HARD PASTE
Nearly the whole of Oriental porcelain is hard paste. By this we
mean it cannot be cut with a file. Both paste and glaze are hard,
and although some people speak of soft-paste Oriental porcelain our
observation teaches us that it is so rare that it may be neglected by
the ordinary collector, who, if he should accidentally find a piece,
will remember that this soft paste is of a very white colour with
an opaque look, and for painting under the glaze seemed to have the
disadvantage that the colours were more liable to run than on the
ordinary description, which is just like what has been found on early
English soft-paste porcelain, where the colours are liable to run upon
the paste. In the Chinese soft paste better effect was produced by the
hatching and stippling style of decoration which was adopted in later
times and superseded the broad washes adopted in the Kang-he period.
Porcelain in China was usually formed of two materials, of which
one--Pe-tun-tze--resembles our China stone. It is a white fusible
material, a mixture of felspar and quartz, obtained from pounded rock
and formed into cakes or bricks, hence its Chinese name.
The other material is named Kaolin, or China clay. It is infusible, and
is derived from the decomposed felspar of granite. This is also formed
into cakes. When these two materials, China rock and China clay, have
been thoroughly ground, cleansed, sifted and refined into an impalpable
powder, they are kneaded together in varying proportions to form a clay
ready for the potter. The wet clay is turned on the potter's wheel or
table, then is passed through the hands of various workmen who add
handles and other decorations made in moulds, who smooth the surface
and so work upon it that the next process--the drying process--is
preparatory to the under-glaze decoration. In this semi-soft state the
foot remains a solid mass. Any decorations in blue or red or other
colours which can be applied under the glaze are then used for painting
the under-glaze decoration. The glaze is next applied in various ways
by dipping, by blowing on with a tube, by sprinkling, and so on. When
these processes have been completed it only remains for the potter to
fashion the foot upon the wheel and to inscribe any mark which may be
adopted. These being then coated with glaze, the piece is ready for the
furnace.
Porcelain placed in the kiln to be fired has to be protected in strong
clay vessels called seggars, which admit the heat but protect it from
injury. Every piece is placed in the kiln according to the temperature
which is necessary for its complete firing. Some pieces would be placed
at the top of the kiln, other pieces at the tip-top of the kiln, very
much in accordance with the practice in our English potteries at the
present time. The furnace when full is entirely bricked up and the
whole contents of the kiln are kept at a great heat, usually for a
night and a day, after which the kiln is allowed to cool off, and in
due time the porcelain is removed. In speaking of white porcelain,
or porcelain decorated under the glaze, the process is now complete,
but if enamel colours are used further burnings in a kiln take place.
After the enamel decoration has been applied over the glaze--and the
painters who use the enamel colours may take long weeks or months in
decorating a single piece--and until the whole is finished, the piece
is fired again and again in a kiln at a much lower temperature, the
process being quite similar to the previous one, although the heat is
much less. Colours which are applied with the glaze, as we shall see
later--self-colours, such as the Celadons--pass only through the first
process and need no second firing.
In Chinese porcelain it is well to note that no distinction is made
between pottery and porcelain; the European distinction is that whereas
pottery is opaque, porcelain is translucent. It is often difficult
to say when heavy Celadon colours are applied to pieces of Oriental
manufacture whether the body is porcelain or pottery. The pieces
decorated with heavy Celadon colours are very often on a porcellaneous
stone ware, which is generally accepted as marking the evolution
period between pottery and the hard porcelain. There are many examples
of fine pottery--stone ware--dating from the Ming period which are
unmistakable.
III
RELIGION
AND
MYTHOLOGY