CHAPTER XIV

KUANGTUNG [Chinese] WARES

THOUGH the province of Kuangtung has long been celebrated for its pottery, only very meagre information is procurable on the history of its factories. A single reference in the _T´u shu_[379] carries us back to the T´ang dynasty (618-906), when we learn that earthenware cooking vessels were made in the potteries (_t´ao chia_) of Kuang Chou (i.e. Canton), which when glazed were better than iron vessels and more suitable for the decoction of drugs. "A vessel of the capacity of a bushel sold for ten cash: and they were things which were worth preserving."

The next mention occurs in the _T´ao lu_, which gives a short account of the wares under the heading _Kuang yao_, but beyond the statement that the industry originated at Yang-Chiang, it gives no information as to the date or circumstances of its commencement.[380] For the rest this account is very confused and unsatisfactory, and seems in part to refer to the porcelain decorated at Canton (see vol. ii., p. 211), or more probably to the Canton enamels. It is only in the last passage that we come into touch with a ware which is readily recognised as the familiar Canton stoneware. This is a hard-fired ware, usually dark brown at the base, but varying at times to pale yellowish grey and buff, with a thick smooth glaze distinguished from other ceramic glazes by its characteristic mottling and dappling. The colour is often blue, flecked and streaked with grey green or white over a substratum of olive brown, or again green with grey and blue mottling. At times the brown tints predominate, but the most prized varieties are those in which the general tone is blue. These were specially selected for imitation at the Imperial factories under T´ang Ying, and they are highly valued in Japan, where the ware in general goes by the name of _namako_.[381] In other specimens the glaze has a curdled appearance, and sometimes it seems to have boiled up like lava. The mottled glazes at times have a superficial resemblance to the dappled Chün wares, and there is no doubt that in recent times these imitative effects have been studied.

The dating of the mottled Kuangtung wares, or Canton stonewares as they are commonly named, is always a difficult matter. They are still made and exported in large quantities, but it is certain that they go back at least to late Ming times. Sir Arthur Church exhibited a tray of this ware at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910[382] which bore a date corresponding to 1625, and the name of the maker, Chin-shih. The glaze of this interesting piece is remarkably deep, rich and lustrous, and it may be regarded as typical of the finest period of the ware. The tray illustrated by Fig. 1 of Plate 48 closely resembles it in colour and quality. Stamped marks occasionally occur in these wares, the most frequent being the seals used by two potters, apparently brothers, named Ko Ming-hsiang and Ko Yüan-hsiang (see p. 221). It was formerly said that they lived at the end of the Ming period, but Dr. Bushell in his _Chinese Art_[383] reduced their antiquity to the reign of Ch´ien Lung (1736-1795). No reason is given for either of these dates, but their work is familiar, and as some of the examples have a decidedly modern aspect, I am strongly in favour of the later attribution. Plate 47 is a fine example of a Kuangtung glaze, in which the blue is conspicuous.[384] It is probably of seventeenth-century date.

Another Kuangtung group consists chiefly of figures and objects modelled in the round and coated with rich crimson red _flambé_ or pea green celadon glazes, with a liberal display of dark brown or red biscuit. Figures of the god of War and other deities are often represented, the draperies heavily glazed and the flesh parts in unglazed biscuit, which sometimes has the appearance of being browned by a dressing of ferruginous clay. (See Plate 48.)

[Illustration: PLATE 47

Vase of buff stoneware with a scroll of rosette-like flowers in relief: thick flocculent glaze of mottled blue with passages of dull green and a substratum of brown. Kuangtung ware, seventeenth century.

Height 10¼ inches. _Benson Collection._ ]

Brinkley[385] describes several additional types of Kuang yao, including a buff stoneware with "creamy crackled glaze of t´u Ting type."[386] "The characteristic type is a large vase or ewer[387] decorated with a scroll of lotus or peony in high relief and having paint-like, creamy glaze of varying lustre and uneven thickness, its buff colour often showing tinges of blue." Vases of similar make seem also to aim at copying the red-splashed lavender glazes of the Chün and Yüan wares, and sometimes the colour is very beautiful, but the glaze has distinctive characteristics (see Plate 48, Fig. 2). It is opaque, and lacks the translucent and flowing character of the originals, and the surface has a peculiar sticky lustre, and something of that silken sheen which distinguishes the Canton and Yi-hsing glazes of this class. The crackle, too, is more open and obvious. Some of these pieces have the appearance of considerable antiquity, and are reputed to date back to Sung times.[388] Midway between these and the familiar mottled Canton stoneware come what are known in China as the Fat-shan Chün.[389] Their obvious intention to imitate the old Chün wares is declared by the appearance of numerals incised in Chün Chou fashion under the base. A typical example (see Plate 51) is a high-shouldered flower vase with short neck and small mouth (not a Sung but a Ming form, be it noted), with thick, rolling, crackled glaze of pinkish cream colour, shading into lavender and flushing deep red on the shoulders. In rare instances the crimson spreads over the greater part of the surface. The biscuit at the base is brownish grey if its light tint is not concealed by a wash of dark clay. The glaze, unlike that of the type described by Brinkley, is fairly fluescent, thin at the mouth, and running thick in the lower levels. Other examples of this class have heavily mottled grey or blue glazes nearer in style to the Canton stoneware. Indeed, they are clearly made at the same factory as the latter, for we have a connecting link between the two groups in a vase in the Eumorfopoulos Collection, a tall cylinder with streaky lavender blue glaze and the usual silken lustre, the base of buff colour washed with brown slip and marked with the square seal of Ko Ming-hsiang. Many of these "Fat-shan Chün" wares are exceedingly attractive, but by far the most beautiful are the rare dishes in which the glaze has been allowed to form in deep pools of glass in the centre.[390] In these pieces all the changing tints of the surrounding glaze are concentrated in the cavity in a crystalline mass of vivid colour. Such wares are, I think, not older than the Ch´ing dynasty, though they have been erroneously described by some writers as Sung.[391]

With regard to the dates of the Fat-shan Chün types, the remarks made on the Canton stoneware apply equally to them. Many are frankly modern; the finer pieces may be assigned to the eighteenth century, and a few perhaps go back to the Ming dynasty. From the current name we infer that they are made at Fat-shan, but this is the only evidence existing on the question. Fat-shan is situated a few miles south-west of Canton with which it is connected by railway. It is a large town, "renowned for its vast silk manufactures, cloth-making, embroidery, cutlery, matting, paper, and porcelain."[392] No doubt the word porcelain in this context is a comprehensive term, and includes stoneware and pottery, if, indeed, it means anything else. But the precise provenance of the various kinds of Kuang yao is far from clear. All that we learn from the _T´ao lu_ is that the Kuang yao originated at Yang-chiang. Probably the type of mottled glaze which characterises the Canton stoneware was first made there, and was afterwards adopted in the factories which sprang up in the neighbourhood of Canton. Other localities in the province of Kuangtung in which the ceramic industry is represented include Chao-Ch´ing Fu,[393] which may be only a trading centre for the wares; Shih-wan, in Po-lo Hsien, a few miles east of Canton, which is said[394] to supply the Canton markets with "pots, dishes, and jars of every needed shape and size, some of the latter as large as hogsheads, glazed and unglazed, together with a large variety of imitation grotto work and figures for gardens, gallipots, little images, etc."; and the prefecture of Lien-chou, in the extreme south of the province, which exports its wares from Pak-hoi. A few specimens bought in the neighbourhood of the Shih-wan potteries, and no doubt of local make, are in the British Museum. They consist of lion joss-stick holders, crab-shaped pots for growing lily bulbs, and small figures of a hard, rough stoneware of buff or drab colour. The bulb pots have an opaque green glaze with passages of transparent _flambé_ colours, not unlike the Yi-hsing or Canton Chün glazes, and the other pieces have washes of the thin, translucent green, turquoise, yellow, and purplish brown glazes which are usually applied on the biscuit of pottery or porcelain. The exhibits at the Paris Exhibition[395] in 1878 included "tea jars, tobacco pots, medicine jars, cassolettes, various pots, plates, sauce vessels, rice bowls, wine and rice cups, spoons, bird-cage pots, mortars, candlesticks, crucibles and lamps" from the Pak-hoi district.

[Illustration:

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Plate 48.--Kuangtung Ware.

Fig. 1.--Dish in form of a lotus leaf, mottled blue and brown glaze. About 1600. Diameter 8¼ inches. _British Museum._ Fig. 2.--Vase with lotus scroll in relief, opaque, closely crackled glaze of pale lavender grey warming into purple. (?) Fourteenth century. Height 7⅞ inches. _Peters Collection._ Fig. 3.--Figure of Pu-tai Ho-shang, red biscuit, the draperies glazed celadon green. Eighteenth century. Height 8¼ inches. _British Museum._]

[Illustration: Plate 49.--Covered Jar of Buff Stoneware.

With cloudy green glaze and touches of dark blue, yellow, brown and white; archaic dragons, bats and storks in low relief; border of sea waves. Probably Kuangtung ware, seventeenth century. Height 33 inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 379: The _T´u shu_, Section xxxii., Part viii., section entitled _T´ao kung pu tsa lu_, fol. 1 verso; quoting from the _Ling piao lu i_ [Chinese], by _Liu Hsün_, of the T´ang dynasty.]

[Footnote 380: Bk. vii., fol. 16. "This is the ware which was first made at Yang-chiang Hsien [Chinese] in the Chao-ch´ing Fu in Kuangtung. It is, in fact, an imitation of the _Yang-tz´ŭ_ ware. Consequently, the Records of the Province state that the productions of Yang-chiang in Kuangtung include 'porcelain wares' (_tz´ŭ ch´i_). I have seen incense burners (_lu_), vases (_p´ing_), cups (_chien_), plates (_t´ieh_), bowls (_wan_), dishes (_p´an_), pots (_hu_), and boxes (_ho_) of this manufacture. They are very ornamental and bright, but in taste, fineness, elegance, and lustre they are not equal to porcelain wares. Nor have they been able to avoid the occurrence of flaws exposing the body, which are unsightly. Still they are imitated at T´ang's manufactory, the imitations being admirable in their elegance and lustre, and excelling the Kuang yao. These, like the Tz´ŭ-Chou and Hsü-Chou types of ware, are none of them made of porcelain clay." The _T´ao chêng chi shih_ states: "He (i.e. T´ang Ying) imitates singularly well the Kuang yao glaze, being particularly successful with the spotted blue (_ch´ing tien_ [Chinese]) kind of glaze. Following this author, imitations were also made of the copies produced at T´ang's factory." The greater part of this passage seems to contain a confusion of ideas. _Yang-tz´ŭ_ [Chinese] or "foreign porcelain" was the name given to the painted Canton enamels which are described on the next page of the _T´ao lu_ under that heading. The passage beginning "I have seen" and ending "equal to porcelain wares" is taken almost verbatim from the sections which deal with Canton enamels and cloisonné enamels. The remark on "imitation of the Yang-tz´ŭ ware" could by no stretch of imagination be applied to the mottled Kuang yao; but it does apply to the large group of porcelain obtained in the white from Ching-tê Chên and painted at Canton precisely in the style of the Canton enamels (see vol. ii., p. 243). This is no doubt what the author had in his mind. The sentence about the unsightly flaws can apply to either the enamels or the Kuang yao, but more particularly to the latter. For the rest, "T´ang's factory" is the Imperial factory at Ching-tê Chên, which was under the management of the celebrated T´ang Ying between 1728 and 1749.]

[Footnote 381: From its supposed resemblance to the colour of the sea-snail (_namako_).]

[Footnote 382: _Cat. B.F.A._, 1910, K 43. Like so many Chinese dates, this was cut in the ware after the firing, but there is every reason to suppose that it indicates the true date of the manufacture. Sir Arthur has since presented this tray to the British Museum.]

[Footnote 383: Op. cit., vol. ii., p. 15.]

[Footnote 384: Modern English potters produce flocculent glazes of the Canton type by means of zinc, and Mr. Mott, of Doulton's, showed me a specimen illustrating the effect of zinc which was remarkably like the glaze of Plate 47 both in the blue dappling and the greenish frosting. Possibly the use of zinc was known to the Kuangtung potters and gave them their characteristic types of glaze. Other effects resembling the Canton glazes were produced by Mr. Mott by both zinc and tin in the presence of cobalt and iron.]

[Footnote 385: _Japan and China_, vol. ix., p. 261.]

[Footnote 386: See p. 90.]

[Footnote 387: Such a piece from the British Museum collection is figured in the _Burlington Magazine_, January, 1910, p. 218.]

[Footnote 388: See _Burlington Magazine_, January, 1910, p. 220.]

[Footnote 389: I am indebted to Mr. A.W. Bahr for much information on these and the Yi-hsing Chün imitations.]

[Footnote 390: Three beautiful examples were exhibited at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1910, (_Cat._, K 20, 23 and 41), on the last of which the lavender tints on the sides passed into a glassy pool of brilliant peacock blue.]

[Footnote 391: There is an interesting example of this crystalline glaze in Mrs. Potter Palmer's collection. It is a bowl of coarse grey porcelain, with blue glaze on the exterior. Inside is a crimson red glaze of Canton type, in the centre of which is a pool of amber glass. The explanation seems to be that we have here a bowl of coarse export porcelain treated at a Canton factory with their crystalline glaze.]

[Footnote 392: Richards, _Comprehensive Geography of the Chinese Empire_, 1908, p. 210.]

[Footnote 393: Richards, op. cit., p. 209. "Considerable trade is carried on in tea, porcelain, etc."]

[Footnote 394: S. Wells Williams, _Commercial Guide to China_, 1863, p. 13. Speaking of pottery the author says: "The charges for freight forbid it to be carried far, and manufactures of it are numerous; that for Canton is at Shih-hwan." No doubt this is Shih-wan [Chinese]. Another name for Canton pottery is Shakwan ware, which is probably a variant of Shih-wan.]

[Footnote 395: _Catalogue spécial de la Collection Chinoise à l'Exposition Universelle_, Paris, 1878, pp. 10-12.]