This covered jar dating to the late 3rd or early 4th century illustrates two important technical advances in Chinese ceramics: the use of stoneware and the development of glaze. A more refined clay that can be fired at a higher temperature than earthenware, stoneware is the stronger of the two bodies. First produced in some quantity in southern China during the Shang dynasty (c. 1700-c. 1050 BCE), high-fired wares were commonly used in China from the 2nd through 13th centuries. A glaze is a mixture of water and substances containing silica, which vitrifies or turns glassy during firing, and often other ingredients for color or texture. Glazes were known in China as early as the Shang dynasty; the first Chinese glazes were generally green, gray, or yellowish because this range of colors was easily produced during firing by the addition of an iron oxide.
The gray-olive glaze that coats this covered jar makes it an early example of the type of green-glazed ware for which China remains justly famous--although the better known green-glazed wares date later in Chinese history. This charming jar is an example of Yue ware, a type of ceramic produced for several centuries in a region known as Yue in southeast China in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces, and dates to the Western Jin dynasty (265-316). A delightful bird with outstretched wings serves as the knob for the cover. Impressed into the shoulders of the jar is a band of crosshatching with borders. The evenness of the decoration indicates that it was made using a tool with a raised pattern, as incised decoration that is carved freehand into the clay presents a more irregular pattern. Four lugs and the faces of four taotie (mythic creatures) with false handles dangling from their mouths were applied over the impressed pattern after the body had been formed.
cxd
This covered jar dating to the late 3rd or early 4th century illustrates two important technical advances in Chinese ceramics: the use of stoneware and the development of glaze. A more refined clay that can be fired at a higher temperature than earthenware, stoneware is the stronger of the two bodies. First produced in some quantity in southern China during the Shang dynasty (c. 1700-c. 1050 BCE), high-fired wares were commonly used in China from the 2nd through 13th centuries. A glaze is a mixture of water and substances containing silica, which vitrifies or turns glassy during firing, and often other ingredients for color or texture. Glazes were known in China as early as the Shang dynasty; the first Chinese glazes were generally green, gray, or yellowish because this range of colors was easily produced during firing by the addition of an iron oxide.<P>The gray-olive glaze that coats this covered jar makes it an early example of the type of green-glazed ware for which China remains justly famous--although the better known green-glazed wares date later in Chinese history. This charming jar is an example of Yue ware, a type of ceramic produced for several centuries in a region known as Yue in southeast China in Zhejiang and Jiangsu Provinces, and dates to the Western Jin dynasty (265-316). A delightful bird with outstretched wings serves as the knob for the cover. Impressed into the shoulders of the jar is a band of crosshatching with borders. The evenness of the decoration indicates that it was made using a tool with a raised pattern, as incised decoration that is carved freehand into the clay presents a more irregular pattern. Four lugs and the faces of four <I>taotie</I> (mythic creatures) with false handles dangling from their mouths were applied over the impressed pattern after the body had been formed.</P>
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