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Timeline History
35,000 – 700 BC
Paleolithic Age
• Ice Age artists modeled goddesses and animal
figurines, incising lines and leaving their fingertip
and fingernail impressions in the clay. Figurine
creation was widespread with examples
discovered at Dolni Vestonice, The Czech
Republic (22,000 BC), Japan (15,000 BC), and
Siberia (12,000 BC). Earliest ceramics may have
been used in social activities or religious rituals
that involved the making and firing of these
images. The firing event may have included the
figurines and wet pieces of clay, which would
have exploded in the fire making for a dramatic
yet playful performance.
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Venus of Willendorf
Austria
C. 25,000-20,000 BC
Fertility Fetish
Height 4 3/8”
stone
Goddess of Dolni
Vestonice
Czech Republic
23,000 BC
Clay figurine
• Early pottery baked in
an open fire
• Typically black and
round-bottomed
6000 BC
Middle East
• Earliest signs of settled life developed on the plateaus of
Turkey, Iran, and Iraq, and expanded to the Tigres
Euphrates river area in Mesopotamia when people
learned to practice irrigation around 5000 BC. Potters
produced vessels by coiling long rolls of clay on top of a
flat base or by pressing a slab of clay over a mold, such
as a round stone or gourd. A paddle and anvil were
used in shaping pots. Slip coatings (fine liquid clay)
were also applied to vessels and burnished to attain a
smooth surface. Two pottery-making traditions
developed: plain, undecorated, dark burnished ware and
ware decorated with incised or impressed designs in
simple zigzag patterns and angular lines. Decorations
were painted red and black with clay oxides.
• Copper began to
be used as well as
stone. Handmade
painted pottery
varied from reddish
brown on a pinkish
background during
the early stages to
plain grey, black or
brown clay during
the later stage of
this period.
• Painted terracotta
vessel from Hacilar,
Turkey
• Chalcolithic Period
4500 BC
Mesopotamia
• In Mesopotamia, potters learned how to control
the atmosphere in the kiln (furnace for firing
clay) in order to obtain oxidation (increased
oxygen resulting in red veneer). Pottery-making
became more sophisticated as clays were
refined and prepared by decanting suspension
(the process of adding water to clay in order to
allow the larger particles and organic materials
to separate out while standing and then gently
pouring off the liquid without stirring up the
sediment
Clay figure of
woman with
traces of paint,
ca. 6000 B.C.,
Mesopotamia,
5.11 x 4.5 cm
Clay beaker decorated with geometric designs and images of ibexes,
from Susa (now Shusa, Iran), ca. 5000 B.C.,
28.9 cm high; 16.4 cm diameter,
•
During the years 6000-5000
B.C, the Pre-Sumerian period,
Southern Mesopotamia massproduced pottery such as the
beaker above. Vessels and
other objects of fired clay were
found in great abundance at
sites near the Euphrates
River. They had simple—even
crude--decoration and were
produced on a fast potter’s
wheel. Wheels were used for
war chariots by this period as
well. The chariots were drawn
by onagers (wild donkeys).
(Samuel Noah Kramer, History Begins
at Sumer, University of Pennsylvania
Press, Philadelphia, 1981.)
4000 BC
The First Cities, Middle East
• Builders in the Middle East constructed
cities using clay bricks. Officials wrote on
clay tablets to chronicle city records as
well as agricultural and trade information.
Potters developed the pottery wheel and
crafted earthenware molds, which
increased production and transformed the
making of pottery. These events led to
craft specialization.
• The story of a great Flood is
not only recorded in the Bible.
The Babylonian flood account
is recorded on a 4,000 yearold clay tablet. It is very
similar to Noah's story, but
the Babylonian story may be
much older, from even before
3,000 B.C. It is often referred
to as the Gilgamesh Epic.
Together with other ancient
records of a great flood from
other civilizations, the story of
this ancient event may have
been passed down orally
from generation to generation
in several different
civilizations. The Gilgamesh
Epic was found in an ancient
Assyrian library, and is now
located in the British Museum.
Babylonian flood account,
2,000 B.C.
The city of Ur - in Mesopotamia
around 3,000B.C.
• Ur was the city where
Abraham lived. It's
excavation in 1922 revealed
that it was a highly civilized
city, complete with a
complex government, busy
trade and traffic. Receipts
and contracts were used in
commercial activity. The
city's infrastructure includes
town drains, streets, twostory houses, and a great
temple tower.
http://www.faithhelper.com/otarch1.htm
3000 BC
First Pottery Made in South America
• Prehistoric people living in farming villages
located in the Amazon Basin (Brazil)
created the earliest pottery known in the
Western Hemisphere. This original redbrown pottery was decorated with simple
lines and painted patterns.
2700 BC
The First Glaze, Egypt
• Egyptian potters discovered an alkaline
glaze-forming clay body, Egyptian Paste
or Egyptian Faience. This clay was a
composite of crushed quartz mixed with
soda and calcium salts, which produced a
blue-colored surface glaze when fired.
Egyptian Paste was used for ceremonial
vessels, jewelry, and small sculptures.
Hippopotamus, Middle Kingdom, Egypt 1784-1570 BC
Blue faience/Egyptian Paste
Faience is a glazed non-clay ceramic material or silica, composed of
crushed quartz or sand, with small amounts of lime, and either natron
or plant ash.
• Its main ingredient was
quartz, obtained from sand,
or crushed pebbles to which
was added an alkali, a bit of
lime and ground copper as
colorant. Egypt is rich in
silica, in the form of desert
sand, but for faience-making,
certain sand sources were
considered superior to
others. Sand is not pure
silica, as it contains
impurities such as chalk,
limestone or iron.
• The silica forms the bulk of the body, the
material from which the object shape is
formed. Ground silica/sand is not easy to
form, and even though water is added to
help shaping, the finished product will
crumble when dry. Adding lime and soda
helps to cement the quartz grains together
as it dries. But the main strengthening factor
is in the firing. The body is coated with a
soda-lime-silica-glaze, most commonly a
bright blue-green color due to its use of
copper. When fired, the quartz body
developed its typical blue-green glassy
surface. Other colors were eventually
possible, such as white, yellows, reds, and
even marbled browns, blacks and other
hues.
2655 BC
Banshan Culture, China
• Neolithic craftsmen fashioned painted
pottery jars by using the clay coil and
paddling technique. After firing, burnished
surfaces were gracefully painted with red
and black pigments in spiral patterns and
designs. Early Chinese pottery was fired in
kilns that dug into the ground.
China, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, Banshan
type, late-3rd millennium BC
Height: 17 1/2 inches, 44.5 cm
China, Neolithic period, Majiayao culture, Banshan
type, mid-3rd millennium BC
Height: 19 inches, 48.2 cm
Narrow-necked jar with vertical handles
Chinese, Majiayao culture, Neolithic period, mid-3rd
millenium B.C
2500-1500 BC
Jomon Period, Japan
• Jomon (cord impressions) ware made
throughout Japan during the Japanese Neolithic
Age. It was characterized by elaborate coil-built
vessels fashioned from unrefined clay. The clay
often contained organic matter, pebbles, and
shell fragments that added textural excitement to
the ware’s coil construction. Elaborate flaring
tops, fanciful rims, and cross-hatching
contributed to the visual drama of this distinctive
style.
The Jomon Period
10,000-300 BCE
Japan
• Early “Jomon”
(Rope Pattern)
Pottery
Middle Jomon Period Pottery
• Middle
Jomon
Period
Pottery
Forms of JOMON
Narrow-bottomed, flaring tops of Jomon used
for ceremonies and religious rituals
2500-1100 BC
Minoan Culture, Crete
• On the island of Crete, Minoans used terra-cotta
pipes in drainage systems for their baths. They
built huge vessels, more than five feet tall, to
store grain, olive oil, and food. Their pots were
distinctively decorated with naturalistic designs
of marine life and plants. Masterful sailors, the
Minoans traded pottery vessels filled with oil and
wine for tin from Asia Minor, copper from
Cyprus, and luxury goods from Egypt.
Map of Mediterranean
• Jug from Ayios
Onoufrios.
• Early Minoan I or
beginning of Early
Minoan II
• c. 2500. Clay.
Beak spouted cup. Early Minoan 2200-2000 BC
• A beaker jug in
Kamares style
• Middle Minoan IIA
• 1800 BC.
• Original
Minoan
Flask, 13“
• 1500BC
• Minoan octopus
Vase
• 1500BC
• Minoan
Amphora
• 1500 BC
• 3 Handled
Octopus Vase
• Minoan
• Original Pythos
(storage vessel)
• 16" (40 cm) Tall
• 1450 BC
• Original Minoan
Amphora
• 1200BC
• Mycenaen Amphora
Mycenaen Amphoras
King Minos lived in the Palace of Knossos on the
Island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea
• The Palace of Knossos
• The palace of the
Minoan king on the
island of Crete, in the
town of Knossos.
• These ruins are
amazingly well
preserved from about
1700 BC.
The Palace of Knossos
Knossos-throne-room
Pithois-large storage jars found at the Palace
of Knossos
PITHOI
• Pottery from
the Palace of
Knossos
• Snake Goddess
• Crete
• 1600 BC
1600-1100 BC
Shang Dynasty, China
• The Bronze Age potters of the Shang dynasty developed
highly sophisticated casting techniques. They used fired
clay molds to cast elaborate bronze vessels. Kilns
continued to be built in the ground, and the earth’s
natural insulation increased fuel efficiency. The
development of effective chimneys also improved kiln
technology. Around 1400 BC, the first stoneware
(highly- fired pottery) was made using kaolin, a white
primary clay, found in large deposits in China. During the
protoporcelain (before porcelain) period, potters
learned how to use wood ash in combination with
minerals, such as silica and alumina, to achieve a
successful glaze.
Shang Dynasty pottery
Shang
An exceptionally rare Neolithic period Chinese
pottery Li (tripod vessel), which dates to the
Yangshao Culture,
approximately 5th/3rd Millenium BC
• A rare ancient
Chinese black pottery
three-legged pot,
known as a li, which
dates to the Shang
dynasty, over 3,000
years ago.
Covered hu-type vessel with animal-mask (taotie) design
Chinese, Shang dynasty, 12th century B.C
Ceramics of the past
Section 2
1200 – 500 BC
Olmec Culture, Middle America
The Olmec culture, centered in the eastern gulf coastal
region of Mexico, is thought to be the earliest
civilization on pre-Columbian Central America. The
jaguar, believed to be a god, was the center of the
Olmec religion. Many of their stone sculptures and
molded clay figurines depicted were-jaguars, halfhuman, half-jaguar beings. Olmec baby figures alone
with were-jaguars were believed to be earthly forms of
gods. These earthenware baby figures, which were
produced in great numbers, are thought to represent
infant offerings to the rain god who symbolized rebirth
and regeneration, or perhaps, they represent, the rain
spirits themselves.
Olmec Culture
• In South America, the
were-jaguar is a
legendary creature
with an ancient
lineage and
formidable pedigree.
Often, these beings
were portrayed as
shamans who were
favored by the jaguar
god.
Olmec
Culture
Olmec Double Jaguar Carving Mexico, Ca. 400 BC. 4",
• Olmec Culture,
Figure of a ruler
1000-600 B.C.
• Ritual ballplayer
1500-1000 B.C.
The Road to Eldorado
1100 – 400 BC
Chavin Culture,
South America
The Chavin people lived in the central Andean
region of South America. They introduced the
whistle jar (which whistled when the jar’s contents
were poured out) and the stirrup vessel. Both were
thought to have been used in funeral ceremonies
and buried with the dead, Chavin style was the
precursor for the Peruvian cultures.
Whistle Jar
Fluid moving from one chamber to another displaces air in the second chamber
which is forced across the sounding edge of a whistle.
Whistle
Jar
• Chavin Culture,
Stirrup Vessels,
• Peru, South America
• Famous for their
whistling jays
• Chavin Culture
• Stirrup Vessels,
Peru, South
America
• Chavin Culture,
Stirrup Vessels, ,
Peru, South America
Machu Picchu
700 BC
Black-Figure
Technique,
Greece
This elegant style of two-color thematic decoration
employed the use of a black slip to paint heroic and
mythical figures on a red clay background. Artists
detailed features and fine lines by scraping through
the slip with sharp tools to expose the lighter clay
beneath. By controlling the amount of oxygen in the
kiln, artists were able to achieve a glossy black and
red decoration.
Greek Amphora
Black Figure Painting
600 BC
Red-Figure Technique, Greece
This style of decoration used reserves, or
unpainted figures. The reserves retained the color
of the red clay while the black firing slip was used
to paint fine details on the figure and around the
reserves. The striking red figures stood out from
the black background when a firing sequence of
reduction followed by oxidation was used.
Greek Amphora
Red Figure Painting
700 – 400 BC
Life-sized Terra-Cotta Sculpture,
Italy
Etruscans molded and painted brilliant colored lifesized terra-cotta figures to decorate their temples
and sarcophagi.
This small (5.5 inches high) terracotta sculpture was made in Greek southern Italy
in the late fourth century BCE. It depicts two adolescent girls playing the game of
"knucklebones" (astragaloi in Greek). The game was usually played like the
modern game of "jacks": one threw the knucklebones in the air and attempted to
catch as many as possible. They were also used like modern "dice." Most
knucklebones were made out of the actual ankle bones of sheep or goats, but
fancier ones were made of ivory, bronze, or terracotta.
This sarcophagus shows an Etruscan man and his wife reclining on a couch, as
at a banquet, embracing. (In Etruscan culture, both men and women attended
feasts, something that shocked the Greeks who were used to male-only
symposia.) She pours perfume from an alabastron into his hand, an action
associated with funerary rites, and it's possible that her left hand originally held a
pomegranate, symbol of eternal life. While the large size of the artefact suggests
it was a sarcophagus, it might also have been a large cinerary urn - both
inhumation and cremation were used by the Etruscans.
Ishtar Gate
Babylon (IRAQ)
Glazed tiles
600 BC
Tin-Lead Glazes,
Middle East
Persian, Assyrian, and
Babylonian walls and
buildings were decorated
with glazed tile reliefs. Potters added tin oxide to
lead glazes to achieve a white background on the
red clay for painting colored decorations. Later,
they made intricate, multicolored tiles by using
raised lines of slip, which kept glaze colors from
running into each other during the firing.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
China
Tomb of the Terracotta Soldiers
221 -202 BC
Life-sized Terra-Cotta Sculpture,
Qin Dynasty, China
It was the Chinese custom for the dead to be
buried with food, pottery, and other items thought
to be needed in the afterlife. Excavations near
Emperor Qin’s imperial tomb unearthed an army of
7000 life-sized soldiers with their weapons and
horses. There realistic, painted terra-cotta figures
(each face was an individual portrait) demonstrate
astonishing skill in both ceramic sculpture and
firing technique.
African sculpture
300 BC – AD 1400
Life-sized
Terra-Cotta Sculpture,
Africa
In western Africa, the Nok (300 BC),
followed by the Ife (800 BC – AD 1400), developed
great technical skills in clay as they fashioned and fired
life-sized terra-cotta human figures. Nok sculptures are
distinguished by purity of form and decorative restraint.
Ife figures embody idealized naturalism. Ife craftsmen
were skilled in bronze casting by the eleventh century
and expertly produced ceramic crucibles and molds.
Found in north
central Nigeria
off the edge of
the Jos plateau.
The oldest
known example
of terracotta
sculpture in
Africa, south of
the Sahara.
Dates from
2500-800
B.P (500 BC to
200 AD).
Ife
Ife Sculpture
Copper Head Nigeria, Late 14th Century
206 BC – AD 221
Han Dynasty, China
The Han dynasty was the beginning of a united Chinese
Empire. During this period, the silk trade reached from the
East Roman Empire to India and Persia. Chinese potters
probably acquired the art of lead glazing from these
contacts. Clay vessel shapes were based on bronze
originals and decorated in similar fashion with cut relief and
applied handles and bands. An extensive amount of Minqui
(tomb pottery) was produced consisting of pottery models of
family and servants, buildings, grain towers, farm animals,
and vessels for food and drink to accompany the deceased
to the spirit world.
Han Dynasty
double-handle tripod caldron pottery
Ancient Glazed "Celadon Green" "Hun'ping"
Funerary Urn/Spirit Jar 300 A.D.
Han Dynasty
Bronze Funerary piece
Towered Pavilian
Chinese Han Dynasty
206 BC-220 AD
Model of goat yard and herdsman
Han Dynasty, 2nd – 3rd Century
Silla Period
Korea
57 BC – AD 935
Silla Period, Korea
The pottery of this period was strongly influenced
by the Chinese. Potters produced ash-glazed
stoneware and lead-glazed earthenware.
100 – 700 AD
The Mochica Culture,
South America
The Moche civilization flourished on the north coast
of Peru. Although their culture had no writing
system, Moche potters recorded historical and
mythological events, and narrated their life and
customs on richly decorated ceremonial pots.
Expert artists, the Moche modeled figures and
fashioned portrait vessels, stirrup jars, bird-shaped
whistle jars, and musical instruments.
Moche Culture: sacrifice of warriors
(1 AD - 800 AD)
This piece shows how defeated warriors were brought to islands on rafts to be
sacrificed there.
Moche portrait vessel
200 AD
Feldspathic Glazes, Yueh Ware,
China
During this period, potters discovered a leadless
glaze compound made of feldspar, sand, potash,
quartz, and other ingredients that required high
temperatures to fuse. The first feldspar-glazed
stoneware, Yueh ware (a precursor of Celadon
ware) was distinguished by colors ranging from
pale gray-green to bluish-green on a white
porcelaineous clay body. Yueh vessels imitated
the bronze styles of the Han dynasty.
Eastern Jin dynasty (ca. 317-420), second half of 4th century
Stoneware with celadon glaze (Yue ware); H. 7 1/2 in. (19.1 cm)
200 BC – AD 476
The Roman Empire, Europe
The Romans brought a number of technological innovations
to Northern Europe. They introduced the potter’s wheel,
produced relief-decorated ware from molds, and developed
large, parallel flue kilns. Workshops were turned into
factories as great quantities of pottery were mass-produced
for their growing cities and large armies. They manufactured
fired-clay building materials, such as bricks, roof tiles,
ceramic floor tiles, and decorative ornaments. Arrentine
ware a red gloss ware, was the most common Roman
pottery. It was made in stamped molds, covered with a fine
red slip terra-sigillata and fired in an oxidizing atmosphere
to achieve a glossy, rich red finish.
Rome
• Terra sigillata as an archaeological term
refers chiefly to a specific type of plain and
decorated tableware made in Italy
• These vessels have glossy surface slips
ranging from a soft lustre to a brilliant
glaze-like shine, in a characteristic colour
range from pale orange to bright red.
• The products of the Italian workshops are
also known as Arretine ware
Roman red gloss terra sigillata bowl with relief decoration
Terra sigillata
beaker
A decorated
Arretine vase
200-600
Haniwa Figures, Japan
• Japanese potters made unglazed
earthenware Haniwa figures. These
figures, mounted on clay cylinders, were
sculpted, impressionistic representations
of men, women, animals, or buildings. It is
thought that the Haniwa were placed
around burial mounds to protect the
deceased and to keep the mounds from
eroding.
Haniwa:
man figure
playing a harp,
Tumulus period
300-980
Classic Period, Teotihuacan, Mexico
• Clay artists in Central Mexico produced a
variety of hand built and molded pottery.
They used the fresco, an unfired
technique, to decorate magnificent tripod
ritual vessels. These decorations were
symbolic motifs painted in brilliant colors
on thin layers of stucco or plaster that
covered the fired vessel.
Teotihuacan style ceramic from Tomb of Curl Nose
MEXICO CITY: A tiny remotecontrolled camera peered inside the
tomb of a Mayan ruler that has been
sealed for 1,500 years, revealing red
frescoes, pottery and pieces of a
funerary shroud made of jade and
mother of pearl.
Codex style vase with sixty hieroglyphs
700-900 AD
618-906
Tang Dynasty, China
• During this period, one of the richest eras of
Chinese art and learning, ceramic art reached
an outstanding level of achievement. Tang
potters produced and exported dense white
porcelain ware. Earthenware figurines,
decorated with lead glazes colored yellow (iron),
blue (cobalt), and green (copper), were
produced in tremendous quantities for tomb
furnishings. These models were constructed
from parts that were molded separately and
assembled with clay slip. Tang models are
striking in their naturalism and vitality.
Tang
Dynasty
Tang Dynasty Tomb Pottery Prancing Horse
Horse, Tang Dynasty 8th Century
Horse
Tang
Dynasty
8th
Century
Horse Detail
Tang Dynasty
8th Century
Camel with Musical
Instrument pipa
7th century
Earthenware with
white ivory glaze
Tomb Guardian
Tang Dynasty
Earthenware with three
color glaze
Painted human-faced animal tomb-guardian
in the Zhaoling Mausoleum
Tang Dynasty
Incense Burner
Tang Dynasty
6th-7th Century
632-1150
Early Islamic Wares, Middle East
• Islamic potters were never able to produce porcelain because the
clays in this region were deficient in high-firing minerals. In their
attempts to imitate Chinese Tang imports, they made spectacular
breakthroughs in glaze technology. They used a glaze made of
ashes of tin over earthenware clay to get a white opaque glaze upon
which they painted designs with various coloring oxides. Cobalt, the
most popular oxide, gave a rich blue color to the designs. (This blue
and white combination would later be imitated by the Chinese.) they
discovered and perfected luster painting, a glazing technique in
which a metallic pigment, such as silver, copper, gold, or platinum, is
applied over an already fired glaze. A metallic film appears in the
surface of the piece when it is fired again under lower temperatures
in a reduction atmosphere. Islamic potters mastered the secret of
under glaze painting by coloring a clay slip, similar in composition to
the clay body, with metallic oxides. This made the painting strong
enough not to disappear under a liquid glaze.
Iraq tin glazed
earthenware with
blue and white
decoration 9th
century.
Chinese later used
Porcelain to recreate
this look. Cobalt was
exported from the
Middle East
Early Chinese blue
and white
porcelain,
manufactured circa
1335
Blue and white ware-vase,
China
Tang Dynasty
Meiping, China Blue and White ware
(cobalt blue on porcelain)
Early Islamic Nishapur slip-painted bowl
900-1000 AD
Luster-ware bowl from Susa, 9th century
LustrewareLustre painted
baluster jar
1100-1300 AD
Central Asia
800-1400
Southwest Indian, North America
• Three main cultures inhabited the southwest; each
produced distinctively stylized decorated pottery. The
Hohokam, who occupied southern Arizona, developed a
culture based on irrigation farming. Their red-on-buff
pottery was characterized by an out swept curving line
from the vessel’s mouth to form an abrupt inward curve
to the foot. The Anasazi of northern Arizona and New
Mexico, Southern Colorado and Utah were superior
builders of pueblos (multiple unit houses). The Anasazi
produced precisely decorated black-on-white pottery.
The Mogollon, who inhabited southwestern New Mexico,
linked the Southwest and Mexico. Their pottery is
characterized by great simplicity and limited variation of
forms.
Southwest Indian
Mogollon Pottery
Anasazi Pottery
Anasazi Pottery
950-1325
Mayan Post-Classic Period, Middle America
• The Mayan people flourished on the
Yucatan Peninsula, Guatemala, and El
Salvador. They recorded their history in
hieroglyphics on stone slabs. Early Mayan
pottery was strongly influenced by that of
Teotihuacan (Mexico). Later, Mayan
potters molded terra-cotta figures
depicting gods, nobility, acrobats, warriors,
ball players, and ordinary men and women
performing domestic chores.
Vase with appliqued snakes
Maya, Late Classic period, A.D. 550–850
Human effigy incense burner or cache vessel
Maya, Postclassic period, A.D. 1250–1500
918-1382
The Koryo Dynasty, Korea
• Decorated Celadon ware best exemplifies
the work of this time, the Golden Age of
Korean ceramics. Slip-filled incised
patterns under a celadon glaze,
Punch’ong ware (or Mishima, as called
by the Japanese), was an important, new,
distinctively Korean, decorative technique.
Naturalistic motifs of ducks, grasses,
willows, and flowers were used to suggest
spiritual calm an beauty.
KOREAN PORCELAINOUS STONEWARE
CELADON BOWL, Koryo dynasty, 935-1392
KORYO DYNASTY INLAID
CELADON BOWL
Korea, 12th/13th Centuries
Korean pottery
Punch'ong
bottle vase
Choson Dynasty
15/16th
Korean pottery
Punch'ong
1000
Early Stoneware, Germany
• German potters in the Rhine Valley had an
abundance of good clay and a bountiful
supply of wood for their kilns. The clay
contained a high sand content, which
allowed it to tolerate high temperatures
without collapsing. This combination
enabled potters to produce stoneware.
Early Stoneware, Germany
960-1279
The Song Dynasty, China
• Song potters were masters of harmonious, wellproportioned form, and they beautifully refined
vessel shapes. The fashion for porcelain (a
high-fired white translucent ware that makes a
musical sound when struck) began with the
Song emperors, who were patrons of the arts.
Porcelain, however, was only a small part of
Song production. Most pottery made during this
time was stoneware. Song pottery is divided into
two categories: northern and southern.
960-1127
Northern Song, China
• Several different styles were prominent
during this period. Among them were Ting
ware, a glazed porcelaineous body that
featured a smooth, ivory white glaze over
delicately impressed or engraved motifs;
and Tzu-Chou ware, a light gray-colored
stoneware covered with white slip and
vigorously painted with dark brown or
black decoration.
Northern Song Dynasty
Ting Ware
(Ding ware)
http://qingci.org/?p=672
Shallow Bowl
Ding Ware
12th Century
A fine and rare
carved 'ding'
bowl.
Northern Song
dynasty
Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD)
ding-ware porcelain bottle with iron-tinted pigment under a transparent
colorless glaze, made in the 11th century, found in Hebei province
Water Vessel
Ding Ware
8th- 10th Century
Northern Song Dynasty
Tzu-Chou ware
(Cizhou ware)
si-zsh-u
Cizhou" green-glazed painted vase (Meiping), 11 3/8
inches high,
Northern Song/Jin Dynasty
"
It has an estimate of $30,000 to $40,000. It sold for $74,500.
Wine Bottle
12th Century
Northern Song
Cizhou Ware
Southern Song Dynasty
Celadon
1128-1279
Southern Song, China
• Glaze development expanded during the Southern Song
period. Some of the more popular glazes were:
Celadon, a translucent green or green-blue color
originally made to imitate jade; Tenmoku, a thick, dark
brown glaze breaking to lighter brown; and Oil Spot,
which appeared to have oil spots breaking on the
surface. Crackle, a glaze having a network of deliberate
surface crack, was also developed during this time. Two
types of kilns were used: a single-chambered, downdraft,
bee-hive type and the dragon kiln, a tunnel built into a
hillside. Later, the dragon kiln was divided into many
sections or chambers, which allowed large quantities of
pottery to be fired at the same time but at different
temperatures in the different sections. Individual
saggars (fire containers) were used to stake the ware
and to protect each pot from ashes from the wood which
fueled the kiln.
Sky blue glaze porcelain incense burner, Jun ware
Southern Song Dynasty（A.D.960-1127）
Southern Song dynasty, Kuan ware,
celadon glazed porcelain
Song Dynasty
Jun Kiln Porcelain Zun Vessel
Bluish-white glazed bowl with kids playing pattern
Southern Song Dynasty
Tenmoku Glazes
Tenmoku
• Yohen refers to changes that take place in the
kiln, and it is also used for Bizen, where the
glaze runs during firing. Sometimes this is called
a "hares-fur" effect. Yohen also refers to the
build-up of ash on the kiln floor and the natural
glazing brought about by this ash.
• Yuteki is an oil spot effect that occurs when
there is an overload of iron oxide which is
allowed to cool slowly and forms effulgent spots
on the surface. It is a very difficult technique.
Tenmoku (or temmoku) is the name used by potters and
ceramic restoration experts to describe glazes that are
richly colored by iron dioxide.
Tenmoku is the Japanese word for a type of tea bowl first
produced in China during the Song Dynasty (960-1279).
Southern Song Dynasty
Oil Spot Glazes
Chinese pottery
ewer, oil spot
glaze, Song
Dynasty
Oil Spot temmoku
Southern Song Dynasty
Crackle Glaze
Five celadon libation cup, crackle glaze, fluted mouth with
dragon handle, old collectors number on bottom,
Song Dynasty, height 3”
Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279)
Porcelaneous stoneware with crackled blue glaze
The shard market with Song Dynasty saggers
lined with fused translucent porcelain bowls.
The End