CHINA
surfaces is clear white. Colouring matter said to be that employed in the preparation of this very choice porcelain, was analyzed at Sèvres, and found to consist simply of oxide of iron with a flux. It is scarcely credible that the clear, brilliant ruby red of the Pao-shi-hung porcelain can have been obtained with a material reputed so inferior.
Another variety of red, scarcely, however, deserving special classification, is called Hung-mien, or "cotton-floss red." Whether this term is derived from the name of a maker or was suggested by a peculiar mottling of the glaze, remains uncertain. The ware may easily be mistaken for Lang-yao, of which, indeed it seems to have been intended as a reproduction. It lacks, however, the grand phases of colour that distinguish true Sang-de-bœuf.
The above represent all the red monochromes de grand feu—that is to say, monochromes produced in the open furnace at the same temperature as that required to bake the porcelain mass on which they are superposed. Reds painted on the biscuit and vitrified at a comparatively low temperature, belong to another class—that of couleurs de mouffle.
The Tao-lu, speaking of the renowned expert Tang, who with Nien presided over the imperial factories at Ching-tê-chên from 1727, says that in a memoir written by a certain savant, Tang is credited with having revived the manufacture of brilliant red monochromes. The inference suggested by this is that such porcelains had ceased to be produced for some years when Tang assumed charge of the factories. But Chinese connoisseurs of the present day are unanimous in ascribing to Kang-hsi experts the finest specimens of the choice glazes enumerated above.
298
