THE CEEAMIC ART IN CHINA. 411 



it was termed ISu-ma-li or Suma-ni blue, and during the latter Suni-po 

 also. Where this blue came from and whether these Chinese designa- 

 tions are the reproductions of the name of a country or of a color has 

 never been determined. Dr. Hirth, while pointing out the resemblance 

 of the former in sound to smalt (mediaeval Latin smaltum), and of the 

 latter to Schneeberg, " under which name the Saxon blue afterwards 

 became famous all over the world,"* thinks a search into Arabian or Per- 

 sian records of that day may yet supply the missing explanation. What 

 ever it was, the supply was exhausted during the Ch'enghua period. 

 Somewhat later, however (during the Chengte period (1506 to 1521), 

 Tatang, the governor of Yunnan province, succeeded in obtaining fur- 

 ther supplies of Mohammedan blue by paying for it twice its weight in 

 gold; and during this and the greater part of the subsequent reign 

 (Chiaching period, 1522 to 1566) it continued available; a fact to which 

 is doubtless attributable the excellent color of the productions of that 

 time. Towards the close of the latter reign, however, the supply again 

 gave out, when an incinerated cobaltiferous ore of manganese (termed 

 wu-mingi) replaced the western product ; the color obtained from this 

 native ore, far from equalling the brightness and transparency of the 

 foreign blue, however, showed a dull and heavy tint after baking. 



EGa-SHELL PORCELAIN. 



Egg-shell porcelain of very, delicate workmanship was produced, but 

 owing to its extreme fragility good specimens are now very difficult to 

 obtain. It appears also to have had a tendency to crack during the 

 process of firing. These porcelains are termed among the Chinese 

 t^o-Pai, or porcelain from which the "embryo" or biscuit has been re- 

 moved, and are divided into two classes : " True t^o-Pai,''^ the very thin, 

 also known as egg-shell {tan-pH or luan-mu) and "semi Po-Pai,''^ the 

 somewhat thicker. The true PoPai especially present great difficulties 

 in the manufacture and require extraordinary dexterity in the hand- 

 ling, for so thin is the portion of the body the workman allows to re- 

 main, that it seems as though all had been removed ; audit is only quite 

 recently that the government manufactory at Sevres has succeeded in 

 producing such porcelain, and then by an entirely different process, 

 by casting or moulage en barhotine. 



The work translated by M. Julien states that while the production of 

 this ware originated during the Yunglo period it was only the thicker 

 variety that was then mads, and that the true Po-Pai dates from a later 

 epoch, having been produced during the Ch'enghua period (1465 to 1487) 

 at the government manufactory and during the Lungch'ing (1567 to 1572) 

 and Wanli (1573 to 1619) periods at private factories. This statement 

 appears, however, to be erroneous; for in No. 295 of this collection will 

 be found a specimen, so at least Chinese experts state, of the semi fofai 



* Hirth: Oj?. ctt, p. 65. 



