82 Beginnings of Porcelain 



On my return to America, two objects remained to be pursued in 

 connection with this new material, — first, to secure the co-operation 

 of a competent investigator for a chemical analysis of the body and 

 glaze of this pottery; and, second, to search in other museums for 

 corresponding specimens. My colleague Mr. Nichols, assistant curator 

 of geology in the Field Museum, volunteered to undertake the technical 

 task, and he has carried it out with rare devotion and perseverance. 

 His experiments were conducted, and his results were obtained, in 

 19 1 2. From the date of our publication it will be seen that we were 

 not in a hurry to bring it to the notice of the world. We allowed it to 

 rest and to mature, and discussed the new problems with each other 

 and with ceramic experts at frequent intervals. Their friendly interest 

 and advice at last encouraged us to make known the results of our 

 research, which we trust will be of some utility to students interested 

 in the history of Chinese pottery. 



In regard to kindred objects in other collections, I have been able 

 to obtain the following information. Mr. Francis Stewart Kershaw 

 of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass., who saw the pieces of 

 pottery in question in the Field Museum, mentioned to me that similar 

 specimens were in the Boston Museum. On sending him some frag- 

 ments from our material for comparison with that under his care, he 

 wrote as follows: 1 



"The bits of potsherd are quite large enough to tell me their story, 

 and I am very much obliged for them. Except in hardness, they are 

 similar to the clay of three of our pieces, being of the same color, texture, 

 and apparent constituents. Two of our pieces were bought in China 

 by Mr. Okakura, and both were labelled 'Sung' by some Chinese 

 (probably a dealer). Okakura called one (12875) which is covered 

 with a blackish shaded gray-green glaze, opaque and dull, 'Sung.' 

 The second (12865), which is precisely similar in potting, clay, and 

 glaze, to your Han porcelanous jars, Okakura called 'T'ang.' Mr. 

 Freer, by the way, has a vase like 12865, which he calls 'T'ang.' 2 The 

 third of our pieces (12118) was bought from Mr. C. F. Gammon (for- 

 merly a lieutenant in the United States Army), who obtained it in 

 Nanking from a cooly, who had unearthed it while digging in a railway 

 cutting in Nanking. The jar was partly full of coins, all alike, of the 

 denomination 'pan Hang' *P M, issued in 175 B.C. in the reign of the 



1 The letter is published here with Mr. Kershaw's consent. 



1 This object was exhibited in the National Museum of Washington in 191 2, 

 when a selection from the Freer Collection was temporarily shown. I then had 

 occasion to see it. It is not a T'ang production, but of exactly the same type as 

 our early porcelanous ware. 



