Official kiln pink celadon glaze bottle

The piece is a vase, and Celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain is the technique that decides how it reads. The pattern is laid before firing, so the colour sits under a clear glaze, protected and luminous rather than painted on top.

A vase of this kind was made to be seen closely and from afar at once. The celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain ground rewards the near view; the silhouette does the work across a room.

The Guan (imperial) ware court understood porcelain as a statement of capacity. To fire a vase without a flaw was to prove the workshop, and behind it the state, could do the impossible reliably.

The celadon (qing-glaze) porcelain vase is a quiet lesson in Chinese taste: control of fire first, beauty second, and the two arriving together. Sinocra carries the work, with more from The Palace Museum, in the shop.

Official kiln pink celadon glaze bottle, The Palace Museum

Object details

NameOfficial kiln pink celadon glaze bottle (官窑粉青釉瓶)
Artefact no.故00145436
TechniqueCeladon (qing-glaze) porcelain (青釉)
PeriodGuan (imperial) ware dynasty (Southern Song)
CollectionThe Palace Museum, Beijing
SourcePalace Museum Digital Collection (数字文物库)

Image © The Palace Museum. View the original in the Palace Museum Digital Collection.

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