MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES
sides not being curved, but sloping rapidly to the base, which is very small in proportion to the circumference of the upper rim. The porcelain is exceedingly thin and delicate, and the pure white of the glaze offers an immediate contrast to the opaque mellow tone of the Ting-yao. These specimens have decoration either incised or in relief, the usual designs being dragons or phœnixes (or both together) among clouds, or floral sprays. So fine is the technique that in the case of incised decoration it is often necessary to look through the piece by sunlight in order to see the design. On the bottom of genuine specimens, inside the bowl, the year-mark (Ta-Ming Yung-lo nien chi) is always found, either engraved or in relief, in seal character. The glaze, though smooth and shining, does not present the solid glossy or oily appearance so often seen in choice Chinese porcelain. This point is worthy of note, for it constitutes a distinguishing feature between the Yung-lo white porcelain and that of the Kang-hsi and Chien-lung eras of the present dynasty.
In addition to the fact that the student is henceforth confronted by soft-paste and hard-paste porcelains, between which careless or ignorant writers fail altogether to distinguish, he finds now another source of confusion in the name applied to the new To-tai-ki. The Yuan potters' imitation of the Sung Ting-yao was called "imperial ware" (Shu-fu-yao), and to the Yung-lo hard-paste porcelain the appellation Kuan-yao, or "official ware" was given. It is necessary, therefore, to warn amateurs against confounding the Kuan-yao of the Ming and Tsing dynasties with the similarly called and similarly written Kuan-yao of the Sung dynasty, which, as shown in a previous
255
