Appreciation of Blue-and-white Porcelain in the Yuan Dynasty in Baoding, Hebei Province

Among the many fine porcelain displayed in the exhibition hall of “Famous Kiln and Famous Porcelain” in Hebei Museum, four blue-and-white porcelains, unearthed in May 1964 in the Yuan Dynasty in Yonghua South Road, Baoding City, Hebei Province, were 11 pieces of porcelain unearthed at that time. Including six blue-and-white porcelain, two white glaze porcelain and three blue-glaze painted gold porcelain.The excavation of the blue-and-white porcelain is the first time that a batch of the Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain has been discovered in China. These objects are elegant and dignified in shape, rich in decorative patterns, exquisite in workmanship and of great historical, artistic and scientific value.The author introduces 4 beautiful blue-and-white porcelain for readers to enjoy the unique artistic charm of blue-and-white flowers in the beautiful blue charm.

Blue and white, double lion, ball-shaped, eight-edged, jade pot, spring vase

Height 32.5 cm, aperture 9.7 cm, bottom diameter 9.8 cm.The body is octagonal, open, thin-necked, round-bellied, circumferential feet slightly out.Fetal thin and dense, fine and moist glaze.From top to bottom, the bottle is decorated with nine layers of blue and white flowers, and the inside of the bottle is painted with eight lines of Ruyi cloud, banana leaf, back and lotus leaf, and the theme of the belly is decorated with a double lion’s ball figure, the lion’s body is painted with colored silk, and the feet are raised, playing around with fire, Fang Sheng, Ganoderma lucidum, etc. The lower abdomen and bottom are painted with money grain, lotus leaf grain, retractile grain and curly grass grain.This jade pot spring bottle shape elegant and beautiful, the decorative lively, blue and white color is rich, is the Yuan Dynasty Jingdezhen kiln blue and white ware representative.

Blue and white sea water dragon pattern octagonal belt cover plum vase

Height 51.5 inside, aperture 6.6 cm, bottom diameter 14.5 cm.Bottle cap and plum bottle are eight diamond, small mouth, folding, short neck, shoulder, abdomen long and adducted, slightly extravagant, foot floor tire.General application of white glaze, white and green glaze.The shoulders and near the bottom are decorated with large clouds of Ruyi, with blue and white flowers, phoenix birds and monsters.The body of the bottle is decorated with a dense layout, the theme is decorated with blue-and-white sea flame patterns, and the four vigorous and powerful dragons are flying and turning in the rough sea.Four white dragon with carving, painting combined with the techniques of molding, looks concave-convex, rich three-dimensional sense.Dragon are double-angle, small head, slender neck, round eyes, mouth spit tongue, unusually fierce and vivid, is the typical characteristics of the Yuan Dynasty dragon.The shape of the whole piece is large and plump, the decoration is dense, the level is rich, a change from the Tang and Song Dynasty porcelain decorative layout of the simple tradition.And the image contrast is bright, the white ground blue flower and the blue ground white flower mutually turns into the interest, is very artistic appeal.The shape of this plum vase is well-formed, which fully demonstrates the superb molding skills of the porcelain craftsmen of the Yuan Dynasty.

blue-and-white broken branches and flowers with eight-edged patterns

Height 23.6 cm, diameter 4.9 cm, bottom diameter 7.8 cm.The body is octagonal in shape. The center of the lid is set with a round pointed button. The cover is covered with lotus-leaf patterns.The pot mouth is the trumpet shape, the neck is thin, the lower abdomen drum, between the neck abdomen side has the flow, the symmetrical other side has the handle, near the bottom place to draw in, circle outside the foot.In the middle of the neck, the upper half is painted with banana leaf, the lower half is covered with lotus leaf, and the inner part is decorated with flame bead.The upper abdomen is decorated with 6 groups of folded flowers between two weeks of rolling grass grain, the lower abdomen is decorated with lotus leaf pattern, and the circle foot is decorated with rolling grass grain for one week.The flow is slender, the flow neck has the S-shaped flower ornament to be connected, the flow body two sides to decorate the roll grass grain;The handle is wide and flat, with cirrus streaks on top.This pot shape elegant, decorative layout complex but not chaotic, level clear, can be called the fine works in the Yuan Qinghua.

blue-and-white glaze red-open applique cover can

Height 42.3 cm, aperture 15.2 cm, bottom diameter 19.4 cm.Cover can straight mouth, short neck, shoulder, upper abdomen is bulge, lower abdomen to bottom gradually, broad circle foot, plantar outcrop, foetus white, accompanied by sticky sand, iron spots and glaze spots, there is flint red at the junction of the glaze.The pot body applies green and white glaze, the glaze layer thickens, the glaze surface moistens bright, the painting decoration subject matter is rich, the level is clear, the theme is prominent, the whole device decoration pattern reaches more than 10 layers.The top of the cover is made of a lion with its head raised and tail crouched. The cover is painted with blue and blue flower lotus petal lines, rolling grass lines and retracting lines.The neck of the jar is decorated with a week’s twining chrysanthemum pattern, the shoulder is decorated with curly grass pattern and big Ruyi cloud pattern, the hanging cloud head is decorated with blue ground white flower decoration technique to paint water wave lotus flower, and the cloud head is interspersed with fold branch chrysanthemum pattern.Abdominal motif decoration for four groups of rhombus-shaped open light, open light to double beaded paste and made, the interior paste plastic four seasons of flowers and rocks, leaves and green rendering, flowers and mountains painted with red glaze, magnificent red and bright blue, forming a strong decorative effect.The lower abdomen is decorated with curly grass grain and lotus petal grain.Decorative ribbons or realistic, or deformation, rich in content, various forms.Generally speaking, this jar has the characteristics of quiet elegance of blue and white flowers, and it is a top art treasure in the world.

The establishment of the Yuan Dynasty ended the long-standing confrontation, war and division between Song, Liao, Xixia and Jin, and led China to unification.The developed transportation of the Yuan Dynasty provided very convenient conditions for political, economic and cultural exchanges among different places, especially for promoting the development of overseas trade of the Yuan Dynasty.The history of Yuan Dynasty is less than one hundred years, but it occupies a very important position in the history of Chinese ceramics.The main reason is that the Yuan Dynasty created a mature blue-and-white porcelain and red porcelain in the glaze.These colorful porcelain gradually replaced the former single-tone plain porcelain, becoming the mainstream of Chinese porcelain, thus creating a new era in the history of Chinese ceramics.

The blue-and-white porcelain unearthed in the Yuan Dynasty in Baoding gives people a beautiful enjoyment with its simple and rich appearance, exquisite painting techniques and bright and moving decorative colors.Among them, the blue-and-white glaze red-open applique cover can and blue-and-white sea water dragon pattern octagonal band cover plum bottle shape is large, round and full, is the typical characteristics of the Yuanqing porcelain.And the shape is also the Yuan Dynasty blue-and-white porcelain in the common style, this shape is made by the porcelain craftsmen imitate the appearance of Islamic gold and silver.The porcelain bodies of several objects are made of porcelain stone and kaolin, and the addition of kaolin increases the content of aluminum trioxide in the ceramic bodies, thus broadening the firing range, reducing the deformation of the objects, and thus being able to make large pieces of objects, all of which are white and blue in glaze. From the scientific examination data, this kind of glaze is not only different from blue-white glaze, but also different from egg-white glaze, just between blue-white glaze and egg-white glaze.The pattern pattern on the article is green and green, thick place has black defect, should adopt import “Su Ma Li Qing” cobalt material to burn to be made.It is interesting to see the decorative patterns on the objects, the layout is dense, the composition is strict, the main and the second is clear, the use of horizontal strip distribution form, in the theme between the patterns are curled grass, string lines, back lines, money lines and other auxiliary decorations are separated, it looks complicated and not messy, orderly.

The porcelain unearthed in the Yuan Dynasty in Baoding is a fine product of the Yuan Dynasty, and its burials should be the home of officials and dignitaries.The hoards are now preserved because the burials died or left their homes for various reasons and were unable to return to their homeland.

At present, there are few blue-and-white porcelain objects in Yuan Dynasty. These four objects are well preserved, natural blue-and-white hair, clear and moist glaze, and rich in decorative features.It fully reflects the time characteristics of the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty.In order to study and identify the blue-and-white porcelain in Yuan Dynasty, it provides valuable standard shape and important material data.