PLATE 19.
Vase of close–grained, dark reddish brown stoneware with thick, smooth glaze, boldly crackled. Ko ware of the Sung dynasty.
Height 10 5/8 inches. Eumorfopoulos Collection.
Other descriptive references to Ko yao include a verse on a Ko ink palette belonging to Ku Liu,[142] which was "green (lü) as the waves in spring"; the eighteenth–century list of Imperial wares[143] which mention "Ko glazes on an iron body," of two kinds, viz. millet–coloured and pale green[144] (or blue), both stated to have been copied from ancient specimens sent down from the palace; and a single specimen in Hsiang's Album, which is given as fên ch´ing.
In these various descriptions it is possible to recognise a celadon green ware, green as the waves of spring, while the familiar stone grey and buff crackled wares, which range from greyish white to pale grey green and greenish yellow, seem to be indicated in the expressions mi sê, fên ch´ing, tan pai, and hui sê. The modern versions of the latter class, which are fairly common, are usually known even to–day as Ko yao, the expression in potter's language being practically synonymous with "crackled wares."[145] Other ancient factories where similar wares were made are Hsiang–hu and Chi Chou.[146]
As for the finer Ko wares, which appear to have been indistinguishable from the Kuan, we may look for them in the group described on p. 65, and in such beautiful pieces as that illustrated on Plate 19, a vase of fine oval form with delicate grey glaze of faint bluish tone boldly crackled. The solid quality of the glaze of this last specimen and the texture of the surface, which is smooth but lustrous, suggest some natural substance such as the shell of an egg or a smooth polished stone rather than an artificial material. The colour perhaps more truly answers the description "egg white" (luan pai) than any other Sung glaze which I have seen. Plate 20 illustrates another choice example but with a yellower tone of glaze; and a large square vase in the Freer Collection[147] with thick, misty grey glaze showing a faint tinge of red, which recall the sê ch´ing tai fên hung of the Kuan ware, was shown in the New York exhibition of 1914. All these three specimens have a dark reddish brown body of fine close grain, and their glaze is very thick and unctuous with a tendency to contract into thick wax–like drops under the base.
From certain passages in the Chinese works it appears that a revival of the Ko yao took place in the Yüan dynasty, if indeed the manufacture had not been continuous. The Ko ku yao lun, for instance, under the heading of Ko yao, states that the "ware recently made at the end of the Yüan dynasty was coarse and dry in body and inferior in colour." In the Po wu yao lan[148] we read that "certain Ko wares made in private factories took their clay from the Phœnix Hill" (at Hang Chou, where the Kuan potteries were located), and the T´ao lu[149] definitely states that clay was brought from Hang Chou for this later Ko ware. Add to these the remark in the Ko ku yao lun on the subject of Kuan ware[150]—"all the imitations which are made at Lung–ch´üan are without crackle"—and it is clear that the Lung–ch´üan potters in the fourteenth century were busy copying both the Kuan and Ko wares, and that to obtain a closer resemblance to the former they actually sent to Hang Chou for the red clay which would produce the "brown mouth and iron foot." The alleged absence of crackle would indicate a departure from the original Ko methods, but we are at liberty to doubt the universal application of such sweeping statements, and I ventured to suggest[151] that a remarkable bowl in the British Museum was a Yüan example of Ko ware, because, in spite of its Ko crackle, it corresponds so closely to the other points in the descriptions of this make. In any case, there is little doubt that it belongs to an early period of manufacture.