CHINA
MONOCHROMATIC GLAZES
could be more unlike than the C/zen-yao of the Sung period —which is opaque stone-ware — and the Chzen- yao of the Ming and Tsing Dynasties —which is white, translucid porcelain. Both, however, derived their name from the district of their manufacture in the province of Fuh-kien, and on the revival of the keramic industry at that place under the Ming Em- perors, it doubtless seemed natural that the later ware should be called CAzen-yao, irrespective of the com- plete dissimilarity between it and its earlier name- sake. By way of distinction Chinese connoisseurs often speak of the Ivory White as Ming Chien-yao. Its production, commencing under the early Ming Emperors (circ. 1400), was continued with success until the latter half of the eighteenth century. It appears to have been then virtually discontinued, to be revived, however, in recent years. A considerable number of specimens are now produced, and palmed off upon unwary collectors. But the amateur can easily avoid such deceptions if he remembers that in genuine pieces of Ivory White the ware is always translucid when held up to the light, a property which, if not entirely absent, is only possessed in a comparatively slight degree by the modern product. The general quality of the glaze and the technique of a piece should be sufficient guides, but if any doubt remains an examination of the base of the specimen will probably dispel it. In the old ware the bottom of a vase or bowl, though carefully finished, is left uncovered, whereas the modern potter is fond of hiding his inferior pate by roughly overspreading it with a coat of glaze.
Ivory-white porcelain has at all times been more highly esteemed outside China than by the Chinese
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