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