Facts About Porcelain Treasures

Written 17 May , 2010

Porcelain has long been associated with the Chinese, since they were the first makers of the product. This fact is evident, especially since the English colloquial term for porcelain is “china”. This goes to show how deeply ingrained the product is in the cultural heritage of the country.

The making of porcelain treasures evolved from pottery making. Technically speaking, there are three requirements in the procedure of making porcelain. First of all, porcelain should be made of Kaolin. It should be created under firing temperature of over 1250 degrees Celsius. And lastly, the item should have a smooth finish and baked under high temperature.

Porcelain were believed to have been first produced during the Shang Dynasty in the sixteenth century BC. In those times, the techniques of creating the piece were of crude and primitive ways. The method evolved during the Han and Tang Dynasty when northern Chinese transferred to the south where they found a place that seemed favourable to the production of porcelain.

The Song Dynasty might as well have been dubbed as the porcelain era of China. It was during this time that China’s production of porcelain increased overwhelmingly with all the kilns during those times, the Ding Kiln, Ru Kiln, Guan Kiln, Ge Kiln and Jun Kiln. The technology for manufacturing porcelain items moved forward in the Ming and Qing Dynasties with the birth of enamel porcelain.

The Ding Kiln created porcelain objects of bottles, bowls and trays that have decorations of flowers such as lotus flower, lily and peony. The Ru Kiln, on the other hand, was where porcelain objects for palaces were made. The objects were varnished in colors of moon white, light pink, blue and sky blue. The Guan Kiln made pots, bowls, trays and bottles. These items were made with blue glaze.

The Ge Kiln also made items such as trays, bowls and bottles, but these items were mainly of colors brown, light grey, dark grey and black. Lastly, the Jun Kiln, porcelain objects made in this kiln were depicted by their different colors such as pure moon white, pure sky blue, purple spotted and red blue.

Today, China is still considered as the leading manufacturer of quality porcelain treasures. There are many cities in the country that produce porcelain objects. Among the most famous are the following cities, Zibo City of Shandong Province, Handan and Tangshan of Hebei Province, Yixing of Jiangsu Province, Fengxi and Shiwan of Guandong Province, Liling of Hunan Province, Jingdezhen of Jiangxi Province.