The two other potters of this period whose names have survived are Ou of Yi-hsing fame (vol. i., p. 181) and Chou Tan-ch’üan, whose wonderful imitations of Sung Ting ware have been described in vol. i., p. 94. Many clever imitations of this latter porcelain were made at Ching-tê Chên in the Wan Li period, and a special material, _ch’ing-t’ien_[164] stone, was employed for the purpose; but the followers of Ch’ou Tan-ch’üan were not so successful as their master, and their wares are described as over-elaborate in decoration and quite inferior to Ch’ou’s productions. There was one type, however, which is specially mentioned, the oblong rectangular boxes made to hold seal-vermilion. These are described in a sixteenth-century work[165] as either pure white or painted in blue, and usually six or seven inches long. They are accorded a paragraph in the _T’ao shuo_[166] under the heading of _fang ting_ or “imitation Ting ware,” and they were probably of that soft-looking, creamy white crackled ware to which Western collectors have given the misleading name of “soft paste.”[167] Another private manufacture specially mentioned in the _T’ao lu_[168] was located in a street called _Hsiao nan_ [chch 2] where, we are told, “they made wares of small size only, like a squatting frog, and called for that reason frog wares (_ha ma[169] yao_). Though coarse, they were of correct form; the material was yellowish, but the body of the ware was thin; and though small, the vessels were strong. One kind of bowl was white in colour with a tinge of blue (_tai ch’ing_), and decorated in blue with a single orchid spray or bamboo leaves; and even those which had no painted design had one or two rings of blue at the mouth. These were called “white rice vessels” (_pai fan ch’i_). There were, besides, bowls with wide mouths and flattened rims (_p’ieh t’an_)[170] but shallow, and pure white, imitating the Sung bowls. All these wares had a great vogue, both at the time and at the beginning of the present (i.e. the Ch’ing) dynasty.”