Chinese porcelain in tea culture and beyond

"Tea Line" shares the most interesting facts about the origin of the ancient miracle material.

The Terrible Porcelain Secret

In China, talented and observant craftsmen came up with the idea of making porcelain dishes three thousand years ago (as evidenced by the shards excavated in the Huang He River Valley). Even the very first products were so successful that they quickly ended up on the emperor's table and delighted the entire court.

Mass production of individual items and porcelain sets began in the 6th-7th centuries. The Chinese achieved from the shard the fineness, whiteness and ringing quality that collectors of expensive tableware still hunt for.
During the Song Dynasty (10th-12th centuries), Yaoban porcelain appeared, the cost of which was equal to the cost of jade and pure gold - the quality of the material was so high. During the Song Dynasty, the best dishes were made in the Dehual and Longquan workshops.

It is believed that the best tea porcelain in China began to be made in the 15th-16th centuries (Ming era), achieving the ideal of manufacturing technology. At that time, the famous Chinese navigator Zhenghe several times took dishes and souvenirs made of excellent porcelain to East Asia and African countries.

Chinese porcelain masters began creating dinner sets specifically for wealthy European buyers in the 18th century (Qing Dynasty). Porcelain dishes were covered with a specific glaze of oxblood color and unique pink enamel. A huge demand for dinner sets was discovered when medieval European sailors brought samples back home: to have a set of the finest rare dishes became the desire of all the nobility.

By the 19th century, a crisis had set in in porcelain production, many factories went bankrupt, and China exported almost nothing abroad. The situation changed only after the formation of the PRC, when the government began to allocate funds from the budget to rebuild the destroyed factories. A porcelain tea set made in modern China using ancient technologies is a valuable gift, an example of the sophistication of forms and painting.

Porcelain: cult and culture

The first porcelain vase fell into the hands of a European thanks to the legendary traveler and explorer Marco Polo (13th century). Then, caravans with elegant products went to Europe, which was gripped by a passion for the unique material, along the Great Silk Road and, of course, only kings got them. Louis XIV, for example, drank scalding broth only from a Chinese bowl, to which French artisans attached silver handles.

Attempts were made to make porcelain tableware in Venice, Italy, and Germany. English and French craftsmen also tried to make elegant vases and cups by hand, but the results were sad: the products were rough, thick-walled, and fragile. For many centuries, no one except China could create such beautiful tableware. The first person to unravel the secret of the material was the chemist Johann Böttger (18th century), who lived in Saxony. Without thinking twice, he passed on the recipe to Saxon manufacturers, and production was put on stream. The disclosure of the secret, for which people were once executed in China, led to a temporary decline in porcelain production in its homeland. But a positive moment can be considered the development of the skill of foreign craftsmen and craftswomen to paint tableware in the Chinese style. And the painting of tableware, by the way, was valued higher than the porcelain itself, since the secrets of choosing colors and motifs were passed on between dozens of generations of artisans from the Celestial Empire. With the development of the art of calligraphy, Chinese tableware with hieroglyphs became popular.

Original Chinese porcelain is always a work of art. It is simply impossible to look away from a vase, plate or cup painted by a skilled craftsman, and after a few minutes of this fascinating activity, it becomes absolutely clear why they ask such a price for dishes and souvenirs at auctions. And most importantly - you want to pay this price...

Where has the best Chinese porcelain been produced since ancient times?

As is usual with artisans, in each province of China, masters tried to create something of their own and share it with close relatives so that the business of making and painting unique dishes would continue. But several workshops managed to stand out among their peers. Thus, it is believed that stunningly white, thin, like a sheet of paper, and surprisingly durable porcelain was made in the city of Jingdezhen (Chinese: 景德镇, pinyin: Jǐngdézhèn) during the reign of the Tsun dynasty. In this city, artists used special blue-light blue pigment, which was brought to order from Sumatra, and painted flowers on white dishes with this paint. However, Jingdezhen was still famous for its pure white porcelain, which was considered a priceless treasure.

Another famous center of Chinese porcelain production is Dehua County (Chinese: 德化县, pinyin: déhuàxiàn). Here, in the 10th-12th centuries, white glazed products were created that received engraved patterns and relief images. Porcelain tea sets, vases and figurines from Dehua were made in 8 stages and those of them that were lucky enough to survive to this day are considered world masterpieces. The second heyday of porcelain production in Dehua occurred during the years of the formation of the PRC, when this craft was taken up by young artists who adopted ancient traditions.

Yin and Yang in Chinese Teaware

The same tea from two white thin-walled cups can taste different, and the Chinese knew this better than we did. In fact, the yin and yang forms of teaware came from there.

The Yin cup is not tall, has sloping walls and is wide. It is pleasant to drink from a Yin cup in warm weather, when you want tea not only to have a bright taste, but also to cool down quickly.

A yang cup is tall and small in diameter. It is better to drink from it in winter: the tea will retain its aroma and warmth longer.

The highest level of skill among connoisseurs of expensive Chinese tableware is to buy yin and yang porcelain with one painting and enjoy a leisurely tea ceremony at different times of the year.

Types of Chinese porcelain and painting techniques

The classification of Chinese porcelain is complex and multifaceted. It is believed that the main criteria for assessing tableware are:

• Date of manufacture. Usually, sets, individual items and styles of execution in the world of Chinese porcelain are named according to the eras of the imperial dynasties during which these styles were invented. Thus, "Tang" porcelain, for example, will tell about production during the years of the Tang Dynasty, and "Ming" will call the dishes that the porcelain factory made during the Ming Dynasty.
• The region in which the porcelain tableware is made. Yaozhou (Chinese: 耀州, pinyin: Yàozhōu) dinnerware, vases, and figurines are produced in the northwestern region of Shanxi (Chinese: 山西, pinyin: shānxī), while Yue porcelain (Chinese: 越窑, pinyin: yuèyáo) is made in the eastern province of Zhejiang.
• Production specifics. This refers to the quality of the clay mixture, the color of the glaze, the painting method, and a number of other distinctive manufacturing features. The glaze on Chinese teaware can be single-colored or multi-colored. Single-color porcelain in China is called cai ci (Chinese: 彩瓷, pinyin: cǎicí), and porcelain glazed with different colors is called jun ci (Chinese: 钧瓷, pinyin: jūncí).

There have been and still are quite a few ways to apply images to porcelain items. One of them is decaling. In modern conditions, to implement this technique, the selected image is printed with special paints on an adhesive base, then the imprint is transferred to porcelain, and the dishes are fired in a kiln to fix the result.

Tea sets decorated using the complex technique of hand-painted underglaze are indescribably beautiful. Dyes are applied to the items after they have been fired for the first time at 800°C. Painted porcelain is fired in a red-hot oven at 1400°C, and the image becomes slightly foggy, muted and unusual under the influence of temperature. The technique of classical overglaze painting involves painting the fixed enamel with subsequent firing in an oven heated to 800°C.

Tea porcelain in China was and continues to be engraved. Images and letters are applied manually using a mechanical tool such as a drill, while factories prefer laser engraving (burning out a thin surface layer of the material) using programmable equipment. The engraving is in all cases fixed with a layer of glaze, and the item is fired at a temperature of 900 °C.

Elegant rice porcelain stands apart in the decoration of teaware. Such cups shine through in separate figured "windows" - and on their inner surface it is as if grains of rice are pressed out. Rice porcelain with a pattern of blue and white is considered a classic design.

The price of porcelain painted in the exquisite gongbi technique (Chinese: 工笔, pinyin: gōngbǐ) - "careful brush" - is high for a reason: the Chinese developed it and brought it to perfection before others (2nd millennium BC). Artists who paint dinner sets in this way draw all the smallest details of flowers and plants, outlining the elements with a thin, clear outline of a dark color. In ancient times, only the imperial court could afford to buy such a dinner set.

Genres of Chinese porcelain painting

The cost of hand-painted original Chinese porcelain can be many times higher than the cost of the cup itself, if a famous artist worked on it. Especially when it comes to antique items.

In porcelain catalogues you can find several genres of tea set painting:

• Ren wu hua (Chinese: 人物画, pinyin: rénwùhuà) - images of figures of people participating in various scenes from life, and famous personalities. The painting was done using five colors and a special tonal stretch, which in academic painting is called glazing. Sometimes calligraphic inscriptions are added to the images.
• Hua niao (Chinese: 花鸟, pinyin: huāniǎo) – images of plants and birds combined with calligraphic inscriptions.
• Shan shui (Chinese: 山水, pinyin: shānshuǐ) is a depiction of landscapes with mountains and rivers.

Also in porcelain shops you can see items with paintings in the form of traditional floral and plant-fruit ornaments (lotus flowers, orchids, meihua plum, bamboo shoots, peach flowers, pomegranates), tea sets with images of bamboo and animals - real (tigers, magpies, turtles, fish, cranes) and mythical (dragons and phoenixes). Popular motifs include two carp, a pair of ducks, lotus flowers growing on one stem, two birds.

Porcelain, Patterns and Symbolism

What was depicted on porcelain dishes from China was not just decoration or the first thing that came to the artist's mind: usually the painting was made symbolic. Thus, flowers symbolized beautiful women, peonies - spring, lotus flowers - summer, wild plum - winter, and blooming chrysanthemums - autumn. A painted evergreen pine was associated with longevity, a righteous way of life and courage in the face of adversity. Bamboo spoke of love of life, straightforwardness and vitality, and pomegranate - about the wish to have many sons. It is curious that the hieroglyph for "seed" in China is drawn in exactly the same way as the hieroglyph for "sons".

Antique Chinese Porcelain

Antique Chinese porcelain is an investment that is perhaps as successful as gold. Provided that the purchased item or set is genuine and accompanied by documents, it is guaranteed to increase in value over the years - and, of course, will endlessly delight its owners with its appearance.

The price of original antique porcelain at auctions can be extremely high. Thus, imperial porcelain (Meiyintang series, 77 items) was sold at Sotheby's in Hong Kong for 51.4 million dollars. An 18th century Falangcai vase from the Ming era, which depicts a golden pheasant, was bought at the same auction for 25.7 million dollars, and a blue and white porcelain container for rinsing calligraphy brushes with an image of a lake and fish - for 6.5 million dollars.

Collecting genuine antique porcelain, handmade in China, is one of the most enjoyable hobbies that can bring serious benefits to its owners.