PLATE 38
Chün Wares
Fig. 1.—Bowl of eight–foil shape, with lobed sides, of Chün type. Sung dynasty. Close–grained porcellanous ware of yellowish colour. Height 1 7/8 inches.
Fig. 2.—Pomegranate–shaped water pot of "Soft Chün" ware. Probably Sung dynasty. Height 3 1/2 inches. Alexander Collection.
Another ware which has a superficial resemblance to Chün yao has been made for a long period at the Kuangtung factories,[267] if it does not actually go back to Sung times. A typical specimen, shown in Plate 51, is a vase of baluster form with wide shoulders strengthened by a collar with foliate edge, and small neck and mouth, ornamented with a handsome lotus scroll in relief. The body is a buff stoneware, and the glaze is thick, opaque, and closely crackled, and of pale lavender grey warming into purple.
Glazes of this kind have been made at several potteries in Japan e.g. Hagi, Akahada, and Seto.[268] Besides such specimens as this, there are many of the streaky, mottled Canton stonewares which are remotely analogous to the variegated Chün wares. The glazes of this type are more fluescent than those described in the preceding paragraph and have greater transparency, and the intention of their makers to imitate Chün types is shown by incised numerals which are occasionally added under the base. They are known in China as Fat–shan Chün, from the locality in which they are made, and though some examples may go back to Ming times, the best may, as a rule, be ascribed to the eighteenth century and the indifferent specimens to the present day.
From this digression on Chün imitations to which the mention of Yi–hsing led us, we must return to the original wares. It has been said that Chinese connoisseurs recognise two groups of Chün ware, the tz´ŭ t´ai and the sha t´ai, and there is no doubt that the contrast between the body material of the two is very marked. In explanation of this the Chinese to–day allege[269] that the flower pots and stands were made of a tribute clay sent annually from the Ching–tê Chên district to the "Imperial kilns" at Chün Chou, and that the coarser articles were made of native clays. The story has the air of an ex post facto explanation, and it is open to many grave objections. In the first place it is nowhere mentioned in Chinese literature, and in the second place the Chün Chou kilns, so far from having been described as "Imperial" in the Sung dynasty, are entirely ignored by the earlier writers, and even in the late Ming works, where they are first mentioned, the Chün wares are reckoned as of secondary importance. Thirdly, there does not seem to have been any need to import kaolin, for Chün Chou was in one of the kaolin producing districts of China.[270] There are, moreover, many specimens of the Chün type which hold an intermediate position between the finer flower pots and the coarse "Yüan tz´ŭ" wares, and these have a decidedly porcellanous body, though inclined to be yellowish at the base rim. Some of these have glazes almost as smooth and even as the flower pots, and of a beautiful lavender grey colour with patches or large areas of aubergine or amethystine purple, which in rare cases covers the entire exterior of a bowl. In their finer types they are scarcely distinguishable from the specimens which we have tentatively classed as Kuan on p. 65, and in their coarser kinds they seem to belong to the so–called "Yüan tz´ŭ" which are discussed at the end of this chapter.
Meanwhile, we must consider a very distinctive group to which the term sha t´ai, in its sense of "sandy body," applies with particular exactitude. In the catalogue of the New York exhibition of March, 1914, I ventured to differentiate this type by the name of "soft Chün," which its general appearance seems to justify. It is well illustrated in Plates 38 and 39. The body is buff and varies in texture from stoneware to a comparatively soft earthenware not far removed in colour from that of delft or maiolica, though, like so many Chinese bodies, it has a tendency to assume a darker red brown tint where exposed at the foot rim. The glaze is unctuous and thick, but not opaque, often, indeed, showing considerable flow and transparency: it is opalescent, and at times almost crystalline, and endued with much play of colour. It varies from a light turquoise blue of great beauty to lavender and occasionally to a strong blue tint, and, as a rule, it is broken by one or more passages of crimson red or dull aubergine purple, sometimes in a single well–defined patch, sometimes in a few flecks or streaks, and sometimes in large irregular areas. This glaze usually covers the entire exterior and appears again under the base, leaving practically no body exposed except at the actual foot rim. It has been attributed to various factories. The pure turquoise specimens have even been called Ch´ai, and a little piece of this kind was figured by Cosmo Monkhouse[271] as Kuan ware. On the other hand, I am told[272] that it is widely known in China as Ma chün,[273] and is usually thought to be of the Ming dynasty, but no reason is assigned for either the name or the date, and both seem to be based on traders' gossip to which no special importance need be attached. A fine vase of this kind in the British Museum has been much admired by Chinese connoisseurs, and they have, as a rule, pronounced it to be Sung. The important specimen (Plate 39) in the FitzWilliam Museum, Cambridge, was obtained from a tomb near Nanking,[274] a circumstance which is in favour of an early origin. In other respects this class of ware seems to answer to the aubergine and "sky blue" Chün types described by Chinese writers, and I regard it as one of the Sung varieties of Chün Chou ware, with "yellow, sandy earthenware" body of which the Po wu yao lan makes mention.[275]