Chrysanthemum styled porcelain vase with three colors from the Ming Dynasty at the National Museum of China

Chinese Ceramics is a form of fine art developed since the dynastic periods. China have always been richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types were made about 11,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese Ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns to the sophisticated porcelain wares made for the imperial court. Species Chrysanthemum aphrodite Chrysanthemum arcticum Chrysanthemum argyrophyllum Chrysanthemum arisanense Chrysanthemum boreale Chrysanthemum chalchingolicum Chrysanthemum chanetii Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium Chrysanthemum crassum Chrysanthemum glabriusculum Chrysanthemum hypargyrum Chrysanthemum indicum Chrysanthemum japonense Chrysanthemum japonicum Chrysanthemum lavandulifolium Chrysanthemum mawii Chrysanthemum maximowiczii Chrysanthemum mongolicum Chrysanthemum morifolium Chrysanthemum morii Chrysanthemum okiense Chrysanthemum oreastrum Chrysanthemum ornatum Chrysanthemum pacificum Chrysanthemum... For other uses, see Ming. ... The National Museum of China, a four-storied main building with two symmetrical wings, runs more than 300 meters north and south along the eastern side of Tiananmen Square. ... Fine art refers to arts that are concerned with beauty or which appealed to taste (SOED 1991). ... Below is a table of the dynasties in Chinese history. ... Fixed Partial Denture, or Bridge The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word κεραμικός (keramikos). ... Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ...

Introduction

Terminology

The Chinese term for porcelain (Chinese: 瓷, cí) covers a wide range of high-fired ceramics, some of which would probably not be recognized as porcelain under certain Western definitions. It is usually green-fired or once-fired, which means that the body and the glaze are fired together. After the body of a piece is formed and finished it is dried, coated with a glaze, dried again and fired. In the high temperature of the kiln the body and the glaze are fused together to become a unit. Chinese enamelled wares are also produced in this way, except enamels are added after the first high-temperature firing. The pieces are then fired again in a second round via a smaller, lower-temperature kiln. This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... Madonna with Child and Angels, ceramica glaze by Renaissance artist Andrea della Robbia. ... Charcoal Kilns, California Gold Kiln, Victoria, Australia Hop kiln. ... In a discussion of art technology, enamel (or vitreous enamel, or porcelain enamel in American English) is the colorful result of fusion of powdered glass to a substrate through the process of firing, usually between 750 and 850 degrees Celsius. ...

Categories

In Western tradition, ceramics are often grouped into three main categories, earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The Chinese tradition recognises only two primary categories of ceramics, high-fired [cí 瓷] and low-fired [táo 匋] ^[1]. The oldest Chinese dictionaries define porcelain [cí 瓷] as "fine, compact pottery" [táo 匋] ^[2]. In the West the property of translucence is often regarded as a defining feature of porcelain, but this is not the case in China, where any thick or opaque piece that rings with a reasonably clear note on being struck would be regarded as porcelain [cí 瓷] ^[2]. Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects. ... A Staffordshire stoneware plate from the 1850s with transferred copper print - (From the home of JL Runeberg) Stoneware is a category of clay and a type of ceramic distinguished primarily by its firing and maturation temperature (from about 1200°C to 1315 °C). ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ... The Erya (爾雅) is a Chinese dictionary from before the first century. ... Transparent glass ball In optics, transparency is the property of allowing light to pass. ... A substance or object that is opaque is neither transparent nor translucent. ...

Chinese ceramic wares are also classified as being either northern or southern. Present-day China comprises two separate and geologically different land masses, brought together by the action of continental drift and forming a junction that lies between the Yellow river and the Yangtze river. The contrasting geology of the north and south led to differences in the raw materials available for making ceramics. The Yellow River (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: Huáng Hé ; Wade-Giles: Hwang-ho, sometimes simply called the River in ancient Chinese) is the second longest river in China (after Yangtze River) and the fourth longest in the world, at 3,395 km long [1]. Originating in the... The Yangtze River or Chang Jiang (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ), or Drichu in Tibetan (Tibetan: འབྲི་ཆུ་; Wylie: bri chu) is the longest river in Asia and the third longest in the world after the Nile in Africa and the Amazon in South America. ...

Materials

Chinese porcelain is mainly made by the following two materials or a combination of the two. Both rocks derive from the weathering and decomposition of granitic rocks. Granite is a common and widely-occurring group of intrusive felsic igneous rocks that form at great depths and pressures under continents. ... The rocky side of a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. ...

• China clay / (Gaoling) - comprises largely of the clay mineral kaolinite.
• Chinese porcelain stone - also generically known as petunse, is a micaceous rock containing sericite and other minerals including quartz^[3].

Both are comprised of platy minerals consisting of small platelets that ultimately allow the material to hold large amounts of water. This is important as various methods used for forming the body parts depend on the application of compression to align the platelets. One example is throwing on a wheel to increase the plasticity and workability of the clay body. Kaolin Kaolinite (Aluminium Silicate Hydroxide) Kaolinite is a clay mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. ... Petuntse (from 白墩子 in pinyin: bai2 dun1 zi0), also spelled petunse, also known as china stone, is a granite-derived feldspar. ... Rock with mica Mica sheet Mica flakes The mica group of minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. ... The rocky side of a mountain creek near Orosí, Costa Rica. ... Sericite is a fine grained mica, either muscovite, illite, or paragonite. ... Quartz is one of the most common minerals in the Earths continental crust. ... Impact from a water drop causes an upward rebound jet surrounded by circular capillary waves. ... Physical compression is the result of the subjection of a material to compressive stress, resulting in reduction of volume. ... Unfired green ware pottery on a traditional drying rack at Conner Prairie living history museum. ... Classic potters kick-wheel at Erfurt, Germany The potters wheel, also known as the potters lathe, is a machine used in the shaping of round ceramic wares. ... Look up plasticity in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

History

Defining ceramics

In the context of Chinese ceramics the term porcelain lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made. Claims have been made for the late Eastern Han period (100 to 200 AD), the Three Kingdoms period (220 to 280 AD), the Six Dynasties period (220 to 589 AD), and the Tang Dynasty (618 to 906 AD). The Han Dynasty (Traditional Chinese characters: 漢朝, Simplified Chinese characters: 汉朝, pinyin Hàncháo 202 BC - AD 220) followed the Qin Dynasty and preceded the Three Kingdoms in China. ... The Three Kingdoms period (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; pinyin: ) is a period in the history of China, part of an era of disunity called the Six Dynasties. ... Six Dynasties (六朝) is a collective noun for the six Chinese dynasties, namely the Kingdom of Wu, Eastern Jin Dynasty, Song Dynasty, Qi Dynasty, Liang Dynasty and Chen Dynasty. ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ...

Early wares

Fragments of pottery vessels dating from around the year 9000 BC found at the Xianrendong (Spirit Cave) site, Wannian County, in the province of Jiangxi represent some of the earliest known Chinese ceramics. The wares were hand-made by coiling and fired in bonfires. Decorations include impressed cord marks, and features produced by stamping and by piercing. Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... A coil is a series of loops. ... For the AC/DC box set, see Bonfire (album) For the German band called Bonfire, see Bonfire (band) A bonfire (commonly mispronounced bombfire) is a large controlled outdoor fire made from bales of straw or wood. ...

The Xianrendong site was occupied from about 9000 BC to about 4000 BC. During this period two types of pottery were made. The first consisted of coarse-bodied wares possibly intended for everyday use. The second being finer, thinner-bodied wares possibly intended for ritual use or special occasions. There are archaeological evidence suggesting that both types of wares were produced at the same time at some point.

Han dynasty

Some experts believe the first true porcelain was made in the province of Zhejiang during the Eastern Han period. Chinese experts emphasize the presence of a significant proportion of porcelain-building minerals (china clay, porcelain stone or a combination of both) as an important factor in defining porcelain. Shards recovered from archaeological Eastern Han kiln sites estimated firing temperature ranged from 1260 to 1300°C^[4]. As far back as 1000 BC, the so-called "Porcelaneous wares" or "proto-porcelain wares" were made using at least some kaolin fired at high temperatures. The dividing the line between the two and true porcelain wares is not a clear one. A province, in the context of China, is a translation of Sheng (Chinese: 省 ShÄ›ng), which is an administrative division of China. ... Zhejiang (also spelled Chehkiang or Chekiang) is an eastern coastal province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... In archaeology, a sherd is a fragment of pottery or other ceramic. ... Celsius is, or relates to, the Celsius temperature scale (previously known as the centigrade scale). ... Kaolin Kaolinite (Aluminium Silicate Hydroxide) Kaolinite is a mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. ...

Sui and Tang dynasty

During the Sui and Tang periods (581 to 906) a wide range of ceramics, low-fired and high-fired, were produced. These included the well-known Tang lead-glazed sancai (three-colour) wares, the high-firing, lime-glazed Yue celadon wares and low-fired wares from Changsha. In northern China, high-fired, translucent porcelains were made at kilns in the provinces of Henan and Hebei. The Sui Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; 581-619[1]) followed the Southern and Northern Dynasties and preceded the Tang Dynasty in China. ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

One of the first mentions of porcelain by a foreigner was made by an Arabian traveler during the Tang Dynasty who recorded that: For other uses, see Arab (disambiguation). ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ...

The Arabs was aware of the materials necessary to create glass ware, and he was certain it was not the usual glass material.

Song and Yuan dynasty

While the city of Jingdezhen has been an important production centre since the early Han Dynasty. In 1004 Jingde established the city as the main production hub for Imperial porcelain. During the Song and Yuan dynasties, porcelain made in the city and other southern China kiln sites used crushed and refined porcelain stones alone. Position of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Jingdezhen (Simplified Chinese: 景德镇; Traditional Chinese: 景德鎮; Pinyin: ), or the Town of Jingde, is a prefecture-level city, previously a town, in Jiangxi Province, China, with a city population of 3,112,000 (estimate 2006) has been termed the Porcelain Capital (瓷都) because of its production of quality... Emperor Zhenzong (December 23, 968 - March 23, 1022) was the third emperor of the Song Dynasty of China. ... Northern Song in 1111 AD Capital Kaifeng (960–1127) Linan (1127–1279) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Zhao Kuangyin taking over the throne of the Later Zhou Dynasty 960  - Battle of Yamen; the end of Song rule 1279 Population  - Peak est. ... The four successor Khanates of the Mongol Empire: Empire of the Great Khan (Yuan Dynasty), Golden Horde, Il-Khanate and Chagatai Khanate The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: Yuáncháo; Mongolian: Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus), lasting officially from 1271 to 1368, followed the Song Dynasty and preceded the Ming... Alternative meaning: In geology, North China (continent) and South China (continent) were two ancient landmasses that correspond to modern northern and southern China. ...

Qing dynasty

By the Qing dynasty the letters of Père Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles, a Jesuit missionary and industrial spy who lived in the city, described the manufacturing process^[6]. In his first letter dating 1712, d'Entrecolles described the way in which porcelain stones were crushed, refined and formed into little white bricks, known in Chinese as petuntse. He then went on to describe the refining of china clay kaolin along with the developmental stages of glazing and firing. He explained his motives: The Qing Dynasty (Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ching chao; Manchu: daicing gurun; Mongolian: Манж Чин), occasionally known as the Manchu Dynasty, was the ruling Chinese Dynasties. ... The Society of Jesus (Latin: Societas Iesu), commonly known as the Jesuits, is a Roman Catholic religious order. ... Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). ... Petuntse (from 白墩子 in pinyin: bai2 dun1 zi0), also spelled petunse, also known as china stone, is a granite-derived feldspar. ... Kaolin Kaolinite (Aluminium Silicate Hydroxide) Kaolinite is a mineral with the chemical composition Al2Si2O5(OH)4. ...

Though his first letter did not uncover any recipe secret to the Europeans in any timely fashion. In 1743, during the reign of the Qianlong Emperor, Tang Ying, the imperial supervisor in the city produced a memoir entitled "Twenty illustrations of the manufacture of porcelain." Unfortunately, the original illustrations have been lost, but the text of the memoir is still accessible^[7]. A European is primarily a person who was born into one of the countries within the continent of Europe. ... The Qianlong Emperor (born Hongli, September 25, 1711 – February 7, 1799) was the fifth emperor of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the fourth Qing emperor to rule over China. ...

Jingdezhen became the main production centre for large-scale porcelain exports to Europe starting with the reign of the Wanli emperor from 1572 to 1620. Chinese export porcelain refers to a wide range of porcelain that was made and decorated in China exclusively for export to Europe between the 16th and the 20th century. ... Wanli Emperor Birth and death: Sept. ...

By this time china clay and porcelain stone were mixed in about equal proportions. China clay produced wares of great strength when added to the body layer. Whiteness became a much sought after property, especially when combined to form blue-and-white wares. Porcelain stone was used with lower temperature of 1250°C in the region. Compared to those mixed with china clay, which required 1350°C. The large southern egg-shaped kiln varied greatly in temperature. Near the firebox it was hot. Near the chimney, at the opposite end of the kiln, it was cooler. Celsius is, or relates to, the Celsius temperature scale (previously known as the centigrade scale). ...

Chinese porcelain wares

Tang Dynasty sancai horse at the Shanghai Museum

Tang horse at the Shanghai Museum by Andrew Lih File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Tang horse at the Shanghai Museum by Andrew Lih File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... For the band, see Tang Dynasty (band). ... Shanghai Museum The Shanghai Museum (Chinese:上海博物館) is a museum of ancient Chinese art, situated on the Peoples Square in the Huangpu District of Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China. ...

Tang Sancai burial wares

"Sancai" means three-colours. However, the colours of the glazes used to decorate the wares of the Tang dynasty were not limited to three in number. In the West, Tang sancai wares were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by dealers for the use of green, yellow and white. Though the latter of the two colours might be more properly described as amber and off-white / cream.

Sancai wares were northern wares made using white and buff-firing secondary kaolins and fire clays ^[8]. At kiln sites located at Tongchuan, Neiqui county in Hebei and Gongxian in Henan ^[8], the clays used for burial wares were similar to those used by Tang potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower temperature than contemporaneous whitewares. Burial wares, such as the well-known representations of camels and horses, were cast in sections, in moulds with the parts luted together using clay slip. In some cases, a degree of individuality was imparted to the assembled figurines by hand-carving. Fire clay is a specific kind of clay used in the manufacture of ceramics. ... Tongchuan is a city located in central Shaanxi Province, on the southern fringe of the Northern Shaanxi Plateau and the northern boundary of Guanzhong Plain. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... Look up Potter in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Moldy cream cheese Molds (British English: moulds) are various fungi that cover surfaces as fluffy mycelium and usually produce masses of asexual, sometimes sexual spores. ...

Song Dynasty Jian tea bowl at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Image File history File links Jian_bowl. ... Image File history File links Jian_bowl. ... Northern Song in 1111 AD Capital Kaifeng (960–1127) Linan (1127–1279) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Zhao Kuangyin taking over the throne of the Later Zhou Dynasty 960  - Battle of Yamen; the end of Song rule 1279 Population  - Peak est. ... Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Elevation The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as The Met, is one of the worlds largest and most important art museums. ...

Jian tea wares

Jian blackwares, mainly comprised of tea wares, were made at kilns located in Jianyang of Fujian province. It reached its popularity peak 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 1300°C. 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. Jianyang (建阳; pinyin: Jiànyáng) is a county-level city in Nanping prefecture in the northern part of Fujian province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...   (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Fu-chien; Postal map spelling: Fukien, Foukien; local transliteration Hokkien from Min Nan Hok-kiàn) is one of the provinces on the southeast coast of the Peoples Republic of China. ... Illustration of a redox reaction Redox (shorthand for oxidation/reduction reaction) describes all chemical reactions in which atoms have their oxidation number (oxidation state) changed. ...

The hare's fur Jian tea bowl illustrated in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It was made during the Song dynasty (960 to 1279 AD) and exhibits the typical pooling, or thickening, of the glaze near the bottom. The hare's fur patterning in the glaze of this bowl resulted from the random effect of phase separation during early cooling in the kiln and is unique to this bowl. No two bowls have identical patterning. The bowl also has a dark brown iron-foot which is typical of this style. It would have been fired, probably with several thousand other other pieces, each in its own stackable saggar, in a single-firing in a large dragon kiln. One such kiln, built on the side of a steep hill, was almost 150 metres in length, though most Jian dragon kilns were fewer than 100 metres in length. Metropolitan Museum of Art New York Elevation The Metropolitan Museum of Art, often referred to simply as The Met, is one of the worlds largest and most important art museums. ... NY redirects here. ... Saggars are boxlike containers made of high fire clay or specialized fireclay which are used to enclose pots needing special treatment in the kiln. ... Anagama kiln 1 Door about 75cm wide 2 Firebox. ...

An 11th century resident of Fujian wrote:

Jian tea wares of the Song dynasty were greatly appreciated and copied in Japan, where they were known as tenmoku wares. Phase separation in the iron-rich glazes of Chinese blackwares was also used to produce the well-known oil-spot, teadust and partridge-feather glaze effects. Tenmoku (also spelled temmoku and temoku) is a dark glaze with a surface that resembles oilspotting. ... In the physical sciences, a phase is a set of states of a macroscopic physical system that have relatively uniform chemical composition and physical properties (i. ...

Song Dynasty qingbai bowl

Image File history File linksMetadata Qingbai. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Qingbai. ... Northern Song in 1111 AD Capital Kaifeng (960–1127) Linan (1127–1279) Language(s) Chinese Religion Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism Government Monarchy History  - Zhao Kuangyin taking over the throne of the Later Zhou Dynasty 960  - Battle of Yamen; the end of Song rule 1279 Population  - Peak est. ...

Qingbai wares

Qingbai wares 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 white". The qingbai glaze is a porcelain glaze, so-called because it was made using porcelain 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 (qingbai in Chinese means greenish-blue). Some have incised or moulded decorations. Alternative meaning: Song Dynasty (420-479) The Song dynasty (Chinese: 宋朝) was a ruling dynasty in China from 960-1279. ... General Name, Symbol, Number iron, Fe, 26 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 8, 4, d Appearance lustrous metallic with a grayish tinge Standard atomic weight 55. ...

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 the year 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 porcelain stone instead of porcelain stone and china clay. The glaze and the body of the bowl would have been fired together, in a saggar, possibly in a large wood-burning dragon-kiln or climbing-kiln, typical of southern kilns in the period. Magnification of grains of sugar, showing their monoclinic hemihedral crystalline structure. ... Saggars are boxlike containers made of high fire clay or specialized fireclay which are used to enclose pots needing special treatment in the kiln. ... Anagama kiln 1 Door about 75cm wide 2 Firebox. ...

Though many Song and Yuan 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. Ding Ware Ding ware was produced in the prefecture of Dingzhou, starting from the end of the Tang dynasty and finishing during the Jin dynasty of northern China. ... Hebei (Chinese: 河北; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-pei; Postal System Pinyin: Hopeh) is a northern province of the Peoples Republic of China. ... General Name, Symbol, Number silver, Ag, 47 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 5, d Appearance lustrous white metal Standard atomic weight 107. ... General Name, Symbol, Number copper, Cu, 29 Chemical series transition metals Group, Period, Block 11, 4, d Appearance metallic pinkish red Standard atomic weight 63. ... For Pb as an abbreviation, see PB. General Name, Symbol, Number lead, Pb, 82 Chemical series poor metals Group, Period, Block 14, 6, p Appearance bluish gray Standard atomic weight 207. ...

One remarkable example of qingbai porcelain is the so-called Fonthill Vase, described in a guide for Fonthill Abbey published in 1823 Fonthill Abbey Fonthill Abbey — also known as Beckfords Folly — was a large Gothic-style building built in the turn of the 19th century in Wiltshire, England. ...

The vase was made at Jingdezhen, probably around the year 1300 and was 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. Benedict XII, né Jacques Fournier ( 1280s – April 25, 1342), was Pope from 1334 to 1342. ... The following is a list of Emperors of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. ... The National Museum of Ireland (NMI) is the main museum in Ireland. ... An antiquarian or antiquary is one concerned with antiquities or things of the past. ...

Blue and white wares

Kangxi period (1662 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. Image File history File linksMetadata Bluepot. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Bluepot. ... This article needs cleanup, so as to conform to a higher standard. ... Cobalt oxide is an olive-green solid, which is insoluble in water. ...

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, but shards dating to the 8th or 9th century have been unearthed at Yangzhou in the 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 the province Zhejiang 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. Yangzhou (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; former spellings: Yang-chou, Yangchow; literally Rising Prefecture) is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu province, Peoples Republic of China. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Henan (Chinese: 河南; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ... A pagoda at Sibu, Sarawak, Malaysia This article is about the building style. ... Zhejiang (also spelled Chehkiang or Chekiang) is an eastern coastal province of the Peoples Republic of China. ...

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 the year 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, Mongol taste had started its influence at Jingdezhen. Jiangxi (Chinese: 江西; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-hsi; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsi) is a southern province of the Peoples Republic of China, spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south. ... Maya funerary urn For the computing term, see Uniform Resource Name. ... Jiangsu (Simplified Chinese: 江苏; Traditional Chinese: 江蘇; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chiang-su; Postal System Pinyin: Kiangsu) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located along the east coast of the country. ... Maya funerary urn For the computing term, see Uniform Resource Name. ... The four successor Khanates of the Mongol Empire: Empire of the Great Khan (Yuan Dynasty), Golden Horde, Il-Khanate and Chagatai Khanate The Yuan Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: Yuáncháo; Mongolian: Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus), lasting officially from 1271 to 1368, followed the Song Dynasty and preceded the Ming... Honorary guard of Mongolia. ...

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^[9] and continuing in present times to be an important product of the city. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

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 porcelain body is finely textured, indicating the presence of a significant portion of china clay in the paste. 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 1350°C. An airtight pewter made tea caddy with artistic designs and has dual functions - storing tea leaves or being an ornamental piece A tea caddy is a box, jar, canister or other receptacle for tea. ... An image with the hues cyclically shifted The hues in the image of this Painted Bunting are cyclically rotated with time. ... Saggars are boxlike containers made of high fire clay or specialized fireclay which are used to enclose pots needing special treatment in the kiln. ... A reducing environment is one chacterized by little or no free oxygen (dissolved or as a gas). ... Celsius is, or relates to, the Celsius temperature scale (previously known as the centigrade scale). ...

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 Japanese ceremony. A woman wearing a kimono performs a tea ceremony outdoors, while seated in seiza position. ...

Fakes and reproductions

Kangxi reign mark on a piece of late nineteenth century blue and white porcelain.

Chinese potters have a long tradition of borrowing design and decorative features from earlier wares. Whilst ceramics with features thus borrowed might sometimes pose problems of provenance, they would not generally be regarded as either reproductions or fakes. However, fakes and reproductions have also been made at many times during the long history of Chinese ceramics and continue to be made today in ever-increasing numbers. Image File history File links Kangxi_mark. ... Image File history File links Kangxi_mark. ... Provenance is the origin or source from which anything comes. ...

• Reproductions of Song dynasty Longquan celadon wares were made at Jingdezhen in the early 18th century, but outright fakes were also made using special clay that were artificially aged by boiling in meat broth, refiring and storage in sewers. Père d'Entrecolles records that by this means the wares could be passed off as being hundreds of years old^[6].

• At Jingdezhen the two remaining wood fired, egg-shaped kilns produce convincing reproductions of earlier wares. At Zhejiang province good reproductions of Song Longquan celedon wares continue to be made in large, side-stoked dragon kilns.

• Before World War II, the English potter Bernard Leach found what he took to be genuine Song dynasty cizhou rice-bowls being sold for very little money on the dock of a Chinese port and was surprised to learn that they were in fact newly made.^{[citation needed]}

• In modern times the market for Song dynasty Jian tea-bowls has been severely depressed by the appearance in large numbers of modern fakes good enough to deceive even expert collectors. It is reported that some of these fakes show evidence of having had genuine Song dynasty iron-foot bases grafted onto newly made bodies.

• In the late 19th century fakes of Kangxi period famille noire wares were made that were convincing enough to deceive the experts of the day. Many such pieces may still be seen in museums today, as may pieces of genuine Kangxi porcelain decorated in the late nineteenth century with famille noire enamels. A body of modern expert opinion holds that porcelain decorated with famille noire enamels was not made at all during the Kangxi period, though this view is disputed ^[9].

• A fashion for Kangxi period (1662 to 1722) blue and white wares grew to large proportions in Europe during the later years of the 19th century and triggered the production at Jingdezhen of large quantities of porcelain wares that strike a resemblance to ceramics of earlier periods. Such blue and white wares were not fakes or even convincing reproductions, even though some pieces carried four-character Kangxi reign-marks that continue to cause confusion to this day. Kangxi reign-marks in the form shown in the illustration occur only on wares made towards the end of the 19th century or later, without exception.

Longquan celadon (龙泉青瓷) is a variety of celadon pottery produced in Longquan city, Zhejiang province, China. ... Broth is a liquid in which meat, fish, cereal grains, or vegetables have been simmered and strained out. ... A sewer is an artificial conduit or system of conduits used to remove sewage (human liquid waste) and to provide drainage. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Bernard Howell Leach CH (January 5, 1887 – May 6, 1979), a British studio potter. ...

Authentication

The most widely-known test is the thermoluminescence test, or TL test, which is used on some types of ceramic to estimate, roughly, the date of last firing. The TL test is carried out on small samples of porcelain drilled or cut from the body of a piece, which can be risky and disfiguring. For this reason, the test is rarely used for dating finely-potted, high-fired ceramics. TL testing cannot be used at all on some types of porcelain items, particularly high-fired vitreous porcelain. Thermoluminescence dating is the determination of the date at which materials were formed by measuring the light energy released when heating it. ...

See also

• Chinese art
• Blanc-de-Chine (the white wares of Dehua).
• Canton porcelain (Jingdezhen porcelain decorated at Canton for export to the West).
• Chinese export porcelain (Chinese porcelain made for export to the West).
• Dehua porcelain factories (the factories at Dehua).
• Famille jaune, noire, rose, verte (enamelled wares of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries).
• Kraak porcelain (blue and white export wares in the Dutch taste).
• Longquan Celadon (the celadon wares of Longquan county).
• Swatow ware (wares exported through the port of Swatow).
• Yixing clay (the red stonewares of Yixing).
• Tiger Cave Kiln (site of much of Southern Song official celadon ware)

// A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines by Wang Hui, 1693. ... Image:Blancdechine. ... A canton porcelain vase mountend as a lamp Canton porcelains are Chinese ceramic wares made for export in the 18th to the 20th centuries. ... Chinese export porcelain refers to a wide range of porcelain that was made and decorated in China exclusively for export to Europe between the 16th and the 20th century. ... A Blanc-de-Chine of Dehua porcelain Dehua porcelain factories are porcelain factories at Dehua, near Foochow in the Fujian province of south-east China. ... A famille rose bowl Famille jaune, noire, rose, verte are terms used to classify Chinese Porcelain by its colour pallette. ... Kraak porcelain is a type of Chinese export porcelain produced from the Wanli reign (1563-1620) until around 1640. ... Longquan celadon (龙泉青瓷) is a variety of celadon pottery produced in Longquan city, Zhejiang province, China. ... Swatow ware or Swatow is a common name for a group of mainly late Ming export porcelain from China intended for the South East Asian market. ... This article may not be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia entry. ... Mongol Period Tiger Kiln Celadon Bowl, Private Collection Japan Base and Footrim Recent excavations at the Tiger Cave Kiln at Hangzhou in the Chinese province of Zhejiang have helped to identify one site of origin of the important celadon-glazed porcelain wares of the Southern Song Dynasty known as Guan...

Gallery

Early wares

Vase, Eastern Zhou, 4th-3rd century BC. British Museum. ImageMetadata File history File links Download high resolution version (1082x827, 458 KB) Summary Zhou Vase. ... Boundaries of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1050 - 771 BC) in China The Zhou Dynasty (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chou Ch`ao; 1122 BC to 256 BC (ref) followed the Shang (Yin) Dynasty and preceded the Qin Dynasty in China. ... The British Museum in London is one of the worlds greatest museums of human history and culture. ...

Tang (618 to 906 AD)

Porcelain bottle with lid, 8th century AD, Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian, Washington D.C. (7th century — 8th century — 9th century — other centuries) Events The Iberian peninsula is taken by Arab and Berber Muslims, thus ending the Visigothic rule, and starting almost 8 centuries of Muslim presence there. ... The entrance to the Freer Gallery. ... The Smithsonian castle, as seen through the garden gate. ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United...

Bowl, made at Changsha, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. Changsha (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Chang-sha) is the capital of Hunan, a province of Southcentral China, located on the lower reaches of Xiangjiang river, a branch of the Yangtze River. ... The Ashmolean Museum (in full the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology) in Oxford, England is the worlds first university museum. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Northern Song (960 to 1127 AD)

Ru ware stand for a wine cup, made for the imperial court. Victoria and Albert Museum, London. The Victoria and Albert Museum viewed from Thurloe Square. ... This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ...

Ding ware Bottle, 11th century - 12th century, Freer Gallery of Art. As a means of recording the passage of time, the 11th century was that century which lasted from 1001 to 1100. ... (11th century - 12th century - 13th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 12th century was that century which lasted from 1101 to 1200. ... The entrance to the Freer Gallery. ...

Yaozhou ware bowl, stoneware with celadon glaze, c. early 12th Century. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... A Staffordshire stoneware plate from the 1850s with transferred copper print - (From the home of JL Runeberg) Stoneware is a category of clay and a type of ceramic distinguished primarily by its firing and maturation temperature (from about 1200°C to 1315 °C). ... Alternate meaning: Celadon (color) Celadon funerary jar from the Three Kingdoms period Celadon is a type of pottery having a pale green glaze. ...

Yuan (1279 to 1368 AD)

Jun ware bowl, Smithsonian Institution.

Ming (1368 to 1644 AD)

Qing (1644 to 1912 AD)

Qing style at Stanford Museum Stanford University Museum of Art (SUMA) is associated with Stanford University and was established 1891 (simultaneous with the University) by Leland and Jane Stanford. ...

Republic and People's Republic (1912, to date)

References

Seattle Art Museum, viewed from First Avenue The Seattle Art Museum (commonly known as SAM) is an art museum located in downtown Seattle, Washington USA. Admission is free on the first Thursday of each month. ...

Bibilography

• Kerr, Rose and Wood, Nigel (2004). Science and Civilisation in China, Volume 5, Part XII: Ceramic Technology. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-83833-9.
• Kotz, Suzanne (ed.) (1989) Imperial Taste. Chinese Ceramics from the Percival David Foundation. Chronicle Books, San Francisco. ISBN 0-87701-612-7.