Longquan celadon

Longquan celadon
Flask, Yuan dynasty, 1271-1368
Traditional Chinese龍泉青瓷
Simplified Chinese龙泉青瓷
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyinlóngquán qīngcí
Vase with unglazed medallions, here using moulds and a resist technique, 14th century.[1]
Group of 13th-century vessels

Longquan celadon (龙泉青瓷, lung-tsh'wahn[citation needed]) is a type of green-glazed Chinese ceramic, known in the West as celadon or greenware, produced from about 950 to 1550. The kilns were mostly in Lishui prefecture in southwestern Zhejiang Province in the south of China, and the north of Fujian Province. Overall a total of some 500 kilns have been discovered,[2] making the Longquan celadon production area one of the largest historical ceramic producing areas in China. "Longquan-type" is increasingly preferred as a term, in recognition of this diversity, or simply "southern celadon",[3] as there was also a large number of kilns in north China producing Yaozhou ware or other Northern Celadon wares. These are similar in many respects, but with significant differences to Longquan-type celadon, and their production rose and declined somewhat earlier.[4]

Celadon production had a long history at Longquan and related sites, but it was not until the Northern Song (960–1127) period that large-scale production began, and the move of the capital to Hangzhou, close to Longquan, after the start of the Southern Song (1127–1279), was probably important in the great expansion of both quality and production there. Both continued at high levels in the Yuan (1271–1368) and the early part of the Ming (1368–1644) periods. Longquan celadons were an important part of China's export economy for over five hundred years, and were widely imitated in other countries, especially Korea and Japan. Their demise came after they were overtaken in their markets by blue and white porcelain from Jingdezhen.

In traditional Western terms, most celadons are strictly counted as stoneware, since the fired clay body is usually neither white nor translucent.[5] In the traditional Chinese classification, which divides pottery into low-fired earthenware and high-fired porcelain, they count as porcelain. Compromise terms such as "porcellanous stoneware" may be used to describe the pieces,[6] and some Western writers consider the wares should be "regarded as porcelains".[7]

The Longquan celadons were among the finest of a range of celadon wares produced in China, and led stylistic and technical developments. The celadons were produced in a range of shades of colour, centred on olive-green, but extending to greenish blues (regarded as desirable, but less common) and browns. All these colours come from the glaze; the body beneath is sometimes left partly unglazed as part of the decoration, when it fires to a terracotta brown. The wares are hardly ever painted; decoration comes from the vessel shape and carved or incised designs in the body. Shapes were originally mostly simple, allowing the glaze colour to create the main effect of a piece, but in later periods raised decoration was common.

  1. ^ British Museum page
  2. ^ Krahl and Harrison-Hall, 13; Gompertz, 158 has "over 200 kiln sites" showing the pace of Chinese archaeology in recent decades, and perhaps counting groups rather than individual kilns; Medley, 147, on their locations
  3. ^ Medley, 146
  4. ^ Medley, 115-118; Gompertz, 159, 98-125; for some reason one is typically capitalized and the other not.
  5. ^ Medley, 147
  6. ^ Gompertz, 22 quoted; Medley, 146 describes them as "stoneware and porcellanous ware".
  7. ^ Vainker, 108 (quoted); Clunas, 284-285 refers to celadons as porcelain, but not consistently.