Page 8 - Yuan Dynasty Ceramics

Chapter 07 (pp. 330-385)_Layout 1 7/7/10 5:42 PM Page 337
7.7. Longquan ware celadon yuhuchun bottle or vase with iron 1388, where he remarks that green-glazed Ge wares with
brown spots, Yuan dynasty, late thirteenth to early fourteenth an iron-colored foot and “purple” top a list of the most
century, 27.3 cm tall, 14.3 cm diameter, 7.8 cm mouth diameter.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
7.8. Longquan ware celadon ewer with
incised peony decoration, Yuan dynasty,
fourteenth century, 32 cm tall. Shanghai
Museum.
18
celadon jars and bowls with appliqué fish. Most of the
ceramics found at the important fourteenth- and fif-
teenth-century trade port of Hormuz, which was then a
kingdom and now part of Iran, are Longquan wares, in-
cluding wares unglazed inside the footring, and thick-
walled bowls with everted rims. Of these, 59 percent are
bowls decorated with molded lotus petals on the exterior
walls. 19 In excavations at Fustat, near Cairo, mid-thir-
teenth- to early fourteenth-century strata contain large
numbers of celadon stonewares from various sites in
20
Zhejiang province, including Longquan. It seems that
during this era, Longquan wares continued to be popular
among local people even as various Jingdezhen products
were becoming sought after by the outside world.
ge ware
According to a popular folk tale, special types of
celadon wares (qingci) were made by an older brother (ge),
his younger brother (di), and younger sister (mei), with
those “Ge” wares made by the older brother being most
famous. Crackle-glazed celadon with fine “gold” and
thicker dark “iron wire” lines, known as Ge ware, is first
mentioned in 1363 by the Yuan scholar Kong Qi (ca.
1310–after 1365) in Plain Records of the Zhizheng Reign
(Zhizheng Zhi Ji); next by the early Ming connoisseur Cao
Zhao in his Essential Criteria of Antiquities (Gegu Yaolun) of
desirable ceramics; and again in the Manual of Xuande Rit-
ual Vessels (Xuande Ding Yi Pu) of 1428, where it is referred
to as a new ware that equaled or surpassed the older
21
Guan ware. Ge wares are also inventoried in the impe-
rial collection in 1428, the third year of the Xuande reign.
Both Guan and Ge wares, which are long believed to
have been inspired by Song Guan wares, feature thick
crazed glazes over thin gray stoneware bodies. It has been
suggested that the dark crackles were produced by stain-
ing the wares with a black pigment while they were still
hot from the kiln, whereas the secondary lighter crazing
occurred as the pieces cooled. 22
Archaeologists working in Hangzhou now think that
the imperial kilns at Laohudong, which were active dur-
ing the Southern Song making Guan ware, were re-
opened as a private venture during the Yuan dynasty to
23
produce Ge ware. Information gleaned from the 1996
excavation of the Laohudong site suggests that the stra-
tum containing Ge ware lies above those containing
Southern Song Guan ware, which would seem to indicate
a post-Song date and at the same time to connect Ge
ware to the earlier Guan ware of the Southern Song. 24
Yuan Dynasty Ceramics 337