CHINA
MONOCHROMATIC WARES
BLACK.
From early times black glazes occupied the best attention of the Chinese potter. They are found on both the Ting-yao and the Chren-yao of the Sung dynasty. The Mo-Ting-yao, or black Tig, is little known to Western connoisseurs. The one specimen illustrated in H’siang’s Catalogue goes to show that the ware was rather brown than black, not showing any of the depth or brilliancy usually supposed to be characteristic of a fine black monochrome. In this respect the Chzen-yao—of which, with its inferior variety, the U-n-yao, mention has been made already — possessed greater attractions. Its deep, lustrous black, showing tints of raven’s-wing green and marked iridescence, its silvery lines and delicate dappling, render it one of the most interesting productions of the Chinese keramist. The manufacture of the original Cfzen-yao came to an end in the Yuan dynasty, and when the factory renewed its activity under the Ming emperors, its outcome assumed a wholly different character. No attempt to reproduce either this ware or the black Ting seems to have been made, nor is there any record that black glazes were in vogue during the Ming dynasty. On the whole, therefore, it seems justifiable to conclude that from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century monochromes of this class did not receive marked attention. Their manufacture was resumed, however, in the Kang-hst era when two principal varieties were produced. The first was “ metallic black,’ called U-chin; the second “ mirror black,” called U-cAing. The former of these names is not accurately descriptive. For in the “‘ metallic black’ two tolerably distinct kinds are
373
323
