Book Description:
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: In the figures reproduced here, however, I have not followed the order of the original. The description of each piece by Hsiang Yuan p'ien is translated by me as literally as possible. ' 1. Vase (Ku) of Ju chou Porcelain of the Sung Dynasty. ' This vase of slender horn like form with wide trumpet shaped mouth, decorated with palm leaf designs and scroll ornament, is copied from an ancient bronze figured in the Po ku t'u of the Hsiian ho period. It is of the same height and size as in the figure. Very few specimens of Ju chou porcelain survive to the present day, and those we have are mostly cups and dishes, generally, moreover, damaged and imperfect. A perfect piece like this vase, without the least damage or the slightest crack, is extremely rare. Besides, vases of this form designed to hold flowers are all artistically finished, as compared with other things intended for commoner use. The vase is good both in its form and in the colour of the glaze, excelling the productions either of the Kuan (Imperial) or Ko factories, so that one does not marvel at the high sum at which it is valued. I saw it at the Capital (Peking) in the collection of Huang, General of the Guards, who told me that he had bought it for 150,000 cash from Yun, one of the City Magistrates.' ' 2. Ink pallet (Yen) of Imperial Porcelain of the Sung Dynasty. ' This Pallet was moulded after a pallet used by the Emperor, kept in the Hsuan ho Hall of the Palace, and is of the same size and diameter as in the figure. It is made in the form of a section of a vase, with two loop handles through which string can be threaded for hanging it on the wall. A trench is cut near the margin of the upper surface to hold water, and an oval space in the centre shows the brown paste, which is left unglazed, so as to b...
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