CHINA
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generally three or five—which appear upon the under surface of Japanese pieces, showing where the tiny pillars of clay that supported them in the oven were broken off. ‘These scarcely ever occur on Chi- nese wares, and are therefore a criterion, so far as they go. But inasmuch as their use was generally limited to plates, dishes, and so forth, they must not always be looked for on vases, bowls, or jars. So far as colours are concerned, the blue of the Chinese potter is lighter than that of the Japanese, and his red is semi-transparent, whereas the red of the latter is strong, full-bodied, and opaque. But even these differences are not always observable. The pdte, of course, is the ultimate and unerring guide. When the connoisseur has learned to discriminate between the close-grained, oily clay of China and the compar- atively porous, gritty material of Japan, his difficulties are at an end. Marks of Chinese eras and factories are no index. ‘They were freely copied in Japan, and though the nature of the penmanship may have significance for ideographic experts, it need scarcely be discussed here.
After what has been written above, it should not be necessary to correct a misconception originally due to M. Jacquemart, that porcelains of the Chrysanthémo- Peonéenne family are the usual ware, the common furniture of China, seen about houses and in gardens, and constituting the greater part of the utensils used at table. Such porcelains have always been, on the contrary, exceptional in China. Some critics have inferred that the origin of their peculiar decoration is attributable to Japan. ‘There are reasons, however, which forbid the student to accept such a theory in its entirety. An examination of Chinese paintings
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