Page 22 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 351

7.28a and b. Jizhou ware measuring jar with iron brown underglaze basket-weave and chrysanthemum motifs, Yuan dynasty, late
thirteenth to early fourteenth century, 7.6 cm tall, 9.5 cm diameter. Made at the Jizhou kilns near Ji’an, Jiangxi province. Detroit
Institute of Arts.

Yuan painted Jizhou wares are as well crafted and cre- Yuan potters. One often-published meiping with a brown-
atively rendered as those of the Song period, making it ish black glaze is a gorgeous example. Overpainted with
difficult to differentiate among painted Jizhou wares of blonde slip in a pattern simulating the ruyi lappet pattern
the Song and Yuan eras. Archaeologists sometimes look often also seen carved into Yuan black lacquer, the mei -
to the shape of the wares to make the distinction: meas- ping was excavated at the Jizhou kiln site—and repre-
uring jars, jars with lotus-leaf-shaped lids and high-footed sents just one of many motifs seen also in wares
pear-shaped vessels with fish handles became common decorated with underglaze blue. 85
only in the Yuan dynasty, so these works are often now
identified as Yuan pieces rather than as from the late
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Southern Song. Examples from the Jizhou and other Major Discoveries of Yuan Ceramics
Yuan southern kilns include a number of measuring jars
from the Qili kiln at Ganzhou in Jiangxi province, includ- Critical information about Yuan ceramics comes not only
ing some discovered in the Sinan shipwreck (Fig. 7.27). 83 from Yuan tombs of wealthy common people, such as
Another fine Jizhou measuring jar features finely painted the 1338 tomb of Madame Ling and others dateable to
chrysanthemums on its base reminiscent of those on 1291, 1293, and 1315 (where more typical qingbai funerary
Jingdezhen painted wares (Figs. 7.28a and b). Also worth urns were recovered), but also at other sites such as an
noting is a well-known Jizhou ware vase with fish-shaped excavation at Jingdezhen, an early thirteenth-century
handles in the British Museum. 84 shipwreck, and caches of treasures buried during upris-
Other distinctive features of some Yuan Jizhou wares ings, which were common at the end of the Yuan dy-
86
are the use of reserve biscuit decoration or of light slip nasty. This section provides details and analysis of some
splashed, dabbed, or painted over a dark iron glaze. A of these significant archaeological discoveries.
Jizhou bottle partially covered with iron glaze with re-
Doufulong at the Zhushan Kiln Site
serve biscuit and painted decoration is very striking; it re-
minds one of a similar technique masterfully used by the Excavations at the rear of the Zhushan (Pearl Hill) kiln
Longquan potters during the Yuan dynasty (Fig. 7.29; see site, in a place known as Doufulong in Jingdezhen, are
also Fig. 7.6). This technique seems to have been in- critical to understanding other finds within China, since
vented during the Song, but to have been perfected by the earliest known imperial blue and white porcelain, a jar

Yuan Dynasty Ceramics 351