and phœnix designs which are scarcely inferior to the altar cups. At the bottom the characters _ta ming hsüan tê nien chih_[25] are secretly engraved in the paste, and the texture of the glaze is uneven, like orange peel.[26] How can even Ting porcelain compare with these? Truly they are the most excellent porcelains of this reign, and unfortunately there have not been many to be seen since then. Again, there are the beautiful barrel-shaped seats, some with openwork ground, the designs filled in with colours (_wu ts’ai_), gorgeous as cloud brocades, others with solid ground filled in with colours in engraved floral designs, so beautiful and brilliant as to dazzle the eye; both sorts have a deep green (_ch’ing_) background. Others have blue (_lan_) ground, filled in with designs in colours (_wu ts’ai_), like ornament carved in cobalt blue (_shih ch’ing_, lit. stone blue). There is also blue decoration on a white ground and crackled grounds like ice. The form and ornament of these various types do not seem to have been known before this period.” [Illustration: Plate 60.--Reputed Hsüan Tê Porcelain. Fig. 1.--Flask with blue decoration, reputed to be Hsüan Tê period. Height 3¼ inches. _British Museum_. Fig. 2.--Brush Rest. (?) Chang Ch’ien on a log raft; partly biscuit. Inscribed with a stanza of verse and the Hsüan Tê mark. Length 6 inches. _Grandidier Collection._] [Illustration: Plate 61.--Porcelain with _san ts’ai_ glazes on the biscuit. Fig. 1.--Wine Jar with pierced casing, the Taoist Immortals paying court to the God of Longevity, turquoise blue ground. Fifteenth century. Height 11½ inches. _Eumorfopoulos Collection._ Fig. 2.--Screen with design in relief, horsemen on a mountain path, dark blue ground. About 1500. Height 14 inches. _Benson Collection._] It will be seen from the above that the Hsüan Tê porcelains included a fine white, blue and white and polychrome painted wares, underglaze red painted wares, and crackle. The last mentioned is further specified in the _Ch’ing pi tsang_ as having “eel’s blood lines,”[27] and almost rivalling the Kuan and Ju wares. The ware was thick and strong, and the glaze had the peculiar undulating appearance (variously compared to chicken skin, orange peel, millet grains, or a wind ruffled surface) which was deliberately produced on the eighteenth century porcelains. Another surface peculiarity shared by the Hsüan Tê and Yung Lo wares was “palm eye” (_tsung yen_) markings, which Bushell explains as holes in the glaze due to air bubbles. It is hard to see how these can have been other than a defect. Probably both these and the orange peel effects were purely fortuitous at this time.