Page 21 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 350

The Dehua kilns of Fujian, as well as other smaller
southern kilns in Fujian, Zhejiang, Hunan, Guangdong,
and Guangxi provinces, were active during the Yuan dy-
nasty. Their wares generally featured a white porcela-
neous clay body and a transparent glaze with a bluish
green tinge known as qingbai, and their potters vied with
Jingdezhen craftsmen for a share of domestic and foreign
76
markets. In a region approximately 375 miles southeast
of Jingdezhen that is now part of Fujian province, nu-
merous kilns located near rich deposits of petunse
(baidunzi), a rock composed of quartz and fine-grained
mica, produced white wares that came to be known col-
lectively as Dehua. These wares were made wholly from
pulverized petunse or sometimes with very small addi-
tions of kaolin, soft white clay composed of weathered
feldspar (aluminum silicate). When levels of kaolin are
low the clay lacks plasticity, which makes hand-fashion-
7.27. Ganzhou ware jar with rolled lip, willow-basket-weave and
ing difficult. This is probably why the primary technique
boss decor, and interior with russet brown glaze, Yuan dynasty,
used to produce Yuan Dehua wares involved the use of thirteenth to fourteenth centuries, 9.4 cm x 11.5 cm. Made at the
hollow piece molds. During the Yuan dynasty tremen- Qili kilns, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province. Harvard Art Museum,
dous quantities of rather ordinary qingbai wares with Arthur M. Sackler Museum.
carved or molded decoration were produced by the De-
hua kilns for the domestic market and for export particu-
larly to what are now Indonesia and the Philippines. 77 Small white ware kilns throughout China made ser -
Several centuries later, the most famous products of the viceable white wares for local markets and for export. 80
Dehua kilns, sculptural figures made in the Ming and Qing Quite a few were established at or near the major trade
dynasties, would recall features of the Yuan qingbai sculp- ports of Quanzhou and Guangzhou (Canton). Often
tures from Jingdezhen (discussed in more detail later). In these local kilns produced not only white wares, but also
general, Yuan Dehua wares are coarser than products celadons and a limited supply of black wares.
made during the Dehua kilns’ heyday in the sixteenth and
Jizhou Ware
seventeenth centuries, when they were renowned not for
qingbai but for milky white porcelain figures and vessels The Jizhou kilns, near Ji’an in Jiangxi province, pro-
with a warm, ivory-tinged glaze. The locally mined petunse duced the most imaginative iron-glazed and iron-painted
contained less iron oxide than that found near Jingdezhen, wares of the Yuan dynasty. During the Song dynasty,
which permitted oxidation firing at Dehua kilns and re- their most famous products were variations of the iron
sulted in a lovely ivory hue. This oxidizing atmosphere black tea bowls most often associated with the Jian kilns
seems to relate Dehua wares to Ding wares. While Ding in Fujian. Some distinctive early versions of these tea
clay is rich in kaolin (aluminum silicate), however, that bowls were decorated with cut paper designs or leaves
used by potters at Dehua is richer in quartz. 78 laid on the glazed surface, which would leave their mark
At the important Middle Eastern port of Hormuz after firing. 81
(now in Iran), Dehua wares are found, but not porcelain As bowls with bluish green glazes gained favor in the
from Jingdezhen. Trade at Hormuz and at the port city of twelfth century, the Jizhou kilns began to diversify their
Quanzhou (in modern-day Fujian province), a primary products, making celadon, qingbai, as well as iron brown
source of wares exported to Hormuz, was controlled by painted wares. During the thirteenth century some exqui-
Muslims. Perhaps the Muslims preferred Dehua pottery, site iron brown painted wares were made at this southern
or, more likely, it was easier to obtain given the close kiln using the northern method of firing vessels on the
proximity of the Dehua kilns to Quanzhou. 79 Among mouthrim and painting with iron slip. This crossover in
typical examples of Yuan Dehua ware is a small, nonde- technique has led to the notion that some potters from
script bottle that is fabled to have been given to a Venice the northern kilns such as Ding and Cizhou moved south
chapel by Marco Polo. to Jizhou during this period.

350 Yuan Dynasty Ceramics