From these facts, and those previously narrated, it is evident that to compare porcelain with jade is to compliment it in terms beyond which Chinese language cannot go. Nothing higher or more laudatory can be said of it, and we can thus form some idea of the extreme beauty of the almost opalescent white porcelain of the Siouen-te and Wan-li periods. The admiration of the Chinese for this stone in colors now unknown may possibly also have inspired them to attempt its imitation in many of the finest colors which claim our admiration. The passage quoted from Confucius further suggests that even crackle may have originated in trying to reproduce in pottery and porcelain the cracked variety of jade. Equal to the turquoise in purity is the violet obtained from the oxide of manganese. Two artists (father and daughter) named Chou, made very beautiful porcelain of this color during the Song Dynasty. Specimens are now very rare, their brilliancy and richness leading collectors to grasp with avidity at any opportunity of becoming possessors of a good example. [Illustration: Fig. 102.--Chinese Five-fingered Rosadon. Blood color, shading from crimson to scarlet. Upper rim, cloudy white. (G. W. Wales Coll., Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)] The aubergine, or purple egg-plant violet, was also made under the Song, and is one of the celebrated productions of Kiun, in the province of Ho-nan. This is, however, inferior in beauty to the manganese violet. There is a third tint, of great softness and beauty. The violet is often used in conjunction with turquoise blue, as in a crackle teapot in the Avery collection in the shape of the peach of longevity, in which the body is violet, and the spout and decorating leaves, which are in relief, are in turquoise blue. The colors are also found intermingled in such groups as the Dogs of Fo sporting. Very curious effects are produced by shading the violet on either hand to blue and red. In pieces of this character the blue will be found on the base, and the color changes as it ascends, becoming a rich violet on the body and red on the top. The violet is treated in a manner precisely similar to the turquoise, the pieces being frequently decorated with incised designs.