WARES OF "SUNG" DYNASTY
ally perplexed by so strange a device, misinterpreted it. Most Western collectors have doubtless observed that bowls and cups of early-period Chinese wares generally have their rims protected, or, to speak more correctly, concealed by strips of metal, but few are likely to place much reliance on such a feature as a means of identification.
It is stated in the Tao-lu that on the bottom of Ju-yao vases flowers of the sesame were "painted." The same criticism applies to this as to the so-called "painted" designs of the Ting-yao: the Sung potters did not paint their wares by way either of decoration or of mark. The sesame flowers referred to here were either engraved in the paste, or moulded in slight relief under the glaze. Whether they were invariably employed to mark choice examples of the ware it is impossible to tell, but the specimens figured in H'siang's catalogue do not appear to be thus distinguished.
Not less important than the Ting-yao and the Ju-yao among wares of the Sung dynasty was the Kuan-yao, or "Imperial Ware." The quality of the ware did not procure for it its distinguished title. It was called "Imperial" simply because the Emperor himself (1107 A.D.) established the factory where it was produced, at Peng-liang or Kai-fêng-fu, in the province of Honan. The clay is said to have been fine, but that it was not a porcelain stone may be gathered from the fact that the rims of the pieces, after stoving, sometimes had a purple-brown tint, and that the pâte at the base showed an iron-red colour. It was, in short, stone-ware. Wherever the thickness of the glaze did not suffice to conceal the paste completely, the dark colour of the latter became more or less
37
