Had Persia a True Porcelain?--Classification, and the Difficulties Attending It.--Decoration.--Classes Formed by Prevailing Color. Although the discussion was long maintained, whether or not Persia produced a true kaolinic porcelain, there seems to be no real ground for doubting that such was the case. That India produced porcelain we have already seen, and it becomes a question whether the art was not practised elsewhere in Central Asia. The evidence bearing upon the point clearly shows that Persia possessed the materials for making a pure kaolinic porcelain. The presence of Chinese works and styles does not affect the question. These may either have been the work of Persian artists imitating Chinese models, or of Chinese artists working in Persian material. The Persians call porcelain _tchini_, a name clearly indicating that in one of the above ways they were indebted to the Chinese. By reason of the qualities of the paste already noted, the classification of Persian porcelain is a matter of some difficulty. The analysis which could alone decide the class to which the specimens belong is in a great measure wanting. It may be inferred that two pieces, apparently distinct in composition, may be really identical, and representative merely of the successive changes effected by firing upon the silicious paste. The most ancient kind is not older than the Mussulman incursion. When subjected to a great heat it melts like glass. [Illustration: Fig. 143.--Persian Porcelain Wine Bottle. Decoration in Blue. (Jacquemart Coll.)] [Illustration: Fig. 144.--Porcelain Narghili.] What is called “soft porcelain” is not, properly speaking, a distinct variety. It differs from the others in decoration, but not to any perceptible extent in composition. The paste is very translucent, and the glaze even. The external decoration is frequently blue or a tint of mixed brown and yellow, upon which appear flowers and arabesques (Fig. 143). Cups and basins are the shapes most frequently occurring, and the first decorative feature is that the outside and inside are seldom alike. The latter may be white, with copper-lust re decoration, and the outside may be in either of the two colors above mentioned. A style of decoration very widely followed consists of a series of holes cut in the paste round the rim of the basin or bowl, and filled in with the glaze. This method was adopted at a very early period, and reappears in the “grains of rice” work of China. A later specimen--probably not more than two hundred years old--of Persian “soft” porcelain has its upper and lower parts in blue and white, with lustred ornamentation.