REPORT ON A TECHNICAL INVESTIGATION OF ANCIENT 

 CHINESE POTTERY 



By H. W. Nichols 



I. PORCELANOUS HAN POTTERY 



For the purpose of analysis, one fragment about two inches long and 

 two inches wide, and a number of smaller pieces, were examined. The 

 body of the ware, which is from three-sixteenths to one-quarter of an 

 inch thick, consists of a gray vitrified porous substance which contains 

 a few scattered black specks of minute size and glassy lustre. The body 

 is coated on the outside with a very thin opaque red slip, and on the 

 inside with a white engobe and a thick transparent greenish-yellow glaze. 



Chemical Characters of the Body. — An analysis of the body from 

 which both the inner and outer glaze and engobe coats had been removed, 

 but with the black specks included, was made in the Museum laboratory. 



Analysis of Body 



Silica, SiOi 71.61 



Alumina, AljOs 18.67 



Iron oxide, FeO 3 . 57 



Lime, CaO o . 59 



Magnesia, MgO °-33 



Soda, NajO 4.43 



Potash, K»0 1.37 



100.57 



When this is compared with other analyses, it must be remembered 

 that there are small ferruginous specks scattered through this body, 

 so that the iron content shown by the analysis is higher than that of 

 the true body substance. 



Table Showing Analysis of Ancient Chinese Pottery 

 In comparison with that of modern Chinese and Japanese porcelains . 



Explanation of Table ^ 



A. — Ancient porcelanous Chinese pottery in question, analysis by H. W. Nichols. 

 B. — Modern Japanese porcelains, analyses by H. A. Seger (see his Collected Writings, Vol. II, 



p. 686). 



C. — Modern Chinese porcelains, analyses by A. Salvetat, contained in the work of S. Julien, 



Histoire et fabrication de la porcelaine chinoise, p. lxxxvi (Paris, 1856). 



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