Chinese pottery and porcelain; vol. 1. Pottery and early wares

by R. L. Hobson

Fig. 1.—Bowl with engraved peony design under a brownish green celadon glaze. Northern Chinese. Diameter 7 ³/₄ inches. Eumorfopoulos Collection.

Fig. 2.—Vase moulded in form of a lotus flower, dark grey stoneware, burnt reddish brown, milky grey glaze, closely crackled. Height 7 inches.
Freer Collection.

Ko yao

Ko yao (the elder brother's ware), or Ko ko yao, as it is sometimes called with the first character repeated, is unanimously ranked by Chinese writers with the Ju and Kuan wares. According to the traditional accounts, it was first made by the elder of the two brothers Chang

, who were potters of Lung–ch´üan Hsien in the Ch´u–chou Fu, province of Chekiang, each having a separate factory in the Liu–t´ien district. Most of the Chinese authorities are content to give the date of these brothers as some time in the Sung dynasty, but one account[136] narrows the period down to the Southern Sung (1127–1279 A. D.). Professor Hirth takes the rationalistic view that the story of the brothers is a myth embodying the fact that there were two distinct types of ware made in the Lung–ch´üan district. Be this as it may, the Ko yao is of considerable interest to us as forming a link between the obscure Ju and Kuan wares and the well–known Lung–ch´üan celadon, approaching the latter in its grass green and sea green varieties and the former in its most highly prized specimens of bluish green or grey tones.

Of its close resemblance to the Kuan ware there can be no doubt, for two highly reputable Chinese writers[137] describe the two wares simultaneously and under one heading, enumerating their various colours in order of merit as fên ch´ing, tan pai, and hui sê (see p. 60), besides mentioning the several kinds of crackle which appeared in the glaze. The only distinctions which the author of the Ch´ing pi ts´ang draws between the two wares are that (1) the Kuan yao crackle is of the "crab's claw"[138] type, while that of the Ko is like fish–roe,[139] and (2) the Ko glaze is somewhat less beautiful than the Kuan. With regard to the crackle, other writers assert that short cracks are characteristic of the Ko yao, and one author uses the picturesque phrase, "crackle of a hundred dangers."[140]

Accidental splashes of contrasting colour, which sometimes assumed fantastic forms, were common to the Ko and Kuan wares, as mentioned on p. 65, and the author of the Po wu yao lan explains these as "originating in the colour of the glaze and forming on its outer surface," and as "due to the fire's magic transmutation."

Another account of the ware given in the Ko ku yao lun depicts it as of deep or pale ch´ing colour, with brown mouth and iron foot, and adds that when the colour was good it was classed with Tung[141] ware. The same passage further informs us that a great quantity of the ware "recently made at the end of the Yüan dynasty" was coarse and dry in body and inferior in colour, a statement to which we shall return presently.