Contrary to common perceptions not all Chinese celadons are the same color, they are often not even green at all and yet they are called Celadon. Chinese glazes have so many variant shades of this color it nearly defies description.  

Song Dynasty Qingbai Celadon Bowl

 They can be nearly black and they can be for all intent and purpose done in tones of blue and still be technically called celadons. This was most common in the colors of the pieces made during the Song (960-1279) and Yuan period (1279-1368).  It was during these eras that many scholars and collectors feel had the most variations in the spectrum of color and  and range of glazes. During the Song Yuan dynasties most of these wares were made in Jingdezhen and it is believed this was the starting point for their manufacture.  This was truly a fascinating era of innovation, glaze and potting experimentation. The era’s influence over Chinese Art has lasted for centuries.

This early period was held in such high esteem by the Chinese that during the  Qianlong Emperor’s (1736-1795) rule a revival took place attempting to replicate the ceramics made during this fabled time. Interestingly other items were also reproduced including Jades, paintings and lacquers.  The quality of these revival examples were and still are astounding.

Interior Drawing Qingbai Bowl, Song Dynasty

The bowl shown here was made during the Song Dynasty and while it appears bluish in tone, it is actually classified as a type of celadon. The exterior design is often described as a “Tear Drop” or “Flower Petal” pattern. 

Qingbai Tear Drop Pattern, Song Dynasty

The interior is hand decorated with a charmingly done loosely executed flower, the foot is unglazed-nearly flat and the bowl’s rim has a dry brown dressing.

Qingbai Bowl Rim Dressing, Song Dynasty

These bowls were made in one variety or another in both the Southern and Northern Song (960-1279). Some are slightly whiter and others are much bluer leaning to green.  The glaze on this example and many others is very thin and to the eye free of bubbles.  This is not always the case however as areas of suffused bubbles can be found where it has pooled as in the example of the foot rim of this cup which originally had a stand under it.  In this example the viewer can see the dry rim resulting from the removal of glaze before firing.

Fine Qingbai Glazed Cup, Song Dynasty

Qingbai Foot, Song

The glaze is clear and pure which pools and fills the carved areas making it appear much darker and highlights the design. For the period of it’s manufacture, the paste used to make these bowls were very well levigated and most examples today a free of impurities being revealed after the firing.

Qingbai Foot Rim, Song Dynasty

Other examples exist with glaze free rims, on these the glaze has been wiped clean prior to firing to facilitate stacking of the bowl in the kilns. This style of bowls feature a variety of decorations predominated by varieties of flowers, boys in vines and on some examples fish are shown. The interior decorations to these bowls are a study unto themselves. Some are made in molds leaving a distinct raised relief patterns inside and out which tend to be rather complex and on other examples the decoration is a loosely or quickly drawn pattern.  The bluer toned examples, in my humble experience, are more likely to be drawn rather than press molded.

During the Song Dynasty pieces were made in a bewildering variety of forms from stem cups to exotic animals. Some were in the form of buildings and in this example is a rather rare example of a barge or boat.

Qingbai Boat, Song to Yuan Dynasty

Later into the Yuan period larger Qingbai examples  were made including figures and statues.

 Among the most popular bottle or vase forms of this era and  continued to be made for centuries was the Meiping vase form. Characterized by a gently upward expanding body that curves inward gently on a broad shoulder ending to form a tightly formed smallish neck and mouth.

Molded and Carved Meiping, Song Dynasty

The decortion on these can vary widely from busy high relief decoration to very delicate low relief drawing. This image is a molded and carved example.

NOTE: A good book on this topic is “Qinbai Ware: Chinese Porcelain of the Song and Yuan Dynasties”, By Rosemary Scott, Amy Barnes, Estelle Nikles and Catherine Teo. Edited by Stacey Pierson. It was published by the Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, 2002 ISBN: 0 7286 0339X

The other day a friend and customer asked me; “What is the best Asian Art reference site on the internet.” While many museums and dealers have websites and a number of hobbyist group sites like Gotheborg.com display a mix of ceramics and reign marks and have a contributor board. , nearly all have done a very poor job at indexing, populating and posting their sites.

They all tend to have a dozen or fewer images, all too small and maybe a title and little else. This includes the National Palace Museum in Taiwan and the Metropolitan Museums of Art in New York. These two get at best a “D” for content, information, ease of use and image quality. In other cases they show things of such low quality, but lots of them it might end up making you hate Asian Art.

So, who has the hands down BEST site?

For me the answer is easy. For the very best in quality and depth online The Freer and Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. wins hands down.

This is the Asian art reference informational and image site of all sites!! Fantastic is an understatement.

So you might ask how many images and text captions are on this site? Its hard to say actually. If you include; Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Southeast Asian and cover Ceramics, Paintings, , Prints, Bronzes and Carvings etc. somewhere around 5,500 images are available and ALL FOR FREE!!!!    ALL the images Enlarge!!! For a quick peek have a look at the Chinese Art Section at the Freer - Sackler.

Yes I said all the data is free. Its free because its the Smithsonian Institution and the place belongs to us all the American people. If you add Islamic and middle eastern stuff, the images total over 6,000.

Enjoy it, the images can be saved onto your own computer as desktops for your computer, you can create a Private Collection on the site of you favorite images and things..sort of like having your own museum. So you can at last Collect Song bowls, Ming Paintings, Neolithic Bronzes, and Yuan Basins if your thing is Chinese…if Japan is your area of interest you can build a group of screens and scrolls.  From a personal standpoint, the monchromes and are particularly excellent.

The possibilities are endless, the next rainy day you might even find something there to interest your children. If you decide its as good as I do..maybe make a donation of a couple dollars.

Have a peek at the site..

http://www.asia.si.edu/collections/default.htm

Tomorrow Harlowe and Powell are having a sale and in it are a few things that looking interesting. Problem though, NO one there knows a thing about Asian art, Nada, Nothing, ZIP.

Arghh So I call, a nice young lady there answered the phone, the “antique person” is busy, so I asked her about  a particular lot. She says’ we don’t have an expert or even have access to one,  so she did try to help. She  admitted the things I was asking about come from a regular consignor who is “troublesome” translated means he/she brings in fakes.  The piece in question was a very good looking carved lacquer box, other things in the sale vases, Kangxi looking things are out of the question. 

Its too bad, because once in a while they get DO get in some very respectable things from blue and white to bronzes to Celadons. (I personally like Celadons)

Ming Lonquan Celadon, plcombs inventory

So this begs the question “Why on earth do they take stuff from this person?”

Answer…they are dense and amateurish. Nice enough but why do auction houses take in things time and time again from delaers who lie to them..when I ran live auctions one fib ended the consignors contact with me.

Ohh now I sound cranky and mean..didn;t mean to.