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D. J. FINN, S.J.

figure, but there seems to be another element which is incomplete at the edge of the stamp. All the fragments found by me seem to have been from one pot. One piece has been recognized at 36 inches. It was for economy of photography (under scanty finance) that I have chosen this piece to show basket" and pattern at once. Other pieces are very large and show the pattern to have been like that on a brick in the "Five Storied Pagoda Museum in Canton; the brick is assigned to the Period "Han to Sung." It may be noted here that the same Museum has other bricks showing diaper patterns like. 1.b.i. with hollow central lozenge and these also are assigned to the same wide period; one with a simple diaper net is assigned to "Early Han." A very similar pattern in which however the lozenges are set normal- ly and not diagonally covers the bronze bell depicted in (3) Vol. I, p. 143 and this bell is dated by an inscription as made in the second year of Sui ho i.e. 7 B.C.

1.d.ii. Fragment 12 is based on a series of inscribed squares con- structed on a common pair of intersecting diagonals. This fragment (unique in my collection) has the merit of proving the use of a stamp by the presence of the same irregularity in the right hand side of the innermost square in each impression. Mr. Schofield has a large piece of the same pot and Professor Shellshear has its neck.

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I.e. A series using circular impressions. One pot of the fabric re- presented by Plate 33, figure 2 shows a central circular mark (not hollow ring) surrounded by a roughly circular ring; evidently the impression of the end of a stick. More developed forms are represented by the fragments 13, 14 and 15. 13 and 14 show the connection with the rest of the series in the basket pattern and differ from 15 very much as 5 differs from 7 or 8, one is more near the square, the other the oblong. Figure 15 shows how the matrix of the stamped unit pattern was made to dovetail between the repeti- tions on fragment 13, the stamping has produced blurs by overprinting. This series is reminiscent of the scale patterns that occur on Chinese bronzes attributed to the Chou period.

For this group I cannot produce any depth record as all fragments have been found on surface. However they belong

However they belong by general fabric to the same series as the most typical of our ware below, 1.h. The ware is usually hard, well levigated stone-ware type of a buff colour.

1.f. This is represented only by one large fragment of great interest, fragment 4.

The neck shows the basket pattern and is "attached" by an almost level strip showing a 7-pricked "stitch " motive: the inner side of the neck has a factory mark made with a semi-circular sweep of the 7-pronged "stitch" comb. The body of the vase shows a zig-zag which after long hesitations I now regard as stamped, the breadth of the stamp seemingly being 7 rows and its height about an inch and a quarter. This fragment was pick- ed up on the surface, but its factory mark (with which we shall deal later on in a special article devoted to these characteristic marks), its shape, fabric and ware, link it surely with this whole series. The ware is a pleasant buff red of softish feel. Perhaps intended for glazing.

1.g. The fragment of this pot on experiment proved unsatisfactory for photographing, but later on when we come to deal with the glazed ware,

The Hong Kong Naturalist.

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