T4 Minnesota Academy of Science 



is the Tang period 620 to 907. It shows but little advance 

 between the end of the Sung — 479, to the end of the Tang — 

 907. In this example the form is somewhat finer and more 

 artistic but the earthenware is about the same. The north- 

 ern Sung period began 960 and ended 1127, the example 

 shows a continuance of the same general one-color glaze, 

 but in this piece a mottled blue and brown. A quite beau- 

 tiful and smooth vase of a little higher grade approximating 

 to stoneware originated the advance during or prior to this 

 period. 



But up to the time of the eighth century there does not 

 appear to be anything that equals that of the Persians as 

 shown by the examples found in this old tomb of Haroun Al 

 Raschid and in the ruins of the castles and palaces in the 

 old remains of cities round about, called Racca ware. It 

 would seem from this that the Persian potter had made ad- 

 vances in this art beyond that of the Chinese up to about 

 the 1 2th or 13th century when stoneware and porcelains were 

 being made by the Chinese. 



The broken records of the two nations show that the 

 Persian potter was in the lead up to about the thirteenth or 

 fourteenth century of our era when the Chinese took the 

 lead and the Persians' art seems to have declined. The 

 Chinese pottery changed from earthenware or a somewhat 

 harder stoneware to much higher grades of earthenware in 

 the Ming dynasty. Whatever particular advancement was 

 made prior to that time in higher grades of pottery or por- 

 celains is not clearly known or shown, as there has been so 

 incomplete a record prior to the Ming dynasty. 



Of the Yuan dynasty 1279 to 1358, there are two ex- 

 amples here showing very clearly a finer grade of pottery 

 approximating to porcelain, even better than stoneware. 

 Both of them are similar to the prevailing wares of the great 

 Ming dynasty of which this period seems to have been the 

 forerunner. 



Of the Ming there are two fine examples, similar in gen- 

 eral form to the two of the Yuan dynasty just above referred 

 to. 



During the Ming period (1368-1644) came a great ad- 

 vance bringing out finer wares of all the earthenwares, stone- 

 ware, and porcelains. It was somewhere near the beginning 

 of this long period that porcelains were made. In the latter 

 part of this period, some of the finest of the Lang Yao 



