The manufacture of porcelain in China, according to their own accounts, dates for more than two hundred years before the Christian era. The composition of Chinese porcelain is of two elements: one, the infusible argillaceous earth or clay called kaolin; and the other the "pe-tun-tse," which is feldspar slightly altered, a micaceous mineral and quartz or silica, which is fusible. The latter is used with or without other mixtures to form a glaze for hard porcelain. Other materials are sometimes used in the glaze, but, unlike the enamel of earthenware, tin or lead is not used.

The Chinese made their porcelain in different degrees of translucency. The kind made especially for the Emperor's use, such as cups, saucers, and rice plates of a ruby-red tint, are very thin and almost transparent.

The porcelain coloured in turquoise blue, violet, sea-green, and celadon are of the oldest varieties made. Yellow, the colour of Ming dynasty, is a common colour in Chinese porcelain.

The Chinese decorated their vases sometimes without much regard to the spacing or divisions of body, neck, or foot (Fig. 85). Landscapes, dragons, fanciful kylins, dogs, and lions, as well as nearly all kinds of natural objects were used by them as decoration. Conventional renderings of flowers and foliage and geometric ornament are often used in a judicious sense.

Peculiar shapes of vases, such as the square, hexagonal, and octagonal forms, are found very frequent in Oriental ware. The vase (Fig. 86), from the Jones Collection, is a less extravagant example of Chinese porcelain than usual; the egg-shaped body is, however, the only Oriental part of the vase.

Japanese Ware

Japanese Ware is more interesting and more varied in design, though not so gaudy in appearance as the Chinese, owing to the higher sense of artistic feeling and individuality of the Japanese artists. The art, as seen in the ceramic productions as well as in most other things of Japanese art and design, was originally borrowed from the older nation of China and from the Coreans. From their keen sense of beauty, and also greater artistic power, the art products of the Japanese are superior to those of China.

The first glazed pottery made in Japan is supposed to date from the year 1230 - this was made at Seto by T*œshiro, who had learnt the art in China, and the first porcelain just before the year 1513, for the maker of this early Japanese porcelain - Shonsui, a Chinese potter - had returned to China in that year.

Pottery of an inferior kind was made anterior to the Christian era, but probably the oldest known was made by the people who occupied the country before the present Japanese. The ancient vase (Fig. 87) is an example of this early ware. It is of a coarse kind of earthenware, baked or fired in a hole in the ground, over which and around the vessel was built a wood fire.

Japanese wares are of three kinds: the common stoneware ornamented with scratched lines and glazed; a crackled glazed ware with painted decorations; and the porcelain. The porcelain of Japan is first baked to the biscuit state, then the colours of the decoration are applied, and the piece is afterwards glazed, and is again fired at a greater heat. The gilding or enamel colours that may be required are put on afterwards, when a third firing at a lower temperature is necessary. The Japanese porcelain paste does not stand the firing so well as the Chinese, and consequently the pieces are often twisted and altered in shape.

The factories of Hizen are among the very oldest and are still in working order in Japan. Old Hizen ware is decorated with blue paintings.

The pottery and porcelain of Seto manufacture is highly esteemed, and the name of Setomono has been given by the Japanese to their porcelain ware.

The Kutani Ware

The Kutani Ware is a coarse porcelain, known also under the name of Kaga ware; the pieces with a red ground and gold ornamentation are highly valued. It is also glazed with deep green, light purple, and yellow colours.

One of the most famous and costliest Japanese wares is the old Satsuma, which was first made by the Corean potters who settled in the village of Nawashirogawa, in the province of Satsuma, about 1600. This ware is of a dark cream colour, with a crackled glaze, and is decorated with red, green, and gold outlined ornament (Fig. 88)

A specimen of the Hizen potteries porcelain, Arita ware, is illustrated at Fig. 89, of an incense-burner. It is painted in bright colours of red, green, pale blue, and has some gilding. It is decorated with hares or rabbits and waves in the panels and dragons on the cover.

Fig. 85. Chinese Vase.

Fig. 86. Oriental Porcelain; Chinese, with French Ormolu Mounting. (S.K.M).

Fig. 87. Japanese Ancient Vase;.circa B.C. 640.

Fig. 88. Incense-Burner, Satsuma Ware; circa 1720.

Fig. 89. Incense-Burner, Arita Ware; circa 1710.

Fig. 90. Pierced Glazed Water-bottle, from Madura. (B).

Indian Pottery

The making of pottery is universal throughout India. The unglazed wares are made everywhere, and of various colours. Red glazed pottery is made at Dinapur, gilt pottery at Amroha and in Rajputana; black and silver pottery at Azimghar in the north-west, and at Surujgarrah in Bengal; painted pottery at Kota, the unglazed pierced variety at Madura, and the celebrated glazed pottery made at Sindh and in the Punjaub.

It may be said that in general the pottery of India is good in shape, colour, and decoration, the latter never violating its purpose, nor distracting the eye from the shape of the vessel. The designs are very simple, and repeating, perhaps to monotony in many cases; but the painted pottery decoration, by reason of its broad and direct application, although the ornament is very simple in character, is better, and less monotonous, for instance, than the Indian wood-carving decoration. The designs take the form of panels of flower and leaf ornament placed side by side, bands of guilloches, chevrons, running ornament, and lines, the knop-and-flower pattern, and a panel filling or an all-over decoration consisting of diapered flowers, leaves, or stars. The elegant shaped water bottle from Madura (Fig. 90) is pierced so that the air may circulate round the inner porous bowl. This ware is coloured a dark green or a golden brown glaze.

The Sindh Glazed Pottery

The Sindh Glazed Pottery is beautiful, though very simple in colour and decoration. The colours are mostly blue of two or three shades, turquoise greens, and creamy whites, and sometimes the glaze is purple, golden brown, or yellow. Many of the vases are bulbous or oviform in shape, with wide necks and bottoms, and are decorated with the Sventi, or daisy-like flower (Fig. 91), or the lotus (Fig. 92). The enamelled tile from Sindh (Fig. 93) has a knopand-flower decoration, the larger flower having the character of an iris, and, at the same time, something of the lotus flower in its composition.

Fig. 91. Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B).

Fig. 92. Glazed Pottery of Sindh. (B).

Fig. 93. Enamelled Tile, from Sindh. (B).