Chinese porcelain - grace of form and elegance

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21

Even people who are far from history know that there is a very close connection between the words "porcelain" and "China". It was in this country that they first learned how to make thin and elegant things from ordinary clay.

Chinese porcelain was invented in the 6th-7th centuries, although Chinese historians claim that this event happened 400 years earlier. A variety of clay products were indeed made long before the invention of porcelain, but it was in the 6th-7th centuries that craftsmen learned, by improving technologies, to obtain products that differ from their predecessors in subtlety and extraordinary whiteness. As a result, Chinese porcelain has become the most closely guarded secret of the Celestial Empire. Porcelain dishes, of course, were sold to foreigners, but the production technology remained a state secret, and disclosure of its secret was punishable by death.

The heyday of porcelain production in China fell on the 15th-16th centuries, when manufacturing technology reached the highest degree of perfection. And it was at this time that Chinese porcelain appeared in European countries, where it was brought by sailors and merchants from Portugal. Only rich people could afford porcelain products; it is not for nothing that the word “porcelain” itself means"imperial". And in our time, far from poor people can afford to buy Chinese porcelain of modern production - one medium-sized vase costs from three hundred dollars. But connoisseurs are willing to pay more substantial sums. After all, porcelain vases, jugs and cups are not just dishes, but works of art.

Chinese porcelain is traditionally covered with glaze of different shades and degrees of transparency, which makes it possible to give the surface a special matte sheen. At the same time, other paints were used in different historical periods, so connoisseurs and experts distinguish between porcelain products of the "green", "blue" and "pink" families. It is noteworthy that Chinese craftsmen in painting specialized in any one type of ornament - for example, clear lines and contours, landscapes, faces. Therefore, one product was painted by several people. And if you remember that for the manufacture of any object it was necessary to find and sort clay, wash it, make dishes and burn it, it turns out that several hundred people could work on one product.

Chinese bone china became the pinnacle of craftsmanship, which is distinguished by its special whiteness and is so thin that it literally shines through. The secret of this porcelain lies in the addition of 50 percent bone ash to substances that are commonly used in the creation of porcelain, such as kaolin and quartz.

Interestingly, after the formation of the PRC, the government of the country began to restore the old anddestroyed porcelain factories, while actively attracting famous masters to work. In addition, work is underway to restore ancient methods of firing and lost recipes for dyes, so that modern Chinese porcelain is fully consistent with the old traditions.