Early Ceramics Notes

Early Kiln Designs

• Kiln design significantly impacted ceramic development through innovations in form, decoration, and glaze.

Types of Kilns

• Pit Firing:
  • The earliest method involved shallow pits filled with twigs, firing ware at low temperatures (around $1500°F$ or $800°C$).
  • Resulted in porous ware often rubbed with gummy plant leaves for slight waterproofing.
  • Smothering with ashes created black oxide (FeO), contributing to the dark color of pit-fired pottery.
• Bank Kilns:
  • Developed to achieve higher temperatures by digging into hillsides, featuring a fuel port, enclosed chamber, and chimney.
• Bank-Climbing Kilns:
  • In Southern China by 1000 BC, used to produce high-fired proto-stoneware.
  • Developed into multi-chambered structures by the Sung period, facilitating efficient fuel use and higher temperatures.
  • Saggars protected ware from kiln fumes and ash, creating a downdraft effect.
• Japanese Multiple-Chamber Climbing Kilns:
  • Based on Chinese and Korean models, efficient fuel use to achieve high temperatures.
  • Connected small chambers with auxiliary fuel ports for better heat control.
• Freestanding Kilns:
  • Evolved from clay bricks with a firebox separated by a slotted floor.
  • Enabled control over firing atmosphere (reducing or oxidizing).
• Beehive Kilns:
  • Common in the Mediterranean region and northern China.
• Islamic Kilns:
  • Often built with upper and lower chambers, the cooler upper level used for bisque firing or luster glazes.
• Renaissance Italy Kilns:
  • Larger, rectangular updraft kilns for increased pottery production.

Ancient Orient Ceramic History

• The Far East, especially China, has a long ceramic tradition.

• Oldest known pottery:

  • Japanese Jomon ware (prior to 10,000 B.C.).
  • Northern Thailand ware (tentative date of 7000 B.C.).
  • Chinese pottery fragments (before 4500 B.C.).

Neolithic Period in China

• Early Chinese pottery: black, round-bottomed with impressed-cord decoration.
• Yang-Shao cultures (4000 B.C.): highly developed, slip-decorated pottery with curvilinear motifs.
• Vessels baked in an oxidizing fire at at least $1832°F$ ($1000°C$).
• Lung-Shan culture (2600-1700 BC): thin-walled, black, polished ware and tall, flaring stems, which reveals the use of the potter's wheel.

Shang Dynasty

• White-clay vases with incised and stamped decorations.
• Some gray proto-stoneware was made, accidentally glazed with falling wood ash.

Chou and Chin Dynasties

• Pottery with pressed and incised designs.
• Ceramic figures replaced live attendants in burials.

Han to Tang Dynasties

• Pottery vessels replaced bronzes as tomb offerings.
• Large funeral jars covered with copper-green lead glaze.
• Tomb sculpture included figures of musicians and horses.
• Yueh ware, the first gray-green celadon glazes on refined bodies

Sung Dynasty

• Innovations in form and glaze; perfection achieved.
• True porcelain developed at Ching-te-chen, high-fired and translucent with a bluish-white glaze.
• Celadons: gray-green Kuan ware and blue-green Lung-ch'uan ware.
• Chien tea bowls with dark iron-brown glaze and silvery markings.
• Tzu-Chou stoneware wine jars with floral slip-painted patterns.

Korea

• Influenced by Chinese ceramics.
• Neolithic pottery: reddish earthenware.
• Silla: unglazed gray or red stoneware with incised geometric patterns.