CHINA
is tolerably well described by the American appellation. Its ground colour is light claret or brownish red, over which is run, in flakes and flecks, delicate bluish green; or this order is reversed, the ground being liquid green in which float spots of russet-red or dusky claret. The general effect is very charming. Frequently the bluish green colour appears as fine, uniform mottling—a comparatively tame and uninteresting style which was doubtless easily achieved by the process of insufflation, and which ranks decidedly below the glazes with fleecy and marbled variegation. Choice examples of this ware generally have a year-mark impressed in seal character. Their biscuit is close-grained, white porcelain, but the rim at the base is usually covered with black or reddish brown glaze. Nothing is recorded about the date when the ware was first produced. No specimens older than the Kang-hsi era appear to be in existence, and on the whole it seems reasonable to conclude that the manufacture reached its highest point of excellence in the Yung-ching period (1723-1736), since the finest pieces bear the year-mark of that period, and since, speaking generally, it is established that the Yung-ching potters directed their attention specially to polychromatic glazes.
There is great difficulty in determining the limits of the name "Yao-pien." Every attempt to classify involves incompleteness. Take the Lu-yao-pien (green Yao-pien) for example. The description given above is general and fairly applicable, yet in rare cases it fails conspicuously. For in one variety the collector finds an exquisite purplish blush peeping out from among green and brown (or chocolate) marbling, as though the Yung-ching potter had taken the tints of
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