Tang burial wares of a camel, made with
sancai lead-
fluxed glazes, here including
cobalt blue but no green.
Sancai means "three-colours": green, yellow and a creamy white, all in lead-based glazes. In fact some other colours could be used, including
cobalt blue. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as
egg-and-spinach. Sancai wares were northern wares made using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and
fire clays. At kiln sites located at
Tongchuan,
Neiqiu County in
Hebei and
Gongyi in
Henan, -->
Jian Zhan blackwares, mainly comprising tea wares, were made at kilns located in
Jianyang, Fujian province. They reached the peak of their popularity during the Song dynasty. The wares were made using locally won, iron-rich clays and fired in an
oxidising atmosphere at temperatures in the region of . The glaze was made using clay similar to that used for forming the body, except
fluxed with wood-
ash. At high temperatures the molten glaze separate to produce a pattern called "hare's fur". When Jian wares were set tilted for firing, drips run down the side, creating evidence of liquid glaze pooling. Jian tea wares of the Song dynasty were also greatly appreciated and copied in Japan, where they were known as
tenmoku wares.
Jizhou ware Jizhou ware was stoneware, mostly used for tea drinking. It was famous for glaze effects, including a "tortoiseshell" glaze, and the use of real leaves as glaze resists; the leaf burnt away during firing, leaving its outlines in the glaze.
Ding ware Ding (
Wade–Giles:
Ting) ware was produced in
Ding County,
Hebei Province. Already in production when the Song emperors came to power in 940,
Ding ware was the finest porcelain produced in northern China at the time, and was the first to enter the palace for official imperial use. Its paste is white, generally covered with an almost transparent glaze that dripped and collected in "tears", (though some
Ding ware was glazed a monochrome black or brown, white was the much more common type). Overall, the
Ding aesthetic relied more on its elegant shape than ostentatious decoration; designs were understated, either incised or stamped into the clay prior to glazing. Due to the way the dishes were stacked in the kiln, the edged remained unglazed, and had to be rimmed in metal such as gold or silver when used as tableware. Some hundred years later, a Southern Song dynasty writer commented that it was this defect that led to its demise as favoured imperial ware. Since the Song government lost access to these northern kilns when they fled south, it has been argued that Qingbai ware (
see below) was viewed as a replacement for
Ding. Although not as highly ranked as
Ru ware, the late Ming dynasty connoisseur
Gao Lian awards Ding ware a brief mention in his volume
Eight Discourses on the Art of Living. Classified under his sixth discourse, the section on "pure enjoyment of cultured idleness", Master Gao said: "The best sort has marks on it like tear-stains... Great skill and ingenuity is displayed in selecting the forms of the vessels."
Ru ware Bowl Stand
, Chinese, Early 12th century; Buff stoneware, with crackled light bluish green glaze, and a copper edge; London, Victoria and Albert Museum, FE.1–1970Like Ding ware, Ru ware (Wade–Giles: ju'') was produced in North China for imperial use. The Ru kilns were near the Northern Song capital at
Kaifeng. In similar fashion to
Longquan celadons, Ru pieces have small amounts of iron oxide in their glaze that
oxidize and turn greenish when fired in a reducing atmosphere. Ru wares range in colour—from nearly white to a deep robin's egg—and often are covered with reddish-brown crackles. The crackles, or "
crazing", are caused when the glaze cools and contracts faster than the body, thus having to stretch and ultimately to split, (
as seen in the detail at right; see also ). The art historian James Watt comments that the Song dynasty was the first period that viewed crazing as a merit rather than a defect. Moreover, as time went on, the bodies got thinner and thinner, while glazes got thicker, until by the end of the Southern Song the 'green-glaze' was thicker than the body, making it extremely 'fleshy' rather than 'bony,' to use the traditional analogy (
see section on Guan
ware, below). Too, the glaze tends to drip and pool slightly, leaving it thinner at the top, where the clay peeps through. As with Ding ware, the Song imperial court lost access to the Ru kilns after it fled Kaifeng when the
Jurchen-led
Jin dynasty conquered northern China, and settled at
Lin'an (present-day
Hangzhou) in the south. There, the
Emperor Gaozong founded the
Guan yao ('official kilns') right outside the new capital in order to produce imitations of Ru ware. However, posterity has remembered Ru ware as something unmatched by later attempts; Master Gao says, "Compared with Guan yao, the above were of finer substance and more brilliant luster."
Jun ware Jun (Wade–Giles:
chün) ware was a third style of porcelain used at the Northern Song court. Characterized by a thicker body than Ding or Ru ware, Jun is covered with a turquoise and purple glaze, so thick and viscous looking that appears to melting off the golden-brown body. Not only are Jun vessels more thickly potted but their shape is also much more robust than the fine Jun pieces, yet both types were appreciated at the court of
Emperor Huizong. Jun production was centred at Jun-tai in
Yuzhou,
Henan Province.
Ge ware Ge (Wade–Giles:
ko), literally "big-brother" ware, due to a legend of two brothers working in Longquan, one made the typical
celadon style ceramics, the elder made
ge ware, produced in his private kiln. Ming dynasty commentator Gao Lian writes that the
ge kiln took its clay from the same site as
Guan ware, accounting for the difficulty in distinguishing one from the other (though Gao thinks "
Ge is distinctly inferior" to Guan). Overall, Ge remains somewhat elusive, but basically comprises two types—one with a 'warm rice-yellow glaze and two sets of crackles, a more prominent set of darker colour interspersed with a finer set of reddish lines' (called ''chin-ssu t'ieh-hsien'' or 'golden floss and iron threads', which can just faintly be detected on this bowl). The other Ge ware is much like Guan ware, with grayish glaze and one set of crackles. Once thought to have only been manufactured alongside
Longquan celadon, per its legendary founding, Ge is now believed to have also been produced at
Jingdezhen. While similar to Guan ware, Ge typically has a grayish-blue glaze that is fully opaque with an almost matte finish. Its crackle pattern is exaggerated, often standing out in bold black. Though still shrouded in mystery, many specialists believe that Ge ware did not develop until the very late Southern Song dynasty or even the Yuan dynasty. In any case, enthusiasm for it persisted throughout the Ming dynasty;
Wen Zhenheng preferred it to all other types of porcelain, in particular for brush washers and water droppers (although he preferred jade brush washers to porcelain, Guan and Ge were the best ceramic ones, especially if they have scalloped rims). Differences between later Ming imitations of Song/Yuan Ge include: Ming versions substitute a white porcelain body; they tend to be produced in a range of new shapes, for example those for the scholar's studio; glazes tend to be thinner and more lustrous; and slip is applied to the rim and base to simulate the "brown mouth and iron foot" of Guan ware.
Qingbai wares ) with lotus sprays,
Qingbai ware,
Southern Song. The glaze has collected in the carved indentations, where the colour is stronger. Qingbai wares (also called 'yingqing') were made at Jingdezhen and at many other southern kilns from the time of the
Northern Song dynasty until they were eclipsed in the 14th century by underglaze-decorated blue and white wares. Qingbai in
Chinese literally means "clear blue-white". The qingbai glaze is a
porcelain glaze, so-called because it was made using pottery stone. The qingbai glaze is clear, but contains
iron in small amounts. When applied over a white porcelain body the glaze produces a greenish-blue colour that gives the glaze its name. Some have incised or moulded decorations. The Song dynasty qingbai bowl illustrated was likely made at the Jingdezhen village of Hutian, which was also the site of the imperial kilns established in 1004. The bowl has incised decoration, possibly representing clouds or the reflection of clouds in the water. The body is white, translucent and has the texture of very-fine
sugar, indicating that it was made using crushed and refined pottery stone instead of pottery stone and
kaolin. The glaze and the body of the bowl would have been fired together, in a
saggar in a large wood-burning
dragon kiln, typical of southern kilns in the period. Though many Song and Yuan dynasty qingbai bowls were fired upside down in special segmented saggars, a technique first developed at the
Ding kilns in
Hebei province. The rims of such wares were left unglazed but were often bound with bands of
silver,
copper or
lead. One remarkable example of
qingbai porcelain is the so-called
Fonthill Vase, described in a guide for
Fonthill Abbey published in 1823 as "an oriental china bottle, superbly mounted, said to be the earliest known specimen of porcelain introduced into Europe". The vase was made at Jingdezhen, probably around 1300 and was probably sent as a present to
Pope Benedict XII by one of the last
Yuan emperors of China, in 1338. The mounts referred to in the 1823 description were of enamelled silver-gilt and were added to the vase in Europe in 1381. An 18th-century water colour of the vase complete with its mounts exists, but the mounts themselves were removed and lost in the 19th century. The vase is now in the
National Museum of Ireland. It is often held that
qingbai wares were not subject to the higher standards and regulations of the other porcelain wares, since they were made for everyday use. They were mass-produced, and received little attention from scholars and
antiquarians. The Fonthill Vase, given by a Chinese emperor to a pope, might appear to cast at least some doubt on this view.
Blue and white wares (1661 to 1722) blue and white porcelain
tea caddy Following in the tradition of earlier
qingbai porcelains, blue and white wares are glazed using a transparent
porcelain glaze. The blue decoration is painted onto the body of the porcelain before glazing, using very finely ground
cobalt oxide mixed with water. After the decoration has been applied the pieces are glazed and fired. It is believed that underglaze blue and white porcelain was first made in the
Tang dynasty. Only three complete pieces of Tang blue and white porcelain are known to exist (in Singapore from the Indonesian Belitung shipwreck), but shards dating to the 8th or 9th century have been unearthed at
Yangzhou in
Jiangsu Province. It has been suggested that the shards originated from a kiln in the province of
Henan. In 1957, excavations at the site of a
pagoda in
Zhejiang province uncovered a Northern Song bowl decorated with underglaze blue and further fragments have since been discovered at the same site. In 1970 a small fragment of a blue and white bowl, again dated to the 11th century, was also excavated in the province of Zhejiang. In 1975, shards decorated with underglaze blue were excavated at a kiln site in
Jiangxi and, in the same year, an underglaze blue and white
urn was excavated from a tomb dated to 1319, in the province of
Jiangsu. It is of interest to note that a Yuan
funerary urn decorated with underglaze blue and underglaze red and dated 1338 is still in the Chinese taste, even though by this time the large-scale production of blue and white porcelain in the Yuan dynasty,
Mongol taste had started its influence at Jingdezhen. Starting early in the 14th century, blue and white porcelain rapidly became the main product of Jingdezhen, reaching the height of its technical excellence during the later years of the reign of the
Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722) and continuing in present times to be an important product of the city. The
tea caddy illustrated shows many of the characteristics of blue and white porcelain produced during the Kangxi period. The translucent body showing through the clear glaze is of great whiteness and the cobalt decoration, applied in many layers, has a fine blue
hue. The decoration, a sage in a landscape of lakes and mountains with
blazed rocks is typical of the period. The piece would have been fired in a
saggar (a lidded ceramic box intended to protect the piece from kiln debris, smoke and cinders during firing) in a
reducing atmosphere in a wood-burning
egg-shaped kiln, at a temperature approaching . Distinctive blue-and-white porcelain was exported to Japan, where it is known as
Tenkei blue-and-white ware or
ko sometsukei. This ware is thought to have been especially ordered by tea masters for the
Japanese ceremony.
Blanc de Chine , Qing dynasty (17th century). Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Blanc de Chine is a type of white porcelain made at
Dehua in
Fujian province. It has been produced from the
Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to the present day. Large quantities arrived in Europe as
Chinese export porcelain in the early 18th century and it was copied at
Meissen and elsewhere. The area along the Fujian coast was traditionally one of the main ceramic exporting centres. Over 180 kiln sites have been identified extending in historical range from the Song dynasty to the present. From the Ming dynasty, porcelain objects were manufactured that achieved a fusion of glaze and body traditionally referred to as "ivory white" and "milk white". The special characteristic of Dehua porcelain is the very small amount of iron oxide in it, allowing it to be fired in an oxidising atmosphere to a warm white or pale ivory colour. (Wood, 2007) The porcelain body is not very plastic but vessel forms have been made from it. Donnelly, (1969, pp.xi-xii) lists the following types of product: figures, boxes, vases and jars, cups and bowls, fishes, lamps, cup-stands, censers and flowerpots, animals, brush holders, wine and teapots,
Buddhist and
Taoist figures, secular figures and puppets. There was a large output of figures, especially religious figures, e.g.
Guanyin,
Maitreya,
Lohan and Ta-mo figures. cup, with dragon The numerous Dehua porcelain factories today make figures and tableware in modern styles. During the
Cultural Revolution "Dehua artisans applied their very best skills to produce immaculate statuettes of
Mao Zedong and the Communist leaders. Portraits of the stars of the new proletarian opera in their most famous roles were produced on a truly massive scale." Mao Zedong figures later fell out of favour but have been revived for foreign collectors. Notable artists in
blanc de Chine, such as the late Ming period
He Chaozong, signed their creations with their seals. Wares include crisply modeled figures,
cups, bowls and joss stick-holders. Many of the best examples of
blanc de Chine are found in Japan where the white variety was termed
hakugorai or "Korean white", a term often found in
tea ceremony circles. The
British Museum in London has a large number of
blanc de Chine pieces, having received as a gift in 1980 the entire collection of P.J. Donnelly.
Painted colours '' jar with the
Eight Immortals, Ming,
Wanli reign, 1573–1620 Chinese court taste long favoured monochrome wares, and although the Yuan dynasty saw blue and white porcelain accepted by the court, more fully polychrome styles took much longer to be accepted. Initially blue from
cobalt was almost the only pigment that could withstand the high temperature of a porcelain firing without discolouring, but gradually (mostly during the Ming period) others were found, or the extra cost of a second firing at a lower temperature to fix
overglaze enamels was accepted. Copper-reds could produce highly effective results underglaze, but at the cost of an extremely high proportion of greyish rejects, some of which remain in circulation, and thousands more of which have been found when kiln waste-heaps have been excavated. Eventually underglaze blue and overglaze red became the usual way of achieving the same result. Overglaze painting, usually called "enamels", was widely used in the popular
Cizhou ware stonewares, and was sometimes experimented with by kilns producing for the court, but not until the 15th century, under the Ming, was the
doucai technique used for imperial wares. This combined underglaze blue outlines with overglaze enamels in further colours. The
wucai technique was a similar combination, with underglaze blue used more widely for highlights. Two-colour wares, using underglaze blue and an overglaze colour, usually red, also produced very fine results. A number of different other methods using coloured glazes were tried, often with images lightly incised into the body. The
fahua technique outlined areas of coloured decoration with raised trails of slip, and the subtle "secret" (
an hua) technique decorated using very light incisions that could hardly be seen. As the range of glaze colours expanded, the taste for monochrome wares, now in the new strong colours, returned, and with it a number of special glazing effects were developed, including the return of crackle and spotty effects made by blowing powdered pigment onto the piece.
Classification by colour, the groups The next development saw a group of 'families', or palettes of enamel colours used on Chinese porcelain. These are commonly known by their French names of , based on the dominant element in each colour palette are terms used to classify. A large proportion of these were
export wares but some were made for the Imperial court. • Famille verte (,
Kangxi wucai, also ,
susancai, 'three colours on a plain [unglazed or thinly glazed] body'), adopted in the
Kangxi period (1661–1722), uses green and
iron red with other overglaze colours. It developed from the
wucai (, "five colours") style. • 'Famille jaune is a variation using
enamels on a yellow ground (), often painted on the
biscuit. • Famille noire (,
modi susancai) is another subtype of , but it uses a black ground. Many and pieces were "clobbered" with the yellow or black added in the 19th century. • Famille rose (known in Chinese as
fencai ( or
ruancai ( / ), 'soft colours' or 'pale colours'),
Yangcai (), lit. 'foreign colours'), and
falangcai (, lit. 'enamel colours'), was introduced late in the reign of the
Kangxi Emperor (1661–1722), possibly around 1720. It used mainly pink or purple and remained popular throughout the 18th and the 19th centuries, also being widely adopted by European factories. enamel ware allows a greater range of colour and tone than was previously possible, enabling the depiction of more complex images. == Stoneware ==