Other Chinese potteries

[bagua7]

Let's discuss other sources of pottery because I believe others can be a valid alternative to the supremacy of Yixing Ware.

I am quoting from "chinatravel.com":

Luoyang Tang Tricolor Pottery

Tang tricolor pottery is the kind of pottery painted with such three glaze colors on its surface as yellow, green and white or yellow, green and blue.

Luoyang is located in the northern province of Henan in China, known as the Eastern Capital of the Tang Dynasty. The Tang tricolor potteries of fine quality unearthed so far are mainly from Luoyang, they are vivid and exquisite, so are named as Luoyang Tang Tricolor Pottery.

The making of Tang tricolor pottery is quite complex and trivial. First put the base into the kiln and heat it in around 1100 centigrade, then take it out to color, and heat it again in around 900 centigrade. The major ingredient of tricolor glaze is aluminum silicate, and the color generation toner consists of various kinds of metallic oxides, such as ferrum or antimony in light yellow, ferrum in ocher yellow, bronze in green, copper or cobalt in blue and manganese in purple.

Tang tricolor pottery is the artistic essence of the Tang Dynasty, which absorbed the merits of such artwares as Chinese painting, stone carving, sculpture, etc. It adopts ornamental patterns created by printing, laying and carving which are characterized by bold, nicety and morbidezza in its form, simple in carving style and smooth in lines. With unique artistic style and distinct ethnic features, it fully demonstrates the social appearance and high artistic standard of the glorious Tang Dynasty. Tang tricolor pottery has great varieties, and the major types are pottery figure and household item.

The reproduction and imitation of Tang tricolor pottery have been conducted in Luoyang for nearly one century. After the founding of New China, Luoyang Artistic Ceramics Factory was established, also the specialized department was set up to study and develop the craftsmanship of Tang tricolor pottery, which has brought its artistic techniques and standard to a higher level. Now the Tang tricolor pottery is still a traditional export item from China to more than 50 regions and countries in the world.

Purchase guide: Available in handicraft market in all large and medium-sized cities in China, as well as in Taobao.com

Xingzhou Nixing Pottery

Nixing pottery of Qinzhou, Guangxi Province，one of the four most famous kinds of pottery, is hailed as a unique art in China. It is a specialty of Qinzhou in Guangxi Province, made by the peculiar red clay. It has a history of over one thousand years, and the oldest descended ones were produced in around 618 AD. In recent years, Nixing pottery becomes popular again and takes increasing fancy of collectors and consumers both at home and abroad.

By the unique quality of clay and delicate craftsmanship, the Qinzhou Nixing pottery has an archaic appearance with bronze or liver color. And it can achieve flambé glaze and turn azure after firing in high temperature. Besides, it will get more smoothness after polishing. Nixing pottery has an assortment of over 600, and the major ones are tea set, stationery, tableware, vase, coffee utensils, incense tripod and antique imitation, etc.

Another reason why Nixing pottery is so popular is because of its peculiar functions. It can stand strong acids and bases, keep things fresh against damp and does not contain any toxicity. Also it can maintain the taste and color of the tea for days, and even in hot summer, tea will not spoil in it; the same feature also applies to meal. Moreover, tea scent sediment can be obtained after the Nixing pottery tea set has been used for a long time, and you can get the tea scent even without tea by just putting hot water into the pot.

Nowadays Nixing pottery has been sold to more that 30 regions and countries including Japan, the US, Britain, Germany and South East Asia. Some precious ones have been sent to many foreign and international expositions, and the honors include more than 40 gold and silver awards in exhibitions like the ceramic fair in the 100th Anniversary of Belgium. Nixing pottery is your best collection and utility choice.

Purchase guide: Available at the Qinbaozhai pottery gallery in the Qinzhou City of Guangxi Province, as well as in all large and medium-sized cities in China.

Jianshui Pottery

Jianshui pottery is the shortened term for Jianshui artistic pottery, a wonderful work of Chinese artistic pottery which has a history of more than two hundred years.

The production of artistic pottery is a combination of high quality materials and gorgeous techniques which are complementary and indispensable to each other, and the Jianshui pottery is just the kind of high quality pottery made by such a perfect combination. Around the Wanyao Village in the suburb of the town of Jianshui, the abundant resource of clay contained in the surrounding dozens of kilometers of area is of excellent quality, and it is suitable for the making of high grade pottery as it feels fine and glossy with good viscosity. There are also pottery craftsman families which have been making Jianshui pottery for generations. Various Jianshui potteries are made by the five-color clay through delicate processes like body blank, painting, carving, scraping, clinkering, polishing, etc. They are beautifully shaped with elegant and antique patterns, hard and solid as well as fine and glossy. The surface is shiny in bright colors and when you knock on it, it sounds like knocking on bronzes and stone tablets. All these features demonstrate the strong ancient ethnic flavor of China.

Among various Jianshui pottery, the white-pattern-bedded-in-black kind is especially precious--beautiful white flowers being bedded in the shiny black surface of the pottery, this renders a sharp but harmonious color contrast which makes the pottery so distinctive in style and so hard to be let go once you had it.

Jianshui pottery boasts a wide variety of article, including jar, kettle, basin, tea set, vase, boiler and etc. It's acid and damp-proof, it holds heat while permeable by air; with Jianhiu pottery, tea can be well preserved for long in the teapot, flowers can last long in the vase and longer freshness can be obtained for food in dishware made by the Jianshui pottery. Among all these, Jianshui pottery boiler is the most famous. Food boiled by Jianshui pottery boiler with water vapor is especially delicious, and the nutrition can be well retained. The very famous Yunnan cuisine "Boiled Chicken with Panax Notoginseng" can only be originally cooked by the Jianshui pottery boiler.

Purchase guide: Jianshui Pottery Tea House in Yunnan Province ADRESS: No 111, Jianzhong Road, Jianshui County, Yunnan Province (opposite the Confucian Temple) Postal Code: 654300 Telephone: 0871-2882121

Rongchang Pottery

Products of the Sichuan Rongchang pottery mainly consists of commodities like kettle, jar, pot, vase and so on, and the most famous one is the Rongchang pickle jar. The pickle jar is suitable and useful for making pickles both in shape and structure with harmony in proportion and beauty in appearance; it's very popular. There are two kinds of clay in Rongchang, one is red, and the other is white. Craftsmen delicately create various ways to decorate the pottery with both the red and white clay, for example, the pottery body made by red clay is decorated by white appliqué or golden mixture of the two colors, etc. The pottery surface is beautifully scratched and picked with smooth lines, and most of which are single-lined patterns. It's such a model of the combination of function and beauty with sharp contrast and simple and natural ornamental patterns.

Over the past centuries, with its unique local craftsmanship and artistic style, Rongchang pottery enjoyed such reputations as "as thin as paper, as bright as glass and as sonorous as chime stone"; it has added an indispensable page to the histories of Chinese ceramics and Chinese arts and crafts.

Purchase guide: Available in all major shops in Rongchang County and Chengdu City.

Zibo Artistic Pottery

The long-historied Zibo pottery enjoys reputations in artistic ceramics with high standard in shaping and decoration. Eggshell pottery from the Neolithic Age unearthed in Zibo, as well as the Rain Drop Glaze and Tea-rice Glaze made in the Song Dynasty in Zibo are considered as treasures of China.

The precious Rain Drop Glaze, also known as Oil Drop Glaze, is decorated with silvery white dots evenly on its surface of black glaze. The dots are as small as rice, it shines like gilded spots when containing tea, and glitters with silvery lights when holding wine, and it glimmers brilliantly under the sun. In Japan, the Rain Drop Glaze is called Temmoku Glaze, and tea set made by this kind of porcelain is considered as top grade in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Tea-flake glaze is a kind of mat glaze which contains crystalline mineral; stationeries, vase, kettle made by tea-flake glaze all have pure glaze color with antique and elegant appearance.

Distinguished development has been made in pottery paintings which has broadened the dimension of ceramic decoration, especially with a special painting method. This method solved the immemorial problem of the inability to decorate golden-black glaze pottery with colored paintings. Works like "Song of the Birds", "Song of Spring", "Miss Peacock" are all favorably viewed by the arts circle for their abundant colors and distinctive styles.

Zibo carved porcelain is well-known both at home and abroad, especially the portrait hanging dish, made with gorgeous workmanship and vivid picture. Hanging dishes made by the master craftsman Mr. Ma Lin, the "Premier Zhou Enlai & President Kim Il Sung" and "The King of Thailand Bhumibol Adulyadej & the Queen Sirikit", were respectively made gift to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and Thailand when the vice-chairwoman Deng Yingchao visited those countries.

Porcelain sculptures made in Zibo enjoy high reputation in artistic achievement. Besides, various porcelain carving figures and animals also have great charm to people for the different postures and shapes, as well as delicate and pleasing appearance.

Zibo archaistic porcelain is highly praised for its exquisite workmanship, antique and vivid shapes. New and fresh in design, novel and pleasing while appreciating, the Zibo garden porcelain has also added greater charm to the art of Chinese gardening. Every time the porcelain craftsmen from Zibo were invited to demonstrate their skills in overseas performances, wherever they went, they took the audience's breath away.

Purchase guide: Ceramic and glaze market of Boshan District, Shantou Zhen, Zibo City.

Source: http://www.chinatravel.com/history-deta ... troduction

[puerhking]

Yunnan Sourcing is carrying quite a few Jian Shui pots. Some are quite beautiful.

http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/cat ... 1711641066

[bagua7]

puerhking, have you used any of those awesome pots? Gee, I love their looks. Just a bit hesitant of taking the plunge but I wouldn't mind using them for puerh.

[kaminix]

Yunnan Sourcing is carrying quite a few Jian Shui pots. Some are quite beautiful.

http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/cat ... 1711641066

Saw these the other day. How is the material function-wise compared to yixing? Will it have a patina? Keep the warmth better (YS claims it's twice the density)? Alter the taste of the water and tea?