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On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Ewer

960-1127 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This eight-lobed ewer was made in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, a town that was to dominate the entire porcelain industry in China for century to come.

The kilns of southern China, which had earlier excelled in making green ware, started to produce white ware in the ten century. The resultant Qingbai porcelains differ from their northern counterpart in both chemical composition and firing technique (see following entry for Northern Ding wares). They were fired in a 'dragon' kiln, so called because its narrow and upward-climbing structure resembles a dragon. Such kilns were built into the side of a hill or a man-made mound and were designed to maximize heat from the fuel, which in this case was wood. Qingbai wares were fired in a reducing atmosphere, meaning the kiln was deliberately deprived of oxygen, resulting in a distinctive glassy, cool, bluish-white glaze. In Chinese, 'Qingbai' means literally 'bluish white'.

Like other whiteware, the ewer was made as a substitute for a silver vessel. Other daily not used to dining were also made in Qingbai porcelain, including lamps, pillows, incense burners, boxes and small jars. Qingbai ware was evidently an important export line from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, as examples have been found in Korea, Japan, South and South-East Asia, West Asia and North Africa. One of the earliest pieces of Chinese porcelain to reach Europe, the Fonthill vase (now in the National Museum of Ireland and once owned by a fourteenth-century king of Hungary) is of Qingbai ware.

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Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain with clear glaze
Brief description
Cer, China, Song, qingbai ware, timeline
Physical description
This eight-lobed ewer was made in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, a town that was to dominate the entire porcelain industry in China for century to come.

The kilns of southern China, which had earlier excelled in making green ware, started to produce white ware in the ten century. The resultant Qingbai porcelains differ from their northern counterpart in both chemical composition and firing technique (see following entry for Northern Ding wares). They were fired in a 'dragon' kiln, so called because its narrow and upward-climbing structure resembles a dragon. Such kilns were built into the side of a hill or a man-made mound and were designed to maximize heat from the fuel, which in this case was wood. Qingbai wares were fired in a reducing atmosphere, meaning the kiln was deliberately deprived of oxygen, resulting in a distinctive glassy, cool, bluish-white glaze. In Chinese, 'Qingbai' means literally 'bluish white'.

Like other whiteware, the ewer was made as a substitute for a silver vessel. Other daily not used to dining were also made in Qingbai porcelain, including lamps, pillows, incense burners, boxes and small jars. Qingbai ware was evidently an important export line from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, as examples have been found in Korea, Japan, South and South-East Asia, West Asia and North Africa. One of the earliest pieces of Chinese porcelain to reach Europe, the Fonthill vase (now in the National Museum of Ireland and once owned by a fourteenth-century king of Hungary) is of Qingbai ware.
Dimensions
  • Height: 19.7cm
  • Width: 11.7cm
  • Depth: 9cm
Styles
Gallery label
(September 2009)
Qingbai ewer
China, Jingdezhen
Northern Song dynasty,
1000–1100

The town of Jingdezhen has dominated porcelain production for much of the last millennium. Its potters combined the porcelain stone used for green-glazed stonewares with kaolin. The result, fired to very high temperatures, was of extremely good quality. The kiln conditions were manipulated to create a glassy, blueishwhite (qingbai) glaze. After 1100, qingbai porcelain was exported widely to Asian and Middle Eastern markets, and some eventually reached Europe.

Glazed porcelain

Museum no. C.112-1929
H.B. Harris Bequest
Credit line
H.B. Harris Bequest
Production
11th century (Kerr 2004: 96)
Summary
This eight-lobed ewer was made in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, a town that was to dominate the entire porcelain industry in China for century to come.

The kilns of southern China, which had earlier excelled in making green ware, started to produce white ware in the ten century. The resultant Qingbai porcelains differ from their northern counterpart in both chemical composition and firing technique (see following entry for Northern Ding wares). They were fired in a 'dragon' kiln, so called because its narrow and upward-climbing structure resembles a dragon. Such kilns were built into the side of a hill or a man-made mound and were designed to maximize heat from the fuel, which in this case was wood. Qingbai wares were fired in a reducing atmosphere, meaning the kiln was deliberately deprived of oxygen, resulting in a distinctive glassy, cool, bluish-white glaze. In Chinese, 'Qingbai' means literally 'bluish white'.

Like other whiteware, the ewer was made as a substitute for a silver vessel. Other daily not used to dining were also made in Qingbai porcelain, including lamps, pillows, incense burners, boxes and small jars. Qingbai ware was evidently an important export line from the eleventh to the fourteenth century, as examples have been found in Korea, Japan, South and South-East Asia, West Asia and North Africa. One of the earliest pieces of Chinese porcelain to reach Europe, the Fonthill vase (now in the National Museum of Ireland and once owned by a fourteenth-century king of Hungary) is of Qingbai ware.
Bibliographic references
  • Kerr, Rose. Song Dynasty Ceramics. London: V&A Publications, 2004. Plate 97
  • Liefkes, Reino and Hilary Young (eds.) Masterpieces of World Ceramics in the Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A Publishing, 2008 pp. 36-37
Collection
Accession number
C.112-1929

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Record createdSeptember 21, 2006
Record URL
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