HONG KONG BEFORE THE BRITISH
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The pottery is of two kinds, soft and hard. The soft includes bowls, pedestals on which they were balanced, pitchers and jugs and cups like Chinese funerary vessels. There is a gradation from a very soft type, a type as crude as pottery can be, made of clay and sand, fashioned by hand and baked either in the sun or on an open fire, to a slightly harder type, fashioned with more care and marked with a primitive pattern such as the "panier" made probably with a basket of reeds or the "comb" made with a small pronged instrument. Then there is a harder type fashioned on a potter's wheel and given various patterns either whilst it is on the wheel or stamped with a prepared die. Finally there is a very hard type, faultlessly made and baked in a closed oven, with stylised patterns, sometimes glazed and sometimes unglazed and containing in the rim or under the base little signs which look like hallmarks of fabrication. All these types exist side by side. For instance, a large pot of the hardest and most finished type has been found covered with a lid of the rudest and softest material.
The largest pots have a rounded base and could contain as much as a gallon of water. They are often glazed with a very light blue or dark green pigment which has not settled very well on the surface. The chief pattern is the "double F." Another type is a vase with a low pedestal, often very well proportioned, rarely glazed, and bearing a great variety of patterns. This type is sometimes provided with handles through which a string can be passed. A third type is reminiscent of Chinese funerary cups and does not appear to have a definite domestic use. These cups are from 5 to 7 centimetres high and have shallow bowls and long concave pedestals. They are frequently glazed and always seem to have hallmarks under the base such as three wavy lines or a rough upsilon.
Such are the most usual types of vessel. Of course, there are many varieties, and enormous quantities of broken pieces have been found. But from what has been observed, various conclusions can be drawn.
The type of bowl without pedestal is common to-day in the Indonesian countries, though not in China. The resemblance in shape with peasant bowls in the markets in Indo-China and Burma is very striking. The "comb" pattern is also used to-day in