CHINA
MONOCHROMATIC WARES
the stoved biscuit. The surface is covered with a network of fine crackle, and there is an absence usually of lustre and always of transparency. Many technically faulty examples of ‘ mustard yellow,” dating from the Taou-Kwang (1821-1851), and es- pecially the Hzen-fung, era (1851-1862), have found their way into European and American collections, and are valued far above their true merits.
In the Kang-Asi era, under the direction of the celebrated potter Tang, a peculiar yellow glaze was manufactured. It ranked among the Imperial Wares (Kuan-yao) of the time and has always been highly esteemed. The pére is not porcelain proper, but very fine stone-ware, always thick and solid, and the glaze is distinguished as “ eel-yellow,” Shan-yu-hwang, from its supposed resemblance to the colour of an eel’s belly. It is an opaque glaze, having comparatively little lustre and owing its colour to a dust of minute yellow speckles, so close and fine as to be impercepti- ble without very careful examination. Beautiful as this monochrome undoubtedly is, it does not imme- diately command appreciation, being less remarkable for brilliancy of surface or richness of colour than for combined softness, solidity, and peculiarity. It is never associated with other colours or enamels. It was manufactured successfully by the Yung-ching and Chien-lung experts, but potters of a later era seem to have been quite unable to produce it. Good speci- mens generally have the mark of their period incised in seal character on the base.
A colour which, though not strictly monochro- matic, may be conveniently included in this section, is the Hwang-tien-pan, or “spotted yellow.” This is also of the Kuan-yao, or imperial class: indeed the
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