[Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] [Illustration: [Chinese] CHIA CH´ING, 1796-1820.] [Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] [Illustration: [Chinese] TAO KUANG, 1821-1850.] [Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] [Illustration: [Chinese] HSIEN FÊNG, 1851-1861.] [Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] [Illustration: [Chinese] T´UNG CHIH, 1862-1874.] [Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] [Illustration: [Chinese] KUANG HSÜ, 1875-1909.] [Illustration: [Chinese] Same in seal characters.] (2) _Hall marks._ The "hall mark," which is of frequent occurrence on both porcelain and pottery, is so called because it includes the word _t´ang_ [Chinese] (hall) or some equivalent such as _chai_ [Chinese] (a study), _t´ing_ [Chinese] (a pavilion), _hsien_ or _hsüan_ [Chinese] (a porch, balcony or pavilion), _kuan_ [Chinese] (a residence or hostelry), _fang_ [Chinese] (a room or house), _chü_ [Chinese] (a dwelling). The word _t´ang_ as explained in Giles's Dictionary is "a hall: especially a hall of justice or court; the ancestral hall; an official title." _T´ang ming_ is "the family hall name--a fancy name usually consisting of two characters followed by _t´ang_ (e.g. _wu tê t´ang chin_ = Chin of the military valour hall), and referring to some event in family history. It is generally inscribed in one of the principal rooms of the house, and is used in deeds, on graves, boundary stones, etc." The hall mark, then, may contain the studio name of the maker or of the recipient of the ware, or it may have reference literally to the building for which the ware was intended. The last interpretation can be generally applied to the marks referring to halls or pavilions in the precincts of the Imperial palace. Again, the hall may be the shop of a dealer who ordered the goods. But in the absence of prepositions, it is not always--not often, I should perhaps say--possible to determine which of these alternatives is implied in any particular hallmark; e.g. [Chinese] _Lin yü t´ang chih_ may mean "made in the Abundant-Jade Hall," or "for" the same, or by a man whose studio name was _Lin-yü t´ang_. As to the antiquity of hall marks, it was not considered anachronistic to cut one on a Han granary urn which is now in the British Museum; but unfortunately as the cutting was done after the ware was baked it is now impossible to say at what period it was executed. A Sung example is quoted in the _Ni ku lu_ (written in the middle of the sixteenth century) as inscribed on a Ting Chou vase in the handwriting of the Mi family, viz., _jên ho kuan_ [Chinese] (Hotel of Benevolence and Harmony). A similar mark similarly placed is [Chinese] _jên ts´un t´ang_ (Hall of Benevolence), on a Tz´ŭ Chou jar in the Eumorfopoulos Collection.