Page 124 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

GLOSSARY

ARITA often used in combination with iron red, blue, yellow,
A center of ceramic production on the island of Kyosho and aubergine.
in Japan. Very pure porcelain clays were found nearby.
In the mid-sixteenth century many small private kilns FONDEUR
One who casts metals; the craftsman who casts the
sprang up in Arita and much porcelain for export was bronze mounts for porcelain.
produced there.
GADROON
CELADON A short rounded fluting or reeding applied as a decora-
A widely used term to describe high-fired porcellaneous tive pattern usually along a molding. The fluting is
wares with blue-green glazes. Silica glazes with iron sometimes twisted.
oxide in suspension reduce in wood-fueled kilns to the
characteristic blue-green tones. In coal-fueled firing, the IMARI
glazes oxidize to tones of darker olive. The term proba- A European term to describe Japanese porcelain made
bly derives from the character of the shepherd Celadon, at Arita, which was exported through the port of Imari
who was dressed in green in a play based on the from the seventeenth century onward. The decoration
romance UAstree (1610) by Honore d'Urfe. typically consists of a dark underglaze blue with red
and gold overglaze enamels, sometimes with touches
CISELEUR of turquoise blue and green enamel.
A chaser of metalwork. When a bronze emerged from
the casting process, its surface was rough and had to be LUTE
finished by chasing (hammering with a tool resembling Thinned porcelain clay used to pack a joint; a raised
a small screwdriver with a circular end). By chasing ring around a porcelain vessel originally created in two
various parts of the surface of a bronze with tools of or more parts.
differing size, great vitality was imparted to the finished ORMOULU
object. Chased areas were sometimes contrasted with A contraction of the words bronze dore d'or moulu
burnished surfaces. Chasing was carried out before the (gilt bronze). The bronze was generally gilded by the
bronze was gilded. mercury process in which the gold was ground or pow-
dered (moulu) to form an amalgam with the mercury
CRACKLE
A network of irregular cracks in the glaze surface, and attached to the bronze by the application of heat.
caused by different rates of expansion and contraction POTPOURRI
of the glaze and clay body while the ceramic cools in A mixture of dried flowers, herbs, and spices treated to
the kiln. The effect is achieved by adding steatite to the scent a room; also the vessel holding the mixture.
glaze. Originally produced by accident, crackle is found
in Chinese ceramics from the Han dynasty. Later it was ROULEAU VASE
developed deliberately for decorative effect. Ink, char- A tall vase first produced in China from the twelfth
coal, or vermilion was rubbed onto the surface to century. The body is cylindrical with narrow, flat shoul-
emphasize the cracks. ders; the neck is low and wide; and the mouth is flared.
SOUFFLE GLAZE
FAMILLE VERTE
French descriptive term introduced by Albert Jacque- Glaze applied to the ceramic body by blowing a pow-
mart in the mid-nineteenth century when the systematic dered pigment through a screened tube to achieve a
study of oriental porcelain was first undertaken in subtly mottled surface.
Europe. It bears no relation to Chinese descriptive STRAPWORK
terms. The famille vert enamels were developed during A decorative motive of interlacing bands or straps.
the reign of the Kangxi emperor (1662-1722). The It can be either executed in relief or painted on a flat
color takes its name from a brilliant transparent green surface.

in