Page 16 - Zhangzhou Or Swatow The Collection of Zhangzhou Ware at the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands

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Zhangzhou Ware with Monochrome Glazes

Zhangzhou wares with monochrome glazes are rather rare. The Princessehof collection of Zhangzhou ware
has fifteen ceramic objects of this type.

The number of glaze colours of monochromes is limited. There is a blue blackish cobalt blue, and a rather
opaque greyish white glaze, sometimes with a greenish celadon or bluish tint and crackled,

For the blue glaze the dish was first dipped into a thick and opaque white glaze and then covered with a thinner
cobalt blue glaze. The same process was applied for celadon glazes, where a light green glaze was applied over
an opaque white glaze.
The dishes are made of porcellaneous stoneware coloured grey-white and with black specks. Most of the
dishes have unglazed grey or buff bases, marked by sharp concentric grooves. The foot ring is low, slanting on
the exterior and straight on the interior. Coarse particles of grit adhere wherever the glaze reached the edge
of the foot.
A second type of dishes is larger, also with a low foot ring, slanting on the exterior and on the inside slightly
undercut. These dishes are covered with thick whitish glazes, and when a celadon green glaze was added, the
white glaze is still visible on the base.

The only decoration of monochrome Zhangzhou wares are incised patterns under the glaze, done while the
clay was still “leather hard”. The engraved design repeats the blue and white repertoire and style: dragon,
phoenix, carp leaping out of waves, cranes, lotus and peonies. The execution is sketchy and vibrant. The
cavetto can be decorated with incised dragons or floral scrolls.
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The precise dating of monochromes is difficult. Production seems to have begun in the late 16 century and
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continued until the mid- 17 century. A couple of fluted dishes were brought up from the Hatcher wreck,
dated 1643-1646.

Ref.: Ottema 1945; Harrisson 1979; Adhyatman 1999; Canepa 2006 ; Tan 2007; Crick 2010

GRV 1929-116

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