Japanese Export Porcelain in the Ashmolean Museum

The Background to Japanese Export Porcelain

A high-fired, relatively plastic clay containing kaolin which, at around 1300°C, becomes a hard, vitrified, strong and translucent material.

The term 'porcelain', supposedly coined by Marco Polo in the 13th century, is derived from the Italian word porcellana, which refers to a cowrie shell and presumably its smooth, white, translucent inner surface. Whereas a cowrie's outward appearance may be round and pink and likened to a small sow or porcella in Italian.

This is white porcelain ware decorated with underglaze blue derived from cobalt oxides. The object was then covered with a transparent glaze. Cobalt was used because it is one of the few metal oxides which are stable and do not volatilise at the maturing temperature of porcelain glazes (1280-1300°C). [Right: Bottle; Blue-and-white, Arita; 1660-80; EA1978.734]

The ware is made of porcelain or porcellaneous stoneware, usually decorated with a design incised into the body and covered with an iron oxide glaze. When fired in a reducing atmosphere, the glaze produces a blue-green shade and highlights the incised design. [Right: Plate; Early celadon. Arita or Hasami; mid 17th century; EA1995.69]

The term 'celadon' is derived from the name of a shepherd called Céladon, who wore a distinctive grey-green costume in an early 17th century French pastoral romantic play L'Astreé by Honore D'Urfé.

An enamel is a lead glaze containing metallic oxides which produces a soft-melting glass. The mixture of oxides determines the colour of the enamel. This can be used to decorate pottery, metal or glass. The enamel is usually painted onto the surface of an already glazed pot (onglaze decoration) and is sealed to the surface by a further low-temperature firing in a muffle kiln. [Right: Bottle; Early Enamelled Ware, Arita; 1660-80; EA1978.689]

Enamels were painted onto underglaze blue, celadon and plain white wares.

Back to Introduction