Introduction of Glazes into China 123 



ancient, and must accordingly have been exported as early as in 

 times of antiquity, and certainly to Persia, whence the murrines were 

 imported to Rome. For a brief period it would have seemed as 

 though the alleged discovery of Chinese porcelain bottles in Egyp- 

 tian tombs might lend support to such an opinion; but for a long 

 time we have known that the whole story amounts to a not very 

 clever fraud. 1 



When the murrine vases were identified with porcelain, European 

 knowledge of the history of porcelain in China was still in its infancy 

 and of the vaguest character; and if a subject is obscure or little known, 

 speculation is usually rife, and the almost incredible is readily accepted. 

 In 1857 Bostock and Riley 2 still commented on the murrines, that 

 modern writers differ as to the material of which these vessels were 

 composed; that some think that they were of variegated glass, and 

 others of onyx, but that the more general opinion is that they were 

 Chinese porcelain. The last view has never entirely lost its ground, 

 and still counts adherents in this country. In the "New Standard 

 Dictionary," published by Funk and Wagnalls of New York in 1913, 

 we read, under the article "murrine vases," "porcelain vases brought 

 from the East to Rome." 



The present investigation allows us to settle this problem definitely. 

 It is out of the question that the murrine vessels were Chinese porce- 

 lain, since at the time when the former were traded from the Orient 

 to Rome nothing like porcelain existed on this globe. We have seen 

 that ceramic products with porcelanous glaze do not come up in China 

 earlier than the latter part of the third century a.d., and that anything 

 of the character of true porcelain cannot be pointed out before the 

 sixth century. The vasa murrhina, however, are mentioned consider- 

 ably earlier than these two dates. They were first brought to Rome 

 in 61 B.C. by Pompey, who, after his triumph, dedicated cups of this 

 description to Jupiter Capitolinus. Pompey himself had obtained them 

 from Mithridates. Augustus appropriated a single murrine vessel 

 from the treasure of Queen Cleopatra, which is cited as an instance 

 of his moderation. 3 In the time posterior to Pompey, the murrines 

 became more frequent in Rome, and aroused a passion for them among 

 the upper four hundred. Classical Roman literature does not make 



1 Compare S. Julien, Histoire et fabrication de la porcelaine chinoise, 

 pp. xi-xxn; F. Hirth, Chinesische Studien, pp. 45-48; N. Rondot, On the Chinese 

 Coins and Small Porcelain Bottles found in Egypt (Journal China Branch R. As. 

 Soc, Vol. XXXII, 1897-98, pp. 66-78). 



1 The Natural History of Pliny, Vol. VI, p. 392. 



3 Suetonius, Augustus, 71. 



