POLYCHROMATIC GLAZES
the Chün-yao as a basis and supplemented them by the resources of his own more expert technique. The delicacy and richness of this variety would justify special classification if the collector could be sure of finding more than one or two specimens to which the same description was applicable. But that is precisely the difficulty. The conceptions of the keramist himself may have been tolerably definite, but in addition to the fact that their range was bewilderly wide, an element of chance entered into their realisation. Every conceivable nuance of colour had a charm for the Chinese potter. His inspiration, however, was generally taken from natural objects. Agate, coral, jasper, lapis lazuli, dead leaves, jade, the rind of fruits, grass, flowers, rice, plums, peaches, marble, and innumerable other models suggested tints which he successfully reproduced. If at one time his glazes recall fleecy green jade or the surface of a ripe peach, at another they appear to represent the geranium blossom, with its blending of velvety red and white. But it was inevitable that in this superposition or combination of various colouring materials, accidents of temperature and oxidisation should become a recognised factor. M. Jacquemart, as already seen, is disposed to resent the idea. To such an enthusiast it sounds almost sacrilegious to suggest that chance had anything to do with the success of the foremost technical keramists in the world. But there is another way of viewing the question. May not the Chinamen have understood that no artificial processes, however delicate and elaborate, could possibly be trusted to obtain the marvellous and never-ending variety and beauty which nature herself, represented by the capricious action of her forces in the furnace, was always ready
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