[84] We have already alluded to this point, à propos of a bowl in the British Museum; see [p. 110] note.
[85] This branch of the subject is fully worked out in chapter xvii. of Dr. Bushell’s work.
[86] When compared with a similar collection of European wares, perhaps the most noticeable difference is the small number of vessels adapted to pouring. So much is this the case that when we find a spout or lip on a specimen of Chinese porcelain, the piece takes at once a somewhat exotic aspect, and we are reminded of the Arab Ibraik, or the European ewer.
[87] It is a curious fact that London chemists now send out their pills in little glass bottles almost identical in shape and size with these Chinese yao-ping.
[88] The word is used in a restricted sense as explained above.
[89] We have far too often to fall back on names of French origin. Our colour-vocabulary in the case of the enamels and glazes of porcelain is a sadly poor one.
[90] In the case of some monochrome ware the colour may have been painted on the raw paste or on the biscuit, and a colourless glaze then added; or again, as in the case of the coral red mentioned below, it may be painted like an enamel over the glaze.
[91] It must, however, be remembered that this carved lacquer itself is sometimes applied as a coating to porcelain in China.
[92] It would be convenient to have a name to include the whole series—the flambé, the sang de bœuf, the lavender Yuan, and perhaps also the peach-bloom and the ‘robin’s egg.’ I would propose to include all these classes under the head of transmutation glazes.
[93] A French writer compares the effect to the ‘palette d’un coloriste montrée sous un morceau de glace’ (E. de Goncourt, La Maison d’un Artiste).