[210] Other saucers of this kind have a decoration of radiating floral sprays, and there are bowls of a familiar type with small sprays engraved and filled in with coloured glazes in a ground of green or aubergine purple. Some of these have a rough biscuit suggesting the late Ming period; others of finer finish apparently belong to the K’ang Hsi period. They often have indistinct seal marks, known as “shop marks,” in blue. [211] _Burlington Magazine_, December, 1910, p. 169, and March, 1913, p. 311. [212] Figured in Monkhouse, op. cit., Fig. 2. The date of the mount is disputed, some authorities placing it at the end of the sixteenth century. [213] Figured by Perzynski, _Burlington Magazine_, March, 1913. A vase of this style with tulip design in the palace at Charlottenburg has a cyclical date in the decoration, which represents 1639 or 1699 (probably the former) in our chronology. [214] [chch 3] _pai tun tzŭ_ white blocks. [215] A sixteenth-century work. See p. 2. [216] Many observers positively assert that the grooved foot rim does not occur on pre-K’ang Hsi porcelain. If this is true, it provides a very useful rule for dating; but the rigid application of these rules of thumb is rarely possible, and we can only regard them as useful but not infallible guides. [217] Quoted in _T’ao lu_, bk. viii., fol. 6. [218] _fu ti._ [219] _Man hsin._ [220] See _T’ao shuo_, bk. iii., fol. 7 verso. “Among other things the porcelain with glaze lustrous and thick like massed lard, and which has millet grains rising like chicken skin and displays palm eyes (_tsung yen_) like orange skin, is prized.” The expression “palm eyes” occurring by itself in other contexts has given rise to conflicting opinions, but its use here, qualified by the comparison with orange peel and in contrast with the granular elevations, points clearly to some sort of depressions or pittings which, being characteristic of the classical porcelain, came to be regarded as beauty spots. [221] e.g. The _P’ing shih_, the _P’ing hua p’u_, and the _Chang wu chih_, all late Ming works. An extract from the second (quoted in the _T’ao lu_, bk. ix., p. 4 verso) tells us that “Chang Tê-ch’ien says all who arrange flowers first must choose vases. For summer and autumn you should use porcelain vases. For the hall and large rooms large vases are fitting; for the study, small ones. Avoid circular arrangement and avoid pairs. Prize the porcelain and disdain gold and silver. Esteem pure elegance. The mouth of the vase should be small and the foot thick. Choose these. They stand firm, and do not emit vapours.” Tin linings, we are also told, should be used in winter to prevent the frost cracking the porcelain; and _Chang wu chih_ (quoted _ibidem_, fol. 6 verso) speaks of very large Lung-ch’üan and Chün ware vases, two or three feet high, as very suitable for putting old prunus boughs in.