La céramique chinoise de la donation Maspero au musée national des Arts asiatiques - Guimet

Abstract

The dating of Chinese ceramics from donation Maspero ranges from the Tang Dynasty to the end of the Yuan Dynasty. Most are shards but some are rather large fragments which can be reunited to form complete pieces. The majority of the ceramics are dated XIth-XIIth and end of XIIIth-XIVth century. This collection is particularly interesting as it testifies to the presence of these particular types of Chinese ceramics in Vietnam. The total amount is about 800 pieces ; around 20% are ceramics from the Guangdong kilns such as those of Xicun or Chaozhou dating from the Xth to XIIth century. They are stoneware with pale olive-green glazes and with incised and combed designs ; about 8% are greenglazed wares with incised or moulded decoration, with the well-known sickle-leaf scroll from Yaozhou kilns in Shaanxi but also from Guangdong or Guangxi kilns ; about 12% are qingbai ceramics mostly dating from XI-XIIth century but some with moulded decor of a later period production are also present ; there are also few sherds of copper green glazed bowls which could come from Guangxi. There are some Fujian stonewares with olive green glaze and incised decoration from the end of XIth or beginning of XIIth century, some black glazed bowls of Jian kilns and a few pieces from Dehua with moulded designs. But the most numerous amount of ceramics are celadons from Longquan kilns — about 1/3 of the total — with a very wide range of different patterns for the Yuan period. The influence of Chinese ceramics on Vietnamese ceramics is here so obvious that it has been difficult to give a precise attribution for some of them. Moreover some ceramics from the Yaozhou kilns and other Chinese kilns, such as those of Guangdong and Guangxi, have brown colored bases which is considered to be characteristic of the Vietnamese style ; this anomaly is due either to natural reactions to firing conditions or to a slip. Their presence in Vietnam could have been an incentive to later on chocolate-brown bases. Several questions are raised even if the exact location of the discovery of the donation's ceramics is hypothetical. The small number of Fujian ceramics is surprising as it is well known how numerous the exports of these were, from the end of Xith to the XIIth century. Similarly, why are there no Blue-and-White ceramics when there is so much of XIVth century celadons to be found ?