| Blue and white porcelain and pottery |
| Articles |
| Written by OXIMA |
| Monday, 21 June 2010 16:33 |
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"Blue and white wares" designate white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide. The decoration is commonly applied by hand, by stencilling or by transfer-printing, though other methods of application have also been used. Cobalt blue pigments were excavated from local mines in central Iran from the 9th century, and then were exported as a raw material to China.
The Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) is a key period for the development of the firing techniques of the Blue and White Porcelain in China. Its unique characteristics were based on the techniques of the former dynasties. The Blue and White Porcelain had become major porcelain product of China by the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1368-1911). The major producer of the Blue and White Porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty was Jingdezhen. Besides, there were kilns for the blue and white porcelain production in Zhejiang Province, east of China and Yunnan Province, southwest of China.The Blue and White Porcelain of the Yuan Dynasty is large in size, with thick roughcast. In 2006 at the New York auction Sotheby's the Chinese porcelain vase of the middle of XIV century has been sold for 4,72 million dollars. In last time it appeared at public auction in 1993: then it have bought for 1,2 million dollars. Rather small (34 Centimetre) the vase is the sample of classical style Yuan. Production of blue and white wares has continued at Jingdezhen to this day. Chinese & Japanese antique Porcelain
Japan Imari porcelain is the European collectors' name for Japanese porcelain wares made in the town of Arita, and exported from the port of Imari, Saga, specifically for the European export trade. In Japanese, these porcelains are known as Arita-yaki. Development of porcelain industry in Japan was largely benefited from the political turmoil at the end of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in China. In its earliest period between 1610 and 1650, Imari porcelain was decorated only in under glazed blue which is known as shoki-Imari. The kilns at Arita formed the heart of the Japanese porcelain industry, which developed in the 17th century, after kaolin was discovered in 1616 by an immigrant Korean potter Yi Sam-pyeong (1579–1655). The first porcelain made at Arita, imitating Chinese blue-and-white designs, was also widely exported to Europe through the Dutch East India Company, but the designation "Imari porcelain" connotes Arita wares more specifically designed to catch the European taste. Most of the Imari products exported in the early Edo period was produced in the province of Nabeshima Han : a "han" in Japanese stands for a feudal domain ruled by the lord. To protect a secret method of making porcelain products, Nabeshima Han regulated the numbers of the potters and painters in each kiln and studio, and by dividing the process into the separate shops where they handled the different stage of the production individually to prevent one person or one family to know the whole process. Arita porcelains are remarkable for their rich variations in form, style and subjects. The craftsmanship of IMARI
The use of cobalt blue for underglaze decoration on porcelain began in Vietnam during the fourteenth century, about the same time as its beginnings in China. The Chinese annexation of Vietnam between 1407 and 1428 brought with it the introduction of blue-and-white technology from China. Underglaze cobalt blue quickly became the preferred ceramic type in Vietnam. The forms and decoration of early Vietnamese blue-and-white ware closely followed contemporary Chinese models, from which evolved an international style in trade ceramics. During the fifteenth century, one of the distinguishing characteristics was the use of pencil lines that served both as shading and as a means of depicting the leaf veins and flower petals of plant motifs. Given that most blue-and-white porcelain was exported, it is not surprising that some of the best surviving Vietnamese pieces are found outside the country. One of the finest examples is in the Topkapi Saray Museum, Istanbul: a vase decorated with peony scrolls and dated by the underglaze blue inscription to 1450, the eighth year of Dai Hoa. The vase also bears the name of the artist who painted it. The Metropolitan's dish is decorated in the same style with identical peony flowers and scrolls, and it also bears the name of the artist, Nôt, but not a date. It is likely that the Metropolitan's dish is contemporary with, or slightly later than, the Istanbul vase. Antique Chinese and Vietnamese porcelain from Yuan to Ming period
Europe By the beginning of the 17th century Chinese blue and white porcelain was being exported directly to Europe. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Oriental blue and white porcelain was highly prized in Europe and America and sometimes enhanced by fine silver and gold mounts, it was collected by kings and princes. The European manufacture of porcelain started at Meissen in Germany in 1707. The detailed secrets of Chinese hard-paste porcelain technique were transmitted to Europe through the efforts of the Jesuit Father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles between 1712 and 1722. The early wares were strongly influenced by Chinese and other Oriental porcelains and an early pattern was blue onion, which is still in production at the Meissen factory today. The first phase of the French porcelain was also strongly influenced by Chinese designs. Early English porcelain wares were also influenced by Chinese wares and when, for example, the production of porcelain started at Worcester, nearly forty years after Meissen, Oriental blue and white wares provided the inspiration for much of the decoration used. England Flow blue was a type of transfer pottery produced by Staffordshire, England, potters beginning in about 1820. Sold mostly in the U.S. market, flow blue was similar to traditional blue-and-white pottery, except that the blue color was deliberately blurred, an effect achieved by adding a cup of lime or ammonia to the kiln during glazing. English manufacturers of antique flow blue included Wedgwood, Johnson Brothers, Minton, Royal Doulton, and Swansea. Patterns ranged from Blue Danube to Idris to the classic Willow. As for the objects themselves, they included toilet wares and teapots, plates and platters, vases and garden seats, and even dog bowls.
Netherlands During the Dutch Golden Age, the Dutch East India Company had a lively trade with the East and imported millions of pieces of Chinese porcelain in the early 1600s.The Chinese workmanship and attention to detail impressed many. Although Dutch potters did not immediately imitate Chinese porcelain, they began to after the death of the Wanli Emperor in 1620, when the supply to Europe was interrupted. The earliest delftware was a faience, a heavy, brown earthenware with opaque white glaze and polychrome decoration, made in the late 16th cent. Some of the earliest imitations of Chinese and Japanese porcelain were made at Delft in the 17th cent. The main period of tin-glaze pottery in the Netherlands was 1640-1740. From about 1640 Delft potters began using personal monograms and distinctive factory marks. Delftware ranged from simple household items - plain white earthenware with little or no decoration - to fancy artwork. Most of the Delft factories made sets of jars, the kast-stel set. Pictorial plates were made in abundance, illustrated with religious motifs, native Dutch scenes with windmills and fishing boats, hunting scenes, landscapes and seascapes. Delft was important as a pottery center from the mid-17th cent. to the end of the 18th cent. Today, Delfts Blauw (Delft Blue) is the brand name hand painted on the bottom of ceramic pieces identifying them as authentic and collectible. Although most Delft Blue borrows from the tin-glaze tradition, it is nearly all decorated in underglaze blue on a white clay body and very little uses tin glaze, a more expensive product.
Russia Russian tsar Peter I, having visited Delfte, ordered to construct similar factory in Russia. There is a group of about thirty villages located not far from Moscow called Gzhel, which has long been famous for its white-burning clay. Gzhel must have been the name of one of these villages. The origin of this name is somehow connected with the verb zhech - "to fire, to burn". The place has always been the center of folk pottery and has played an important role in the history and development of Russian ceramic arts. Traditionally, Gzhel has supplied clay to many factories and produced excellent pottery famous all over the centuries.
Sources: http://www.blueandwhiteamerica.com/ http://russian-crafts.com/crafts-history/gzel-history.html
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Vietnam
