Page 14 - Zhangzhou Or Swatow The Collection of Zhangzhou Ware at the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands

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The production of Zhangzhou Ware

During the process of extensive excavations around Zhangzhou no entire kiln complex was discovered so far.
Zhangzhou wares were produced not in large kiln complexes like in Jingdezhen, but in rather small, family –
owned workshops. They had sprung up where clay was available and close to rivers to ship their products.

These workshops specialized on one or several types of products, shapes or designs, which explains, that there
is a great variety of wares, be it the colour of the clay, the design, or the amount of sand adhering to the base.

From excavated sites of remains of kilns can be concluded, that for firing Zhangzhou ware there were two
types of kilns, both constructed from brick: the traditional single or multi-chambered climbing “dragon- kiln”
and a modified version, the so called “stepped dragon kiln”, whose inside resembled a staircase. It allowed the
potters to load pieces of different size individually, larger pieces rather below and smaller pieces higher up.

Most Zhangzhou ceramics were thrown on the wheel, some made in moulds. The smallest pieces like jarlets
are only a few centimetres in hight, large and heavy plates often of a diameter up to 5O cm. They were fired in
saggers, to protect them from impurities. To avoid adherence the pieces had to be raised from the floor. This
was done by putting them on a bed of sand, on the floor of the kilns or inside the sagger. It seems the potters
in the Zhangzhou kiln used a kind of rather coarse sand and did not bother to wipe the glaze on the foot of the
vessels clean. This explains the adherence of sand on the bases and the sides of many Zhangzhou wares. It is a
characteristic of Zhangzhou wares and called shazhu qi “sandy foot ceramics” by Chinese archaeologists.

Ref.: Li 2007

Base of GRV 1940-29, with kiln grit

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