CHINA
merit. Many specimens made during the nineteenth century, though sombre and heavy, are often purchased by collectors as genuine examples of choice old mirror black. They are invariably of common, inelegant shapes, and indications of faulty technique may be detected either in air-bubbles and pitting in the glaze, or in crude, ill manipulated biscuit. Examples of black monochromes older than the present dynasty are scarcely ever to be found in the hands of Chinese bric-à-brac dealers. They are much commoner in Japan, where the Tea Clubs always valued them highly and preserved them carefully.
BROWN.
A monochrome of great merit is the Tzü-chin, or golden brown. This is the fond laque of French connoisseurs. It has also been called "dead-leaf" glaze, a term which fairly describes its colour but conveys a false idea of its gloss and brilliancy. It is of considerable antiquity, being found on the Chien-yao of the Sung dynasty, where it is used either as a monochrome on the outer surface of cups and bowls, or as a ground for bluish white spotting and dappling. Its manufacture was revived under the Ming dynasty. The fact is mentioned in the "History of Ching-tê-chên Wares," and among the articles requisitioned for imperial use in the Lung-chin era (1567-1612) there are included rice-bowls of deep brown, and light golden brown, with dragons faintly engraved under the glaze. This question of date deserves special notice, because M. d'Entrecolles erroneously speaks of the Tzü-chin as a new invention of his time (1715). For the rest, his note on the subject is
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