The brown glazes, according to Père d'Entrecolles in a letter dated 1712, were at that time quite recent inventions, and he applied the same remarks to the coffee-colour glazes. The black glaze has been noted. It has several varieties--the dull black itself, the dull black glazed over with green so as to make a bright black giving a green tinge only at the edges, and the Tsing black, which is an uncommon brilliant black familiarly known as mirror black.
[Illustration: "CLAIRE DE LUNE" SELF COLOUR. CRACKLE PORCELAIN.
Another production of the Chinese which has never been successfully produced in Europe is this crackled or crackle ware. They were very proficient in producing regulated crackles, large, small, or medium, and that which was no doubt at first accidental became one of the most important and successful means of decoration. Some pieces, indeed, are really marvellous, showing successive bands of crackle ornament, coloured decoration, self-colour, and white, others have a double network--_double réseau_--with the crackle coloured simultaneously in two tones. Historically this ware is of great antiquity, being noted during the Sung dynasty (960-1270). As a rule, the clay employed is very coarse, of a buff or a pale red colour merging into white. It comes under the designation of porcelain because the Chinese do not differentiate between that which is opaque and translucent.
The illustration, unfortunately, does not show the colour, the beautiful _claire de lune_, which is so rare and so indescribable. The specimen of _sang de bœuf_ given under "Self-colours" is, like this, a fungus of the genus _Agaricus_, the emblem of longevity, because it was practically indestructible. It was also emblematical of fertility. Emerson wrote, "Nobody cares for planting the poor fungus; so Nature shakes down from the gills of one poor _agaric_ countless spores." The fungus is used as a mark, as decoration, and, as we have shown, in vase form. Probably its shape and symbolism gave rise to the Joo-e sceptre and to the wide adoption of the Joo-e-head form in ornament. Note that red-coloured crackle glazes are rarely found, and that apple-green, turquoise-blue, and _clair de lune_ are the most desirable colours in crackle. Feen-lung.]