THE CÉLADON
specimens of porcelain that can be referred to as having been brought to England before the Reformation, viz., the cup of Archbishop Warham, at New College, Oxford, is of this kind. By Persians and Turks it is termed martabani, and it is much valued by them as a detecter of poisonous food. Specimens of this porcelain were sent to Lorenzo de Medici in 1487 by the Sultan of Egypt. It owes its preservation, no doubt, to its great thickness." Probably the best examples of the ware to be found in Europe are those in the Kremlin at Moscow, where they were placed by the Empress Catherine.
Apart, too, from the historical aspect of the question, Chinese céladon is interesting for its own sake. Nothing but the evidence of actual observation could convey an idea of the enthusiastic admiration lavished upon this ware by both Chinese and Japanese amateurs. An estimate of its value, however, can be formed from the fact that for single pieces prices have been given far in excess of any European precedent. Even now the choicest specimens are so highly prized in China and Japan that very few find their way westward, more especially as the merits of the ware are by no means calculated to strike an uneducated eye. Like everything possessing real excellence, it improves upon acquaintance, and the collector can be very certain that, long after he has grown weary of elaborately decorated and brilliantly enamelled pieces, he will experience an ever-growing appreciation of the refined céladon, with its glaze of velvet-like lustre and its delicate green or bluish-green colour, which has baffled the skill of all Western workmen and can no longer be produced by the Chinese themselves.
79
