|
 Porcelain is simply a
specialized and refined form of pottery, composed of extremely white
clay that is fired at a very high temperature. Pottery itself is an
art that has been practiced by diverse cultures throughout the world
since prehistoric times. It was the Chinese, however, that first
discovered the secret to its production-centuries before the
Europeans-and "china" quickly became a synonym for porcelain. An
abundance of pottery fragments have been unearthed in China at the
Yellow River and Chang-Jiang River drainage zones, dating back to the
Neolithic age. These include not only pieces of utilitarian value such
as plates and bowls, but decorated items such as primitive figurines.
What began as a humble industry in which clay-strip pieces were fired
in the ground, eventually developed into to the more precise throw-clay
method, whose products were finished in side-fired and shaft kilns.
These innovations in technology, alongside increasing knowledge of
atmospheric controls, allowed the early Chinese potters to fire their
pieces at temperatures up to 1100 degrees. This was very close to the
critical temperature that separates pottery from porcelain. By the
early Yin and Shang Dynasty, potters began using kaolin-an extremely
white clay that can only be found in a few places in the world. At
this time, they also developed specialized kilns that could fire at
1200 degrees required to harden clay into an extremely hard, nonporous
consistency. Once these two necessary components were acquired, the
invention of porcelain became virtually inevitable. The first piece of
true porcelain, however, was probably not produced until the Tang
Dynasty (618-907).
 The art of porcelain
production was mastered by the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), and it was
during this time that the first pieces of "china" began to be exported
to Japan and Europe. These pieces were highly valuable, and were
praised by the likes of Marco Polo and Francis Bacon. By this point,
the Chinese were producing porcelain from two types of earth: the white
clay kaolin, and a feldspathic stone called petuntse, which in the form of feldspathic glaze gave
the final product a translucent, glasslike appearance. The most
complicated problem that arose during this time period was decoration,
for the Chinese were only able to develop two colors that could
withstand the high temperatures of the firing process-cobalt blue and
copper red. They also experimented with coloring the glaze itself,
resulting in a subtle green or grey tint as found in the "celadon"
pieces from the Tang Dynasty. By far the most successful technique was
the overglaze paint, which was applied to the outer surface after the
first firing, and then fused to the glaze by a second firing at a lower
temperature. Using this method, they were able to produce virtually
any color imaginable in the most intricate designs.
More
than 60 million pieces of porcelain were exported to Europe by 1800.
The eighteenth century, in fact, was probably the peak of the china
importing trade. One of the leading collectors of the day was
Augustus the Strong of Saxony. Although "soft-paste" porcelain, a
comparable product composed of white clay and ground glass, was already
being produced in France and Italy, Augustus desired "hard-paste"
porcelain of the Chinese type. It was, interestingly enough, the
combined efforts of a chemist and an alchemist who discovered the
secret for him. Ehrenfried von Tschirnhausen and Johannes Friedrich
Böttger produced the first piece of true porcelain in the city of
Dresden by 1708. Two years later, Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory
was opened eleven miles away, in Meissen,
and continues to operate to this day. |
