Tag Archives: ceramics

With the Yaozhou kiln, we complete our series on Song Dynasty ceramics. The kiln at Yaozhou, in Shaanxi province, was active since the Tang Dynasty and transitioned to making celadon wares sometime in the early Northern Song period (960-1127 AD). While never as luminescent as their southern Longquan cousins, Yaozhou celadons were collected by theContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Yaozhou Ware”

Cizhou ware is both easy and hard to identify. Easy because the distinctive black-on-white designs are difficult to mistake; hard because the style was so popular that it can’t be pinned down to a single kiln or time period–which greatly affects its value. Cizhou-style wares were produced from the Tang to Ming dynasties, first inContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Cizhou Ware”

If you like celadon, then Song dynasty Longquan ware is for you. Production began in the Northern Song and lasted well into the Ming, making Longquan ware one of the most enduring and popular Song styles. Over 500 kilns were active in Zhejiang and northern Fujan provinces, with the largest “dragon” style ones capable ofContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Longquan Ware”

Qingbai ware was produced during the Southern Song and into the beginning of the Yuan dynasty in the 14th century at sites around Jiangxi, mostly at the Jingdezhen kilns but elsewhere, even Jizhou, as well. It was never an imperial ware: it was designed for the merchant class, to mimic Ding wares. But Qingbai achievedContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Qingbai ware”

Though we’re through the Five Great Kilns now, there are still some really spectacular Song ceramics you should know about. We’ll start with my favorite kiln: Jizhou. Fired in Jiangxi during the Southern Song (1127-1279), these wares weren’t intensely prized at the time: their body was a relatively drab and coarse gray-brown, and their glazeContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Jizhou Ware”

Ru ware is the rarest of the products of the Five Great Kilns of the Song Dynasty: only about 90 examples are still extant, and on the even rarer occasions they come up for auction, they fetch millions of dollars apiece. They were thrown only at a single kiln site in Henan for a periodContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Ru Ware”

Our fourth Great Kiln of the Song Dynasty is a controversial one. Ge ware is very similar to Guan ware, so much so that scholars cannot agree on a definitive distinction. The celadon is less green overall and the glaze crackling more pronounced—what is called “double crackle,” with both fine crazing and stark, dark linesContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Ge Ware”

The second entry in our series on the Five Great Kilns of the Song Dynasty…Ding ware was produced at a kiln in the north of China, near Hebei, during what is known as the Northern Song, the first of two peaks of imperial and cultural power during the 300-year dynastic period. Ding wares are typicallyContinue reading “Ceramics Saturdays: Ding Ware”