CHINA
MONOCHROMATIC WARES
purity of colour, and microscopic dappling, showing that the colouring material has been applied by in- suffation. Many porcelains of this class have colour so intense and full-bodied as to verge upon purple. Incised decoration is frequently added, and in pieces of comparatively modern manufacture the surface is often covered with designs in relief. Large quanti- ties of porcelain having Mazarin blue glaze were manufactured in the Taou-Kwang era. They are generally disfigured by impurity of tone and clumsy technique, defects which become more marked the later the period of manufacture. Bowls having cé/a-_ don glaze inside and deep dusky blue outside belong to this inferior category. A frequent though not essential characteristic of modern and faulty specimens is that the bottom of the piece, instead of being cov- ered with white glaze, is unevenly smeared with a thin coat of dark brown pigment-like substance.
Watered blue, called by the Chinese Chzao-ching, is found on the outer surface of finely manipulated specimens of porcelain, the interior of which is cov- ered with pure white glaze, sometimes having beauti- fully executed designs incised and in relief. The method of manufacturing this monochrome was to add native silicate of cobalt to the ordinary white glaze. According to the proportion of cobalt vari- ous hues of colour resulted. Choice examples gen- erally date from one of the three great eras — Kang- hsi, Yung-ching, and Chien-lung —of the present dynasty, for though the CAzao-ching was certainly produced in the Ming factories also, pieces of that period do not seem to have survived in appreciable numbers.
The colour known in China as “blue of the sky
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