Dish with enamel decoration

Small dish with plain rim.
Clay: buff stoneware.
Glaze: transparent with fine crackle.
Decoration: white slip; a chrysanthemum in red and green enamel colors; slight staining inside and out.

Historical period(s)
Jin dynasty, 13th century
Medium
Stoneware with white slip under colorless transparent glaze, enamels over glaze
Style
Cizhou ware
Dimensions
H x W: 3.2 x 12.9 cm (1 1/4 x 5 1/16 in)
Geography
China
Credit Line
Purchase — Charles Lang Freer Endowment
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art
Accession Number
F1956.23
On View Location
Currently not on view
Classification(s)
Ceramic, Vessel
Type

Dish

Keywords
China, chrysanthemum, Cizhou ware, Jin dynasty (1115 - 1234), stoneware
Provenance

To 1956
Howard Hollis & Company, Cleveland, Ohio. [1]

From 1956
Freer Gallery of Art, purchased from Howard Hollis & Company, Cleveland, Ohio. [2]

Notes:

[1] Curatorial Remark 1 in the object record.

[2] See note 1.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Howard Hollis and Company

Description

Small dish with plain rim.
Clay: buff stoneware.
Glaze: transparent with fine crackle.
Decoration: white slip; a chrysanthemum in red and green enamel colors; slight staining inside and out.

Label

This dish represents a technical breakthrough achieved by Cizhou potters around 1200.  Hitherto it had not been possible to combine the high-fired stoneware with bright decorative colors, which are best produced from low-fired glazes fluxed with lead.  The potters devised the method whereby the slipped stoneware covered with a transparent colorless glaze was fired to the normal high temperature, and the polychrome lead-glazed design painted on top of the glaze afterwards.  The piece was fired a second time to a lower temperature, sufficient to fuse the lead glaze to the prefired dish.  This technique assumed the utmost importance during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Google Cultural Institute
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