Note 368 — Chapter XI · K’ANG HSI MONOCHROMES

The Tao lu (see Julien, p. 214) informs us that the sui ch’i yu (crackle ware glaze) was made from briquettes formed of the natural rock of San-pao-p’êng. If highly refined this material produced small crackle; if less carefully refined, coarse crackle. In reference to sui ch’i in an earlier part of the same work, we are told that the Sung potters mixed hua shih with the glaze to produce crackle. Hua shih is a material of the nature of steatite, and Bushell (O. C. A., p. 447) states that the Chinese potters mix powdered steatite with the glaze to make it crackle. It is, then, highly probable that the “white pebbles” of Père d’Entrecolles and the rock of San-pao-p’êng are the same material and of a steatitic nature.