Fig. 109.—Celestial Blue Snuff-Bottle.
five hundred dollars. The color varies from light to dark; some collectors choose one, some the other. Some pieces are known as the “six-mark,” and many attach an added value to this evidence; but it does not seem to indicate greater perfection: many of the finest pieces I have seen have no potter’s mark. Within the last twenty-five years a very active desire for these fine blues has broken out in England, which does not abate. It has not been so keen in France, and prices have not there gone so high.
Fig. 110.—Pot in Boston Art Museum.
This celestial blue was painted at Nanking, and is a wholly different thing from the ordinary Canton blue of trade. It is probable that some of this blue dates back to the Ming dynasty. The color was mostly painted under the glaze.