Porcelain derived from pottery. The ancient
Chinese ancestors invented porcelain, drawing on the experience of firing the
white pottery and the hard stamped pottery. Firing porcelain requires the
following three conditions: first, porcelain materials must be porcelain stone,
porcelain clay or kaolin, containing rich sericite elements; second, the
temperature of kiln stove must be up to 1200¡æ; third, surface of the vessels
must be coated with glaze fired in high temperature.
This primitive celadon is a typical
representative of the primitive porcelain. The vessel has a bell-shaped mouth,
long belly and thin waist, with a curl foot and without shoulder. The body of
the vessel is solid, regular designed with even thickness. Blackish yellow glaze
coated the vessel both inside and outside. The glaze is closely connected with
the roughcast of the vessel. Light gray roughcast can be seen at the bottom of
the vessel, for no glaze coated there. The decoration lines on the outer surface
of the vessel are plain but elegant. This celadon vessel is collected by the
Shanghai Museum.
Compared with other pottery, the primitive
porcelain, with its transitional nature, is durable, easy to rinse, delicately
decorated with fine roughcast, thus it has a good prospect of development. The
improvement of the firing techniques and the increase of production promoted the
development of porcelain. Porcelain finally replaced pottery and became major
vessels for people's daily use.