Brinkley[385] describes several additional types of Kuang yao, including a buff stoneware with "creamy crackled glaze of t´u Ting type."[386] "The characteristic type is a large vase or ewer[387] decorated with a scroll of lotus or peony in high relief and having paint–like, creamy glaze of varying lustre and uneven thickness, its buff colour often showing tinges of blue." Vases of similar make seem also to aim at copying the red–splashed lavender glazes of the Chün and Yüan wares, and sometimes the colour is very beautiful, but the glaze has distinctive characteristics (see Plate 48, Fig. 2). It is opaque, and lacks the translucent and flowing character of the originals, and the surface has a peculiar sticky lustre, and something of that silken sheen which distinguishes the Canton and Yi–hsing glazes of this class. The crackle, too, is more open and obvious. Some of these pieces have the appearance of considerable antiquity, and are reputed to date back to Sung times.[388] Midway between these and the familiar mottled Canton stoneware come what are known in China as the Fat–shan Chün.[389] Their obvious intention to imitate the old Chün wares is declared by the appearance of numerals incised in Chün Chou fashion under the base. A typical example (see Plate 51) is a high–shouldered flower vase with short neck and small mouth (not a Sung but a Ming form, be it noted), with thick, rolling, crackled glaze of pinkish cream colour, shading into lavender and flushing deep red on the shoulders. In rare instances the crimson spreads over the greater part of the surface. The biscuit at the base is brownish grey if its light tint is not concealed by a wash of dark clay. The glaze, unlike that of the type described by Brinkley, is fairly fluescent, thin at the mouth, and running thick in the lower levels. Other examples of this class have heavily mottled grey or blue glazes nearer in style to the Canton stoneware. Indeed, they are clearly made at the same factory as the latter, for we have a connecting link between the two groups in a vase in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, a tall cylinder with streaky lavender blue glaze and the usual silken lustre, the base of buff colour washed with brown slip and marked with the square seal of Ko Ming–hsiang. Many of these "Fat–shan Chün" wares are exceedingly attractive, but by far the most beautiful are the rare dishes in which the glaze has been allowed to form in deep pools of glass in the centre.[390] In these pieces all the changing tints of the surrounding glaze are concentrated in the cavity in a crystalline mass of vivid colour. Such wares are, I think, not older than the Ch´ing dynasty, though they have been erroneously described by some writers as Sung.[391]
With regard to the dates of the Fat–shan Chün types, the remarks made on the Canton stoneware apply equally to them. Many are frankly modern; the finer pieces may be assigned to the eighteenth century, and a few perhaps go back to the Ming dynasty. From the current name we infer that they are made at Fat–shan, but this is the only evidence existing on the question. Fat–shan is situated a few miles south–west of Canton with which it is connected by railway. It is a large town, "renowned for its vast silk manufactures, cloth–making, embroidery, cutlery, matting, paper, and porcelain."[392] No doubt the word porcelain in this context is a comprehensive term, and includes stoneware and pottery, if, indeed, it means anything else. But the precise provenance of the various kinds of Kuang yao is far from clear. All that we learn from the T´ao lu is that the Kuang yao originated at Yang–chiang. Probably the type of mottled glaze which characterises the Canton stoneware was first made there, and was afterwards adopted in the factories which sprang up in the neighbourhood of Canton. Other localities in the province of Kuangtung in which the ceramic industry is represented include Chao–Ch´ing Fu,[393] which may be only a trading centre for the wares; Shih–wan, in Po–lo Hsien, a few miles east of Canton, which is said[394] to supply the Canton markets with "pots, dishes, and jars of every needed shape and size, some of the latter as large as hogsheads, glazed and unglazed, together with a large variety of imitation grotto work and figures for gardens, gallipots, little images, etc."; and the prefecture of Lien–chou, in the extreme south of the province, which exports its wares from Pak–hoi. A few specimens bought in the neighbourhood of the Shih–wan potteries, and no doubt of local make, are in the British Museum. They consist of lion joss–stick holders, crab–shaped pots for growing lily bulbs, and small figures of a hard, rough stoneware of buff or drab colour. The bulb pots have an opaque green glaze with passages of transparent flambé colours, not unlike the Yi–hsing or Canton Chün glazes, and the other pieces have washes of the thin, translucent green, turquoise, yellow, and purplish brown glazes which are usually applied on the biscuit of pottery or porcelain. The exhibits at the Paris Exhibition[395] in 1878 included "tea jars, tobacco pots, medicine jars, cassolettes, various pots, plates, sauce vessels, rice bowls, wine and rice cups, spoons, bird–cage pots, mortars, candlesticks, crucibles and lamps" from the Pak–hoi district.
Plate 48.—Kuangtung Ware.
Fig. 1.—Dish in form of a lotus leaf, mottled blue and brown glaze. About 1600. Diameter 8 1/4 inches. British Museum.
Fig. 2.—Vase with lotus scroll in relief, opaque, closely crackled glaze of pale lavender grey warming into purple. (?) Fourteenth century. Height 7 7/8 inches. Peters Collection.
Fig. 3.—Figure of Pu–tai Ho–shang, red biscuit, the draperies glazed celadon green. Eighteenth century. Height 8 1/4 inches. British Museum.
