MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES
class, for, as may easily be conjectured, the developments and improvements introduced by them scarcely justify the term "imitators." Throughout the Ming dynasty and during the eras of Kang-hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung they manufactured numerous pieces some of which were facsimilies of Sung Ting-yao, while others resembled it only in the nature of their pâte and the colour of their glaze. Among three beautiful varieties of this later Ting-yao it is difficult to assign the preference. In one the biscuit is so thin that a vase twelve or fourteen inches high only weighs a few ounces. It has boldly crackled glaze—the crackle running in generally parallel lines—and its colour varies from cream grey to light buff. Incised in the biscuit are delicate designs, usually dragons grasping jewels among flames, flying phœnixes, or scrolls of peonies. The pâte is reddish brown, as fine as pipe-clay, and the technique is in all respects perfect. It is impossible to be deceived in these specimens. They commend themselves at once to the most ignorant amateur. In another variety the biscuit, though of the same quality and fineness, is considerably thicker, in order to carry decoration in relief. The designs employed in this case are always purely conventional, copied for the most part from ancient bronzes, and so accurately cut as to resemble impressions in wax. The glaze is crackled, but the crackle differs from that of the last mentioned variety in being round or angular. In lustre the advantage is on the side of the specimens having thicker biscuit, but even in the most highly finished examples of the latter, waxiness rather than gloss or oiliness is to be looked for. Further, the connoisseur will readily recognise that a shining glaze would be incongruous
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