Chinese Porcelain Research Articles

Thermal bone injuries: postmortem computed tomography findings in 25 cases.

Fire death investigations attempt to determine whether a subject was alive or dead before the fire started. Therefore, it is essential to assess if the bone damage is traumatic or the result of exposure to heat. This observational study aims to expose the specific CT semiology of thermal bone lesions to allow the forensic radiologist to identify and distinguish them from traumatic lesions that would have preceded death. We retrospectively reviewed the CT findings of 25 bodies with thermal bone lesions for which a postmortem computed tomography (PMCT) was performed prior to an autopsy. Imaging findings were correlated to the autopsy data to identify the specific features of thermal bone lesions. Specific signs of thermal injuries to bone were identified on PMCT on all deceased cases. Thermal damages predominated in areas directly exposed to flames (rib cage, distal extremities) with less soft tissue coverage ("soft tissue shielding"). The mottled appearance of bone marrow was a constant sign of burned bones. Heat fractures such as trans-diploic fractures of flat bones and beveled ("flute-mouthpiece") fractures of extremities seemed specifically related to thermal mechanism. In addition, we provided a better description of superficial cortical fissures of flat bones ("ancient Chinese porcelain") and observed a "stair step" fracture of a long bone until now undescribed in radiological literature. Thermal bone lesions have specific CT findings, different on several points from traumatic injuries. Their knowledge is essential for radiologists and forensic physicians to provide an accurate report of injury and conclusions.

Compositional analysis below the production region level: A case study of porcelain production at Dehua, Fujian, China

Compositional analysis of Chinese porcelain often uses the production region as an analytical unit, whereas the possible compositional similarities and differences between different production loci within the region have rarely been considered. This research assesses the worth of conducting chemical composition analysis at the micro level and evaluates the effectiveness of combining laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) with portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) in characterizing compositional variation below the level of the production region. It focuses on porcelain production of the Song and Yuan dynasties (960–1368 CE) at Dehua, Fujian, China, where dozens of large-scale kilns produced enormous amounts of porcelains for export. A total of 19 kiln sites from five villages at Dehua were analyzed in this research. Results from both LA-ICP-MS and pXRF show that there are two distinct production groups at Dehua—Gaide and Longxun-Sanban. Geological differences and different ceramic-making traditions might both contribute to the distinct separation of the two compositional groups. Results from social network analysis further suggest that there are strong inter-kiln compositional similarities within the same production subregion, but kiln sites in the same village are more closely connected than those outside the village. These results demonstrate that the change of analytical scale in compositional analysis can provide more nuanced insights into the organization of production and the patterns of interaction between different production loci within the broader production region. In addition, this research shows that pXRF, though not as accurate as LA-ICP-MS, is capable of finding compositional patterning within a small region of ceramic production.

The Chinese gardens across cultures in translation: an interview with Alison Hardie

ABSTRACT This interview focuses on Alison Hardie’s translation of Yuanye and tries to reveal her strategies for the cross-cultural communication of the Chinese garden. It covers the following topics: 1) her translation strategies on Chinese garden literature, 2) the acceptance of her translation of Yuanye and Chinese garden culture in the Western world, and 3) her suggestions on the cross-cultural communication of Chinese culture. Alison Hardie proposes that garden literature translators should always have a clear idea of different ways by which cultures express themselves and be readers-oriented. Cultural context should be built and implications be made explicit for the readers to better understand the cultural connotations embedded in the literature. In her translation, paratexts are used to build the cultural context and visual-aided interpretation is effective in representing the cultural connotations. Her translation is more welcome in academia rather than the popular world. She suggests that tangible material subjects, such as Chinese garden and porcelain, are the best choice for the initial introduction of Chinese culture.

The earliest Chinese ceramics in Europe?

The importation of Chinese porcelain and celadon into Europe has long been thought to have first begun around the thirteenth century AD. A unique group of Chinese ceramic sherds from archaeological contexts in Spain dated to between the ninth and eleventh centuries, however, now represents the earliest Chinese wares identified in Europe. Such an unexpectedly early presence on high-status sites in Western Europe probably reflects changing patterns of commerce in the Indian Ocean and the giving of prestigious gifts at the very highest levels of social and political power across the Islamic Mediterranean world.

Meha Priyadarshini. Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico. The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade.

Si nos guiáramos por el título de este libro y por el tratamiento dado a la porcelana china en los estudios históricos de la cultura material, la obra de Priyadarshini podría ser ubicada rápidamente como un texto más de la historia convencional de este bien. Es decir, de aquella que trata sobre el encanto que suscitó en el mundo entero antes del descubrimiento de su secreto productivo en Europa (en 1708), pero esta vez ubicados en el contexto mexicano. No obstante, el objetivo de esta investigación no es la porcelana china en sí misma en cuanto a la fascinación que causó en el “mundo premoderno”, sino más bien sus viajes, transformaciones e hibridaciones con la cerámica local mexicana como la de Talavera. Todo ello en el marco de una historia de carácter global que ya considera lo translocal, así como de una historia multisituada que da cuenta también de las interconexiones entre los territorios de producción, distribución y venta, y de ese modo de los distintos actores partícipes en estas etapas, como los artesanos, mercaderes y consumidores.

An AAS study of Chinese imperial yellow porcelain bodies and their place in the history of Jingdezhen's porcelain development

The bodies of 12 examples of imperial yellow Chinese porcelain dating from the early sixteenth century to the early twentieth century have been studied by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The yellow lead glaze was reserved for imperial use, and these fine monochrome porcelains played important roles in imperial rites at the summer solstice and as court wares within Beijing's Forbidden City. The project's aim has been to understand more fully the technologies used to make imperial yellow porcelains, which were significant ceramics in the history and culture of imperial China.This paper concerns the porcelain body material, particularly the nature and use of Jingdezhen's two prime body materials — porcelain stone (cishi) and kaolin (gaoling). The 12 samples studied span four centuries of imperial porcelain production and include a major change in kaolin usage at Jingdezhen in the early seventeenth century, when the proportions of kaolin used in fine porcelain bodies rose abruptly from some 20% to 50%. This study explores the natures of both prepared rocks and looks particularly at kaolin, about which some long-standing problems remain.

‘Polish-Lithuanian’ archaeological materials from the excavations of the town of Tara

In this article, the authors analyse materials from the excavations of the Tara fortress (Omsk Region, Wes-tern Siberia), founded in 1594 by Prince Andrei Yeletsky and functioned as the main outpost of the Russians in the Middle Irtysh region to counter Khan Kuchum, the Kuchumovichs, and then the newly-arrived population from Dzungaria and Kazakhstan, until construction of the Omsk fortress in 1716. The aim of this research is to identify amongst the finds the articles of Polish-Lithuanian origin, in outward appearance similar to Russian ones. Having studied the collections formed during the excavations of the fortress in 2007–2020, the authors came to the con-clusion that such items are definitely represented by the signet rings with nobility coats of arms, coins, and bap-tismal crosses made according to the Catholic canon. Potentially, Polish-Lithuanian origin could be assigned to some types of fabrics and leather goods, such as a travel compass case with images of French fleur-de-lis, some types of shoes, and handgun holsters. The presence of Venetian glass ware and plinth bricks in the layers of the 17th c., according to the authors, is also associated with the arrival in Tara of the population that had previously resided in the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth or on the western borders of Muscovy. The owners of these items ended up in Tara (and in Western Siberia) because they were taken prisoners or sided with the Rus-sians during the Russian-Polish wars. Over time, they formed a special category of service people called ‘Lithuania’. This is evidenced by numerous written sources. The basis for this conclusion is given by particular characteristics of Tara's trade relations established, primarily, with China, Lesser and Greater Bukharia, and the Uzbek Khanate, i.e., with the south in the 17th c., from where Chinese porcelain, silk and cotton fabrics, and some types of smo-king pipes came to Tara. At that time, weapons, bread, coarse fabrics, money for salaries of the servicemen of the Siberian garrisons, and cheap beads were imported to Tara from the west through Kazan, Kungur, and Lozva. In the 18th c., the main trade of the Russians began to concentrate in Troitskosavsk (Kyakhta since 1934) on the border with Mongolia, from where tea, silk, and porcelain were exported, whereas a flow of Russian-made goods, as well as European wines, sugar, some species of nuts, and spices, was established through Kazan into Siberia. Instead of ’Lithuania’, Germans started coming to Siberia. In the 19th c., Poles reappeared en masse in Western Siberia. However, those were no longer residents of Lithuania and Western Russian principalities, but ethnic Poles exiled to Siberia for participation in anti-Russian uprisings.

Chinese export porcelain in the middle Qing Dynasty: Study on the blue-and-white porcelains excavated from the “Xiaobaijiao I” shipwreck

The “Xiaobaijiao I” shipwreck of the Daoguang period (1821–1850 CE) of the Qing Dynasty (1636–1912 CE) was found in the sea area of North Yushan Islands of China, from which a total of 592 blue-and-white porcelain wares were excavated. These precious cultural relics and shipwreck itself are powerful witnesses of the Maritime Silk Road. In this study, energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence was used to analyze the body and glaze compositions of the typical blue-and-white porcelains from the shipwreck. Based on the differences in trace elements such as Rb, Zr, and Mn, the two types of blue-and-white porcelains from different origins can be distinguished. X-ray diffraction analysis and scanning electron microscope show that there are only a few unmelted quartz grains in the glaze of type 1, while type 2 has a lot of sub-micron to micron-sized anorthite crystals within the glaze layer owing to the firing temperature being lower than that required for a proper firing. Thus the strong light scattering effect upon the incident light caused by anorthite and quartz crystals seriously reduces the transparency of the glaze layer and results in the underglaze blue patterns to appear dull and unclear. Combining the results of energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence and micro-Raman spectroscopy, pigment particles at the glaze-body interface of the first type mainly exist in the form of spinel-structured CoAl2O4 and its solid solutions, which is associated with the pre-processing of the pigment. The clarity and sharpness of the underglaze blue patterns come from the excellent thermal stability of the spinels consisting of the pigment. While the blurred effect of the underglaze blue patterns of type 2 is mainly due to Co2+ ions partially melting into the glaze at high temperature and coloring the glass phase. The study on “Xiaobaijiao I” shipwreck and the porcelains it carried can reflect the overview of the Chinese porcelain production and exportation in the middle Qing Dynasty.

Study on Cizhou‐Style Inlaid Porcelain, the Northern Song Dynasty (960–1,127 AD), China

The production of inlaid porcelain once prevailed in the Northern Song (960–1,127 AD) and Jin Dynasties (1,125–1,234 AD) across the north of China. During that time, the influence of the Cizhou kiln was considerable. However, we know little about the inlaying techniques used in ancient Chinese porcelain. In order to address this gap in knowledge, a total of seven pieces of inlaid porcelain sherds with the Cizhou style of the Northern Song Dynasty were analyzed by optical microscope (OM), X‐ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), X‐ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscope (SEM) in association with energy dispersive spectrometry (EDS). The results reveal that the material of inlay is identical with the slip, and the production process is also clearly shown. In addition, the international ceramic technological interaction of inlaid porcelain in Northeast Asia is discussed according to the analysis results.

Lost and Found at Sea, or a Shipwreck’s Art History

To be lost and found at sea: What kinds of thinking does the shipwreck prompt? This essay pursues this question by centering fragmented remains—large beeswax blocks and Chinese porcelain ware—from the Santo Cristo de Burgos, a Spanish galleon lost while traveling from Manila to Acapulco at the end of the seventeenth century. By considering how durable commodities were recovered and reimagined, primarily by Indigenous inhabi­tants of the Oregon coast, this essay reflects upon the kinds of histories that can be written around and because of wrecked ships. Tacking between past and present, we use the Santo Cristo de Burgos to draw out the lineaments of a shipwreck’s art history, bringing into focus three interrelated themes, each critical to the material histories of wrecks: the interpretive recalcitrance of cargo, the reframing of value through recovery, and the production of material surplus in the watery depths.

The exchange of art, images and artistic techniques between China and Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries

The European Age of Discovery witnessed the initiation of frequent communication between Europe and East Asia. Transported via the trade routes of trading vessels, Chinese artworks, including Chinese porcelain, textiles, furniture, popular paintings, woodblock prints and wallpaper, drew major attention from European audiences over several centuries. The imported Chinese artistic products were used as luxury house decorations and collected as personal treasures by those who came from high class families and affluent social backgrounds. The original Chinese art products in Europe contained a large number of popular artworks which were heavily influenced and informed by the texts of ancient Chinese classics, philosophies and religions. These pieces inspired European local artists who produced imitations of Asian motifs on chinoiserie designs which were firmly rooted in both Eastern and Western traditions, having a profound influence on European art taste and social culture. Among the various imported artworks from China, paintings and woodblock prints of beautiful women figures became particularly fashionable. This article takes Suzhou beauty prints and Guangzhou paintings as examples to highlight the reciprocal nature of artistic exchange between Chinese and European art. It traces the process by which popular types of Chinese art entered Europe and influenced the creative processes of local European artists. The similarities and differences between the depictions of female figures in the original Chinese works and some chinoiserie pieces demonstrate the ways in which European artists made use of Chinese models to create a unique new style. It goes on to consider those Suzhou prints and Guangzhou paintings which were influenced by European artistic techniques and examines the reception of such artworks in Europe. Pieces of art from collections located in museums and institutions in Europe will be selected to demonstrate the key features of interest. Examples are also drawn from similar collections of the British Museum, private collectors, and examples of wallpaper from palaces in Germany, Austria and England, which were produced during the eighteenth century.

Русская деревня Ананьино: археологические хронологии

Chronology of archaeological monuments of Modern times, despite the available written sources, are as important and relevant as for early archaeology. Archival materials provide ambiguous information about the time of appearance and periods of the development of the Russian villages in Western Siberia. Therefore, the archaeological study of rural monuments makes significant adjustments to the reconstruction of their history. Materials obtained during the excavations of 2021 in the Russian settlement of the 17th-19th centuries Ananyino-I in the Tarsky District of the Omsk Region together with the results of previous years of study of the monument allowed us to build a chronological scale for the history of this village. Three periods were conditionally allocated. The 17th century is the time of the emergence of the village, the formation of the population, its life support system and historical ecology. This period is represented by chronological markers such as a coin of the end of the century which refers to the joint rule of Peter Alekseevich and his brother Ivan. Another dating finds are Chinese porcelain, a stirrup, an arrowhead, counting token of Cornelius Lauffer, a pottery glazed rattle “from Rus”, fragments of chain mail and lamellar armor and other items and data of dendrochronology that allow dating individual dwellings in the excavated part of the monument. The 18th century is the heyday of the village, when it had the largest population, which is reliably dated by numismatic finds, starting with the coins of Peter I in 1709 and ending with coins of 1793, Chinese porcelain and status items of that time. The 19th century is the period when the population of the village left this place. Unfortunately, the materials of this period have not yet been found in the excavated part of the settlement. In future, a ceramic complex may become a promising chronological marker.

The City of Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and the Early Modern World by Anne Gerritsen

The City of Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and the Early Modern World by Anne Gerritsen

Influence of chinese Ming and Qing porcelain in Europe

Рассматриваются истоки проникновения китайского фарфора в Европу. Выявляются наиболее важные каналы и пути распространения китайского фарфора в Европе на раннем этапе, а также анализируется исторический процесс установления и развития китайско-европейских отношений.

Porcelain interior plastic of the 1950s in museums and private collections in China

In the two decades since the establishment of the people’s Republic of China, the challenges facing porcelain production have changed significantly. Porcelain production is one of the most important and oldest traditions in China. In the 1950s, porcelain craftsmen became involved in the creation of new forms of interior plastics. Many of the pieces they created are now part of museum collections and represent the history of the development of Chinese interior porcelain. Using the example of three museums and three reference monuments, the article examines the key trends in the development of porcelain art and stylistic changes that occurred during this period. The following museums have been selected as examples to showcase the specifics of Chinese porcelain art from this period: the China Ceramic and Porcelain Museum located in Jingdezhen City, which is the country’s first major art museum specializing in ceramics; the Chinese Fine Arts Museum in Beijing, which specializes in collecting, researching and displaying works of Chinese artists of modern and contemporary eras; and the Guangdong Folk Art Museum, which specializes in collecting, researching and displaying Chinese folk art. All of these museums are engaged in collecting porcelain, including interior porcelain plastics from the mid-20th century. In the collections of the aforementioned museums, three works were selected for analysis. These are three paired compositions created in the second half of the 1950s: the sculpture “An Old Man and a Child with a Peach” by Zeng Longsheng, “Good Aunt from the Commune” by Zhou Guozhen and “Fifteen coins. The rat case” by Lin Hongxi. These porcelain compositions reveal close relations with Chinese national culture and not only reflect various scenes, but are also aimed at expanding the role of porcelain in decorating residential interiors.

Исследования в историческом центре города Тары в 2021 году

Archaeological research in the historic center of Tara in 2021 was concentrated in the southeastern part of the fortress, near one of the first churches of the city—Paraskeva Pyatnitskaya (Pyatnitskaya). It was the fourteenth season of excavations of the joint expedition of IAET SB RAS and National Research Tomsk State University in one of the first Russian cities in Western Siberia. Due to the overhaul of the district cultural center “Sever”, builders had to install fire tanks in an area of 100 m2 at a depth of five meters, so here, a layer of asphalt and gravel underlying it was opened and an excavation was laid. During the construction of the Cultural Centre, layers of the 19th-20th centuries were removed, so the study of cultural horizons began immediately in the middle of the 18th century from well-dated finds of the Chinese porcelain. We attributed the territory under study to the fortress based on the location of pavements recorded during the research, which were laid from Pyatnitskaya Church to the gate Tobolskaya and Spasskaya Towers, bypassing the fortress from the south. In the course of work, a construction horizon was discovered dated to the mid-17th century, being an intersection of the pavement from the entrance ostrog gates located in different parts of the town and the pavement from Pyatnitskaya Church to a complex of buildings of the Spassky Monastery. A housing complex consisting of a hut, household buildings and a glacier cellar with an overstructure, was directly adjacent to these roads. Its study yielded a collection of pottery, leather shoes, wooden and ceramic toys. Archaeological research of Tara conducted this year allowed us to significantly supplement the town’s planigraphy for the mid-17th century, to obtain the materials that supplement our ideas about the material and spiritual culture of the Tara residents in the late 16th-18th centuries.

Between Script and Ornament: Delftware Decorated with Pseudo-Chinese Characters, 1680–1720

Abstract In the late seventeenth century, Dutch Delftware manufacturers developed refined ceramics with an entirely new decoration of pseudo-Chinese characters. The application of this extraordinary design did not replicate Chinese porcelain examples and today it is usually dismissed as made up and meaningless. However, illegible script—be it foreign or ‘pseudo’—in any form of art has, if not a specific semantic meaning, a certain agency to evoke particular spheres of authenticity and remoteness and therefore deserves further investigation. Moreover, closer examination of these decorations and their sources of inspiration—both Dutch and Chinese, ceramic and print—reveals that there is a wide spectrum of authenticity and intentionality that ranges between script that appears to have been invented and symbols that show resemblance to actual Chinese characters. This article focusses on the transfer and reinterpretation of script as a decorative design, and how the presence of characters negotiates the relationship between Delftware and Chinese porcelain. By comparing the pseudo-characters on Delftware to pseudo-scripts on other materials, the function of pseudo-script as a design and its relationship to materiality is explored. As characters were appropriated and applied in different contexts, their connotations swayed between Chineseness and foreignness, script and ornament.

Byron Ellsworth Hamann. Review of "Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico: The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade" by Meha Priyadarshini.

Byron Ellsworth Hamann. Review of "Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico: The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade" by Meha Priyadarshini.

Investigation of the Pigments and Glassy Matrix of Painted Enamelled Qing Dynasty Chinese Porcelains by Noninvasive On-Site Raman Microspectrometry

A selection of 15 Chinese painted enameled porcelains from the 18th century (Qing dynasty) was analyzed on-site by mobile Raman and XRF microspectroscopy. The highly prized artifacts are present in the collections of the Musée du Louvre in Paris and Musée Chinois at Fontainebleau Castle in France. In the painted enamels, pigments such as Naples yellow lead pyrochlore, hematite, manganese oxide and carbon and opacifiers such as lead arsenates were detected. The glassy matrices of the enamels mainly belonged to lead-rich and lead-alkali glass types according to the Raman spectra obtained. The glaze and body phases of the porcelain artifacts were also analyzed. The detection of lead arsenate apatite in some of the blue enamels was significant, indicating the use of arsenic-rich European cobalt ores (smalt) and possibly mixing with Asian cobalt. This characteristic phase has also been identified in French soft-paste porcelains and glass decor and high-quality Limoges enamels from the same period. Based on the shape of the Raman scattering background, the presence of colloidal gold (Au° nanoparticles) was identified in red, orange and pink enamels. Different types of Naples yellow pigments were also detected with Sb-rich, Sn-rich and mixed Sb–Sn–(Zn, Fe?) compositions in the yellow enamels. The results were compared to previous data obtained on Chinese cloisonné and painted enameled metalware and Limoges enamels as well as French enameled watches.

Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals

Fetishizing the Foot: Mobility and Meaning in Indian Ocean Sandals