‖ wu ts'ai
(wu tsai)
Also wucai, Wu ts'ai.
[Chinese wŭcăi, f. wŭ five + căi colour.]
Polychrome; polychrome decoration in enamels applied to porcelain; porcelain with polychrome decoration esp. of the Ming and Qing dynasties.
| 1904 E. Dillon Porcelain vii. 101 We come again to a pentad of colour—not, however, quite the same as the wu-tsai of Wan-li times. 1906 S. W. Bushell Chinese Art II. viii. 32 The ordinary class of polychrome (wu ts'ai) decoration of the Ming period. 1915 R. L. Hobson Chinese Pott. & Porc. II. ii. 8 There are the beautiful barrel-shaped seats, some with openwork ground, the designs filled in with colours (wu ts‘ai). 1964 M. Medley Handbk. Chinese Art 88/1 Wu-ts‘ai.., a term applied to porcelains of the Ming and Ch'ing Dynasties decorated in overglaze enamel colours, and often with coarsely-handled under-glaze blue. 1971 L. A. Boger Dict. World Pott. & Porc. 115/1 Wu ts'ai, which is practically a Chinese way of saying polychrome, is most commonly applied to a decoration comprising designs painted in enamel colors. 1980 Catal. Fine Chinese Ceramics (Sotheby, Hong Kong) 62 A fine pair of wucai (wu ts'ai) square Dishes of shallow flared form with brown-edged rims. |