Antique Collecting: Oriental pottery and porcelain

Antique Collecting: Oriental pottery and porcelain

Oriental pottery and porcelain was made principally in China, Korea and Japan. The wares made in these countries, and in those bordering on the first two, resemble each other superficially, and both beginner and expert suffer confusion. A proportion of the old wares was marked, usually under the base of the article and in underglaze blue, but just as the shapes and colours of earlier periods were imitated in succeeding centuries, so were the marks.

CHINA

Many people talk about, and others wonder about, the dynasties and emperors of old China. It is as well, therefore, to preface this section with a list of those most likely to be of use:

Dynasties Emperors

Chou About 1122 to 249 B.C.
Han 206 B.C. to A.D. 220
Tang 618 to A.D. 906
Sung 960 to 1279
Ming 1368 to 1644 Hsiian Te 1426 to 1435
Ch'eng Hua 1465 to 1487
Wan Li 1573 to 1619
Ch'ing 1644 to 1912 K'ang Hsi 1662 to 1722
Yung Cheng 1723 to 1735
Ch'ien Lung 1736 to 1795
Chia Ch'ing 1796 to 1820
Tao Kuang 1821 to 1850

From before 200 B.C. little pottery has survived. The custom of burying pottery vessels and figures with the body of a dead person, and the reopening of undisturbed tombs, has enabled students to gain an idea of the wares of the Han dynasty. These mortuary pieces show that a green glaze containing lead was commonly in use, and that decoration, where present, consisted of painting in unfired colours, or of attractive incised patterns. It is argued that the tomb wares, intended for the use of the deceased in a future life, were made perfunctorily, and that the hitherto-unidentified domestic pieces must have been of better workmanship and of a higher artistic quality.

Then followed a gap of four centuries during which no appreciable advances were made, but the years lost in strife and artistic stagnation were amply made up for by the brilliance of the Tang dynasty. The large tomb figures of horses and camels, splashed with glazes of orange-brown and green, are among the best-known objects made at the time. Time and interment have given the glaze a silvery iridescence that lends an added attraction. Dishes and other pieces of the period are less familiar to many, but are artistically important in many instances. Stoneware was brought a stage further forward by giving it a white body, and the pieces known as Yüeh (abbreviated from Yüeh Chou, a district in Chekiang province where they were made) with their fine celadon glaze, were produced.

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