From the various accounts on which we have to depend for our conception of the ware, it is clear that the body was of a dark colour.[96] The glaze was thick and of a colour variously described as "approaching the blue of the sky after rain" (i.e. like the Ch´ai ware), pale blue or green,[97] and "egg white"[98] which seems to imply a white ware with a faint greenish tinge. The author of the _Ch'ing pi tsang_,[99] a work of considerable repute published in 1595, gives a first-hand description of the ware: "Ju yao I have seen. Its colour is 'egg white' and its glaze is lustrous and thick like massed lard. In the glaze appear faint 'palm eye' markings like crabs' claws.[100] Specimens with sesamum designs (lit. flowers), finely and minutely engraved on the bottom, are genuine. As compared with Kuan yao in material and make, it is more rich and unctuous (_tzŭ jun_)." Two mysterious peculiarities have been attributed to the Ju ware, viz. that powdered cornaline was mixed with the glaze, and that a row of nail heads was sometimes found under the base. The first has been taken as merely an imaginative explanation of the lustre of the glaze, but it is certain that some kind of pulverised quartz-like stone was used in the composition of later glazes, such as the "ruby red" (see vol. ii., p. 123). The second, which has been seriously interpreted to mean that actual metal nails were found protruding from the glaze (a physical impossibility, as the metal would inevitably have melted in the kiln), is probably due to a misunderstanding of a difficult Chinese phrase, _chêng ting_,[101] which may mean "engraved with a point" or "cut nails." The former seems to satisfy the requirements of the case, though it would be possible to render the sentence, "having sesamum flowers on the bottom and fine small nails," referring to the little projections often found on the bottom of dishes which have been supported in the kiln on pointed rests or "spurs." In the list of porcelains made at the Imperial potteries about the year 1730[102] we read of imitations of Ju ware from specimens sent down from the Imperial collections. These imitations had in one case an uncrackled glaze on a copper-coloured body, and in the other a glaze with crackle like fish roe; and we may fairly infer that the originals had the same peculiarities. A reputed specimen[103] of modern Ju glaze[104] has a pale greyish green tint, with just a suspicion of blue, and would answer fairly well to the description _tan ch´ing_ or _fên ch´ing_.