3. Lacquer
a somewhat imprecise term for a clear or coloured varnish that
dries by solvent evaporation and often a curing process as well
that produces a hard, durable finish, in any sheen level from
ultra matte to high gloss and that can be further polished as
required.
produced from the sap of the lac or sumac tree, it is distilled to
form a natural polymer
In terms of the decorative arts, lacquerware refers to variety of
techniques used to decorate wood, metal or other surfaces, some
involving carving into deep coatings of many layers of lacquer.
6. Urushiol-based Lacquers
The original lacquer was a varnish resin derived
from the sap of a tree indigenous to China and
Japan. Its active ingredient is urushiol. It is
highly resistant to water, alkali, acid, and
abrasion, and has a very hard and durable
finish. They are unique amongst lacquers in that
they are slow-drying and water-based.
8. Acrylic Lacquers
This is an acrylic synthetic polymer developed in
the 1950s for automobiles. It is similar in many
ways to nitrocellulose lacquers, but offers a
superior quick-drying time and is used
extensively in automobiles
9. Water-based Lacquers
Because of health and environmental risks
inherent in using solvent-based lacquers, less
toxic water-based lacquers have been developed
that often yield acceptable results.
11. Chinese Lacquer Art
China is the earliest country in the world using natural
lacquer. In the early 1970s, archaeologists unearthed a red
lacquer wood bowl in an excavation in the Neolithic Hemudu
remains in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. It is estimated that the
bowl was made 7,000 years ago, the oldest existing lacquerware
in the world. Traditional Chinese lacquer art applies natural
lacquer liquid from lacquer trees. Starting from red lacquer
wood bowls and painted potteries in the Neolithic age, Chinese
lacquer art enjoyed rapid development in the Warring Period
(770-256BC) and the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), thanks to
the upgraded productivity of the time.
13. Red lacquer wood bowl, est. made 7,000 years ago
Materials: Wood
Techniques: Slightly shiny red paint identified as lacquer via chemical methods and
spectral analysis. Several layers of lacquer (up in their hundreds) would be applied which
will then take weeks to properly harden and dry.
Features: Convergence mouth, oval melon shape, circle foot
14. Painted fish-pattern lacquer vessel, Qin Dynasty
(221-206 BC)
Natural pigments, such as red cinnabar and black
carbon, created vermilion (a red orange shade) and
black designs
15. Lacquerware from the Han Dynasty (c. 206 B.C.—220 A.D.)
Decorative lacquer became increasingly popular during this dynasty
for its ability to protect and preserve.
16. Lacquer dish, possibly Gansu province, Western
China, Ming dynasty (c. A.D. 1489)
Decorated with a famous scene on the front and a poem on
the back. Inlay techniques used in the manufacture of
bronzes were transferred to lacquer making, incorporating
materials such as silver, gold or mother-of-pearl from the
Near East. Refined carving techniques depicted increasingly
detailed scenes. The ongoing development of lacquer arts
brought increasingly complex designs rendered in deep
relief.
18. Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials,
generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to
temperatures between 1,200 °C (2,192 °F) and 1,400 °C (2,552
°F).
Made through technological processes like proportioning,
molding, drying and firing.
Compared with pottery, porcelain has tougher texture, more
transparent body and finer luster.
Chinese definition of porcelain (tzu) resembles the Western
definition of "Stoneware", besides having as a key feature that it
should ring when struck.
19. Properties associated with porcelain
low permeability and elasticity
considerable strength
hardness
brittleness
whiteness
translucency and resonance
high resistance to chemical attack and thermal shock
The properties listed above explain why porcelain gradually
replaced pottery in ceramic history.
21. History
Porcelain originated in China. Porcelain
manufactured during the Tang Dynasty (618–906) was
exported to the Islamic world, where it was highly
prized. Porcelain items in the restrictive sense that we
know them today could be found in the Tang
Dynasty, and archaeological finds has pushed the dates
back to as early as the Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220
CE). By the Sui Dynasty (581–618) and Tang Dynasty
(618–907), porcelain had become widely produced.
22. History
In the Shanghai dynasty, China became the first country to
produce white stonewares similar in composition and properties
to what we call porcelain. At this time, ceramics played a
secondary role to bronze and jade. Occasionally used for ritual,
they performed a largely utilitarian function in everyday life.
The widespread use of the word ‘China’, generally
designating Chinese porcelain, is indicative of the tremendous
acclaim such works attracted in the West.
For centuries, China was the only country able to produce
fine quality porcelain so prized abroad. And it was not until the
early eighteenth century that Europeans began to master the art
of porcelain manufacture for themselves.
24. Materials
Kaolin clay is the primary material from which porcelain is made,
even though clay minerals might account for only a small
proportion of the whole. The word "paste" is an old term for
both the unfired and fired material. A more common
terminology these days for the unfired material is "body", for
example, when buying materials a potter might order an amount
of porcelain body from a vendor.
25. Materials
The composition of porcelain is highly variable, but the clay mineral
kaolinite is often a raw material.
Other raw materials can include:
feldspar
ball clay
glass
bone ash
steatite
quartz
petuntse
alabaster
27. Types of Porcelain
Hard paste and soft paste
Blue and White Porcelain
White Porcelain
Celadon Ceramics
Qing Dynasty Porcelain
Underglaze Black Porcelain
Tang Dynasty Ceramics
Earthenware Pottery
28. Hard paste
These porcelain that came from East Asia, especially
China, were some of the finest quality porcelain wares.
they were formed from a paste composed of kaolin
and alabaster and fired at temperatures up to 1,400 °C
(2,552 °F) in a wood-fired kiln, producing a porcelain
of great hardness, translucency, and strength. Later,
the composition of the Meissen hard paste was changed
and the alabaster was replaced by feldspar and quartz,
allowing the pieces to be fired at lower temperatures.
29. Soft paste
dates back from the early attempts by European potters to
replicate Chinese porcelain by using mixtures of clay and
ground-up glass (frit) to produce soft-paste porcelain.
Soapstone and lime were known to have been included in
these compositions. These wares were not yet actual
porcelain wares as they were not hard and vitrified by firing
kaolin clay at high temperatures. As these early formulations
suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in
the kiln at raised temperature, they were uneconomic to
produce and of low quality. Formulations were later
developed based on kaolin clay with quartz, feldspars,
nepheline syenite or other feldspathic rocks.
30. Blue and White Porcelain
Underglaze Blue Porcelain is the
best known type of ceramics. It is
often referred to as 'Blue and White'
from its blue cobalt oxide painted
below the glaze. The reason Chinese
Porcelain became so famous is
probably because it was traded
widely by Europeans from the 17th
century onward. By that time, China
had already been exporting Blue and
Early Qing Dynasty Era White Porcelain to the Middle East
(1644 - 1911) and Southeast Asia for centuries.
Time period: 1400 to 1700 A.D.
31. White Porcelain
White Porcelains began to be
made on a large scale at
Jingdezhen and at many other
southern kilns from the time
of the Song dynasty (960 -
1279). The most famous of
the early Porcelains was
qingbai (pronounced ching-
pie). Whiteware Ceramics
were traded throughout
Southeast Asia. Until eclipsed
by Blue and White
Qingbai Ewer with Phoenix Head
Porcelain in the 14th century,
it was the dominant Chinese Sung Dynasty period (960 - 1279).
Ceramic of its era. Time period: 1000 to 1400 A.D.
33. Celadon Ceramics
Celadon is a western word used originally to describe the green glaze of
Ceramics from Longquan in China. The glaze is made of clay mixed with wood
ash and is 2-5% iron, and must be fired in an oxygen reduced atmosphere.
The Celadon method began to be used in the 7th century in China. By
the time of the Song dynasty (960-1280), the skills of the potters had advanced to
a high degree that fine vessels had a jade-like appearance and texture. By the 14th
century, motifs such as lotus flowers and stylized chrysanthemums were incised
for decoration.
Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.
34. Qing Dynasty
Porcelain
Potters began using bright colours to
adorn plates and vases with meticulously
painted scenes. Porcelain ceramicists
began producing five-coloured ware by
applying a variety of underglaze
pigments to floral, landscape and
figurative scenes - a style which was (and
is) highly sought-after in the West.
The artefact originates from the
Early Qing Dynasty (1644 -
1911). Its mark indicates it was
produced during the reign of
Kangxi (1662 - 1722)
Time period: 1700 to 1900 A.D.
35. Qing Dynasty Porcelain
During the Yung Cheng
era (1723-1735)
Porcelain was enhanced
by the development of
fencai enamel in a wide
range of colors and
tones.
36. Underglaze Black Porcelain
Long before the Chinese made
Blue and White Porcelain using
cobalt, a black iron oxide was
used to paint motifs below a clear
protecting glaze. This technique,
used at Cizhou in northern
China, developed independently
from the Celadon production in Ming Dynasty Era
southern China. (1368 - 1644)
Time period: 1400 to 1700 A.D.
37. Tang Dynasty Ceramics
Early Chinese Coloured Stoneware is often
called Sancai which means three-colours. However,
the colours of the glazes used to decorate the wares
of the Tang dynasty (618 - 911) were not limited to
three in number. In the West, Tang Sancai wares
were sometimes referred to as egg-and-spinach by
dealers for the use of green, yellow and white.
Though the latter of the two colours might be more
properly described as amber and off-white / cream.
Sancai wares originate from northern China.
At kiln sites located at Tongchuan, Neiqui county in
Hebei and Gongxian in Henan, the clays used for
burial wares were similar to those used by Tang
potters. The burial wares were fired at a lower
temperature than contemporary whiteware.
Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.
38. Earthenware Pottery
Earthenware is the earliest type of pottery and is
known to have existed for the past 10,000 years. Secondary
clay was formed on the pottery wheel or rolled into strings
and laid on top of another to form the pot. Earthenware
was commonly fired in simple open pits and therefore
found in most early civilizations. Firing temperatures
normally reached 400C to 700C.
It is thought that most of the Earthenware found its
way on trade ships as necessities of the men sailing the ships.
Their limited number suggests that Earthenware was never
made for export.
Time period: 1000 to 1600 A.D.
