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"Shiwan art does not stand apart from the common people, as do many works from the better known kilns of Dehua and Jingdezhen, as perfected sytylized intellectual objects. Possibly that is one reason why the Shiwan products have rarely been appreciated by the scholars and intelligentsia. Perhaps this deficit can be rectified by accepting the work for what it is rather than be invidious comparisons against classical art. It speaks its own message and that is unique"

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Author Topic: The Inheritance and New Development of Multi Colored Glaze in Shiwan Ceramics  (Read 62 times)

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GeorgeI

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The Inheritance and New Development of Multi Colored Glaze in Shiwan Ceramics

Shiwan Wares, Exhibition Catalogue
tinyurl.com/10i4f46u

Shiwan Ceramic art pottery is rich in glaze colors, which roughly fall into five groups. which roughly fall into five groups, green, red, white, yellow and black. Each group is subdivided according to the degrees of depth of the color. For example, the green color includes holly green, plum green, whitish green, fresh green, deep green and various shades of blue, the red color includes sacrificial red, ruby red, pomegranate red, chicken red, Jun red, jujube red, Mandarin orange red, pinks, and carious shades of purple like egg plant purple, rose red, grape purple, etc, the white color includes onion white, pure white, ivory white, moon white, etc, the yellow color includes the so called eel yellow, light yellow, etc, and the black color includes the so called grey black, brown, blac,, ferric brown, purplish black, turtle shed black, etc (Reference, Shiwan Ceramic Glaze Examples in Monochrome). It is impossible to enumerate here all the colors. But what the Shiwan ceramic kiln is most noted for is its multi colored glaze. It is a full bloom flower in the field of ceramic industry.

Multi colored glaze, also known as mixed glaze, is made up of various color glazes. It is extremely beautiful and brilliant. As it is similar to a glaze fired in the Jun kiln, it is known as "Guang Jun" or "mud Jun". Further study and excavation of relevant articles are needed before it can be decided whether multi colored glaze is the Shiwan ceramic imitation or the Jun kiln or its own invention.

Multi colored Shiwan glaze is the result of "transmutation in the kiln", which was at first an accidental happening, it was discovered that when pottery or porcelain came out of the kiln, the clay or the glaze had changed into another color. During the Song Dynasty, this happened in every part of China engaged in ceramic industry. For example there is the following record in Bowu yao lan. "The products of the Guan kiln and the Ge  kiln frequently undergo changes in the kilns resulting with glaze patterns, taking the shapes of butterflies, fowls, fish, unicorns or leopards. The glaze changes from its original color into yellow or reddish purple. The patterns are very like and lovely. It is incomprehensible how fire changes changes things" There is a quotation from Tong Yu in Tao Shuo, "The Jun kiln is able to produce five colors and transmutation in the kiln is a frequent phenomenon". Qing bo za zhi also says, "Pottery wares are manufactured in Jingdezhen of Raozhou, where transmutation in the kiln occurred in the years of Daguan". The same thing happened in the Shiwan kiln as well. Again, the shards discovered at the Village of Qishi, fored at the end of the Northern Song Dynasty, show greyish white spots. It can be seen from this that transmutation in the kiln was an acciental phenomenon in the middle and late periods of the Northern Song Dynasty. But at the end of Northern Song, when Henan was under the rule of the Nuzhen Tartars, the Junzhou kiln invented a kind of purplish red glaze, which was a breakthrough in the manufacture of ceramic glaze, hitherto of on color only. Chinese potters began to understand the principles of transmutation in the kiln and to manufacture multi colored glaze on purpose. As a matter of fact, the chief reason why glaze changes color is that its ingredients contain mineral salts which undergo transmutation when heated in different flames. For example, the salt of copper changes into copper oxide when heated in an oxidizing atmosphere, showing shades of green or blue according to the amount of the salt and if it is heated in a reducing atmosphere, it shows the color of purple or red. The salt of iron changes into iron oxide when heated in an oxidizing atmosphere, showing shades of yellow or brown, and if it is heated in a reducing atmosphere, it changes into ferrous oxide, which is green. This shows that the great variety of colored glazes in a result of their concoction and the way they are fired.

It has been suggested that the technique of manufacturing flambe glazes in Shiwan was not learned from the Jun kiln, but was the result of Shiwan potter's own experience and experiments, which gradually opened to him the secret of colored glazes, and the Shiwan potter was able to master their uses. The chief reason behind this assumption is that in feudal times technology was jealously kept secret and people in the same line of business were divided like countries at war. Moreover, the feudal rules governing a cerain business were very restrictive. People engaged in the same business and living in the same region did not exchange technology with one another. In an age when production was backward and technology was regarded as something secret, the Shiwan potter could not have learned from other places. The Jun kiln was run by the government, while the Shiwan pottery kiln by the people. And whereas the Jun kiln manufactured on kind of flambe glazes, the Shiwan pottery kiln manufactured various kind of art pottery. It has also been suggested that the firing of flambe glazes in Shiwan may have been a highly accidental happening at first. But as beautiful flambe glazes continued to appear, the Shiwan potter was able to learn by experience and made use of the different chemical reactions of the mineral ingredients in the glazes to manufacture flambe glazes. It is absolutely possible that the Shiwan potter will manufacture them on purpose as he becomes better and better versed in his art.

Nevertheless, it is still believed that the Shiwan pottery developed the technique of flambe glaze after they had learned from the Jun kiln. No kiln in China had ever manufactured ceramic wares with flambe glazes until the Jun kiln cameinto existence, and Shiwan ceramic could be no exception. Moreover, none of the shards discovered at Qishi, which were fired in the late Northern Song Dynasty is coated with multi colored flambe glaze and those bearing the dates of the late Northern Song Dynasty were also not with purposely made flambe glaze colors. It is not surprising even if a vase was fired during the Yuan Dynasty since the Jun porcelains were then very popular both in and outside China. In recent years a censer and a pair of vases with hydra ears and open work designs were excavated at the Village of Baita, east of Hohhot, Inner Mongolia. The censer bears the following inscription, "This censer was made by Xiao Song on the fifteenth of the ninth month of the year Ji You. This shows that not all the Jun kilns were imperial ones, some were owned by the people. The year Ji You was the second year of the reign of Emperor Wu Zong, or A.D. 1309. And the first year of Zhizheng did not come till eight rulers had passed away. In Beijing, Jun wares were found in the ruins of Yuan Dynasty on three occasions. All the historical facts indicate that many kilns were still owned by the people in the Yuan Dynasty. The firing of colored glazes in people owned kilns became a common practive in various parts of Henan, except Li Xian, and its influence on the kilns in South China was especially great. This shows very clearly that however jealously the feudal society tried to keep technology secret and however hard the Yuan rulers attempted to hid the secrets of the imperial kilns, nothing could prevent the working people all over the vast territory of China from exchanging technical knowledge. Working together to promte ceramic art, potters learned from one another to make up for their own defects. In fact, Chinese ceramic art went abroad as early as the Song Dynasty.

During the Song Dynasty, the Nuzhen, Tartars and the Mongols in the north invaded China in succession. Henan suffered from constant warfare and severe attacks were made to the ceramic industry. People living in the central plains migrated to the south, in great numbers, and it can be assumed that there were many potters amongst them. According to the existing genealogies of the Shiwan people, more than ten clans moved to Shiwan during the Song and Yuan dynasties. The Genealogy of the Hito Clan shows that this clan moved to Nanxiong prior to the founding of the Southern Song Dynasty and moved from Nanxiong to Shiwan in the years of Xianchun. His great, great grandfather, Yuanshan, built dragon kiln at Shen Cun Gang of Shiwan, presumably during the Yuan Dynasty. His descendant, Huo Weiya (Huo Tao) built in the Zhengde era another dragon kiln which still exists in the Shiwan ceramic Daily Utensils No. 3 Factory. Thus the Huo clan who came from the central plains brought with them the ceramic techniques and experience of central plains and it would not be amiss to say that some of the hands they employed were also from the central plains. They certainly helped promote the art of Shiwan ceramic.

Judging from the above, it is still believed that the flambe glazes of Shiwan were to a certain extent an imitation of Jun ware, though in the process of imitation new techniques were developed. In short, the multi colored glaze of Shiwan ceramic should be associated with the ceramic art of the Jun kiln.

The traditional Shiwan pottery was thick and heave, and the dark grey body was coated with a thick glossy glaze. Bearing the similar characteristics of Jun ware, the Shiwan potter was in a relatively good position to imitate the art of Jun. Indeed the greatest amount of Shiwan ceramic wares was made in the Jun style and with the greatest success. This established the artistic style of the Shiwan glazes which earned the praises of the masses both in and outside China.

The Shiwan glazes fired in imitation of Jun were especially noted for the following colors, blue, rose purple, inky color, blue feather glaze, etc. There is among the Jun glazes a "Mandarin orange peel glaze" which is smooth to the touch but covered with barely discernible brown holes. This is in fact an imperfection, as a result of insufficient firing, air bubbles left their traces behind on the ware body. This imperfection, like the pattern of crackled ice, is a unique characteristic. The Shiwan ceramic potters later began to manufacture on purpose this kind of glaze, which was admired by the masses. The Shiwan potters also invented a way of blowing the glassy glaze ingredient which had a lower melting point on to the ware biscuit. The temperature requited for its firing was lower than that of Jun ware, about 1200 centigrade. The flames employed were oxidizing of neutral in nature. This shows that the Shiwan potter was not only an imitator, but also an inventor.

In the process of imitating the Jun ware multi colored glaze, the Shiwan potters continued to learn and developed new techniques. For example, there is a kind of blue glaze with onion white drippings, commonly known as "raindrops on wall" which looks exactly like a sudden shower from an azure sky in summer. Ji Yuan Sou speaks most highly of the Shiwan flambe glazes in Tao Yat, Guang ware is called mud Jun, its blue color is very close to grey, with eddies in the grey glaze which is quite wonderful. It is even more splendid than Celadon. To compare it to colored clouds fail to illustrate its fully beauty, and the flambe glaze with drippings like scattered raindrops bears no comparison with it. The glaze flowing in meanders and swirls encircling pearls of green is possibly the most remarkable. Sometimes there are spots of dark blue in the grey glaze, which also call for appreciation. One can see from this that the Shiwan ceramic kiln imitated the Jun glazes so well that it outstripped all other kilns. Indeed, during the Qing Dynasty, the Tang kiln of Jingdezhen imitated the Shiwan color glazes. The best kind has red spots, while the kind with green spots is second best. As the glaze was fired in a furnace, they are called "furance Jun". However, they do not look like Mandarin orange peel with small brown spots, which is a Jun ware characteristic. Others like "sour carambola glaze" color and the "sea mouse glaze" of Shiwan pottery (pale red with stripes of shiny green) are also unique innovations.



« Last Edit: March 20, 2021, 12:44:27 am by GeorgeI »
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