POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES
Chapter XI
POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES
TRANSMUTATION OR FLAMBÉ GLAZES
There are many varieties of Chinese porcelain and stone-ware the glaze of which shows more than one colour. Indeed, some of the porcelains included above in the monochromatic family would, if more strictly classified, find a place in the present chapter—as, for example, Lang-yao with bright flashes or dark spots in the red field; king-fisher blue and peacock green with metallic dappling; Chüng-yao with red hawthorn and clair-de-lune glazes; metallic black with green and blue iridescence; mirror black with gold dusting; olive green with yellow spots; the red Pin-kwo-ts'ing glaze with plum-green clouding, and so forth. It has not been deemed advisable, however, to enter these in the polychromatic category, inasmuch as the marked predominance of their principal colour has always led collectors to regard them as monochromes. For this section, therefore, are reserved only those glazes in which two or more colours are distinctly visible. Of these the most remarkable, and perhaps the most beautiful, is the Yao-pien, or ware "transmuted in the furnace," called by French connoisseurs "Flambé." M. d'Entrecolles refers to
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