The glaze earth (yu t’u) in various qualities was supplied from different places. Thus the Ch’ang-ling material was used for the blue or green (ch’ing) and the yellow glazes, the Yi-k’êng for the pure white porcelain, and the T’ao-shu-mu for white porcelain and for “blue and white.” This glazing material was softened with varying quantities of ashes of lime burnt with ferns or other frondage. Neither time nor toil was spared in the preparation of the Imperial porcelains, and according to the T’ung-ya[215] the vessels were, at one time at any rate, dried for a whole year after they had been shaped and before finishing them off on the lathe. When finished off on the lathe they were glazed and dried, and if there were any inequalities in the covering they were glazed again. Furthermore, if any fault appeared after firing they were put on the lathe, ground smooth, and reglazed and refired.
It was not the usual custom with Chinese potters to harden the ware with a slight preliminary firing before proceeding to decorate and apply the glaze, and consequently such processes as underglaze painting in blue, embossing, etc., were undergone while the body was still relatively soft and required exceedingly careful handling. The glaze was applied in several ways—by dipping in a tub of glazing liquid (i.e. glaze material finely levigated and mixed with water), by painting the glaze on with a brush, or by blowing it on from a bamboo tube, the end of which was covered with a piece of tightly stretched gauze. One of the last operations was the finishing off of the foot, which was hollowed out and trimmed and the mark added (if it was to be in blue, as was usually the case) and covered with a spray of glaze. To the connoisseur the finish of the foot is full of meaning. It is here he gets a glimpse of the body which emerges at the raw edge of the rim, and by feeling it he can tell whether the material is finely levigated or coarse-grained. The foot rim of the Ming porcelains is plainly finished without the beading or grooves of the K’ang Hsi wares, which were evidently designed to fit a stand[216]; and the raw edge discloses a ware which is almost always of fine white texture and close grain (often almost unctuous to the touch), though the actual surface generally assumes a brownish tinge in the heat of the kiln. The base is often unglazed in the case of large jars and vases, rarely in the cups, bowls, dishes, or wine pots, except among the coarser types of export porcelain. A little sand or grit adhering to the foot rim and radiating lines under the base caused by a jerky movement of the lathe are signs of hasty finish, which occur not infrequently on the export wares. The importance of the foot in the eyes of the Chinese collector may be judged from the following extract from the Shih ch’ing jih cha[217]:—
“Distinguish porcelain by the vessel’s foot. The Yung Lo 'press-hand’ bowls have a glazed bottom but a sandy foot; Hsüan ware altar cups have 'cauldron’[218] bottom (i.e. convex beneath) and wire-like foot; Chia Ching ware flat cups decorated with fish have a 'loaf’ centre[219] (i.e. convex inside) and rounded foot. All porcelain vessels issue from the kiln with bottoms and feet which can testify to the fashion of the firing.”
It is not always easy unaided by illustration to interpret the Chinese metaphors, but it is a matter of observation that many of the Sung bowls, for instance, have a conical finish under the base, and that the same pointed finish appears on some of the early Ming types, such as the red bowls with Yung Lo mark. The “loaf centre” of the Chia Ching bowls seems to refer to the convexity described on p. [35]. The blue and white conical bowls with Yung Lo mark (see p. [6]) have, as a rule, a small glazed base and a relatively wide unglazed foot rim.
But this digression on the nether peculiarities of the different wares has led us away from the subject of glaze. The proverbial thickness and solidity of the early Ming glazes, which are likened to “massed lard,” are due to the piling up of successive coatings of glaze to ensure a perfect covering for the body, and the same process was responsible for the undulating appearance of the surface, which rose up in small rounded elevations “like grains of millet” and displayed corresponding depressions.[220] This uneven effect, due to an excess of glaze, was much prized by the Chinese connoisseurs, who gave it descriptive names like “millet markings,” “chicken skin,” or “orange peel,” and the potters of later periods imitated it freely and often to excess. Porcelain glazes are rarely dead white, and, speaking generally, it may be said that the qualifying tint in the Ming period was greenish. Indeed, this is the prevailing tone of Chinese glazes, but it is perhaps accentuated by the thickness of the Ming glaze. This greenish tinge is most noticeable when the ware is ornamented with delicate traceries in pure white clay or slip under the glaze.
PLATE 84
Vase of baluster form with small mouth (mei p’ing). Porcelain with coloured glazes on the biscuit, the designs outlined in slender fillets of clay. A meeting of sages in a landscape beneath an ancient pine tree, the design above their heads representing the mountain mist. On the shoulders are large ju-i shaped lappets enclosing lotus sprays, with pendent jewels between: fungus (ling chih) designs on the neck. Yellow glaze under the base. A late example of this style of ware, probably seventeenth century.
Height 11 inches.
Salting Collection (Victoria and Albert Museum).