Dehua porcelain

Forms, use and context#

Pieces are shaped from fine kaolin by hand, or by moulding and slip casting. The firing craft was in the first national heritage batch (2006); the Qudougong kiln sites are nationally protected (1988).

Body#

High-quality kaolin porcelain.¹

• Chinese Wikipedia describes the body and glaze as milky white with a faint pink or ivory tone, called 牙白 (ivory white), and says the ware became known in Europe as 'Blanc de Chine' (中国白). Wikipedia's statement; the article is tagged as needing more sources.⁴

Methods#

1. Forming Direct shaping of kaolin, or moulding and slip casting; figure work uses pinching, modelling, carving, incising, scraping, joining and appliqué.¹
2. Firing Above 1000 °C.¹

Typical objects#

Look at the lower wall of the small cream-white stoneware bowl C81.270. The glaze stops well above the foot, below two rows of moulded petals. The catalogue dates the bowl to the thirteenth century, under the Southern Song, and gives its height as 5 cm and diameter as 9.3 cm. It records that bowls of this type were made around Dehua and elsewhere in Fujian. The precise kiln remains open.⁵

Periods#

1. Tang–Song – presentRose in the Tang–Song, flourished in the Ming–Qing; exported alongside silk and tea.¹

Kiln sites#

Heritage listings#

Paired teas on Cha.fyi#