Chapter 1151 The Peak of Porcelain Making Technology
The various glazed large vases of the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty are just what they are called, they are called various glazed large vases, not just any kind of glazed large vases.
From then on, you can also know the craft of ordering this bottle.
This large vase with various glazed colors from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, hidden in the Palace Museum in Shendu, has a height of 86.4 cm, a diameter of 27.4 cm, and a full diameter of 33 cm.
It has a clean mouth, a long neck, melon ribs and a swollen belly, shins inward, round feet outwards, and a pair of Kui dragon ears on its neck.
The body of the vessel is decorated with 17 layers of glaze from top to bottom.
Various glazed large bottles, which combine various high-temperature and low-temperature glazes and colors, are known as the "Mother of Porcelain".
This bottle reflects the height and level of porcelain making technology during the Qianlong period, and also marks the pinnacle of ancient Chinese porcelain making technology.
How complicated is the craftsmanship of such a bottle?
Not to mention other things, just the glaze is extremely complicated.
The types of overglaze decoration it uses include gold color, enamel color, pastel color, etc.;
Underglaze color decoration varieties include blue and white, and doucai, which combines overglaze color and underglaze color.
Let’s talk about the firing process and techniques. This large vase with various glazes from the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty has theme decorations on the belly of the vase. The blue glaze is decorated with gold and pastel auspicious patterns, with a total of 12 consecrations.
Six of them are realistic pictures, namely "Three Yang Kai Tai", "Auspicious Qing Yue", "Danfeng Chaoyang", "Taiping Xiang", "Fairy Mountain Qiongge", and "Bogu Jiuding".
The other six paintings are the characters "swastika", bat, wishful thinking, panchi, Ganoderma lucidum and flowers, which respectively mean "ten thousand", "blessing", "ruyi", "ward off evil", "longevity" and "wealth".
The inside of the vase and the inside of the ring are glazed with turquoise green glaze, and the center of the outer bottom is decorated with a six-character and three-line inscription "Made in the Qianlong Year of the Qing Dynasty" in blue and white seal script.
The whole device uses colored enamel, turquoise pastel, imitation brother glaze, gold glaze, blue and white, turquoise glaze, kiln glaze, bucket color, holly glaze dark engraving, orchid tracing gold, consecration painted pastel, imitation official glaze,
There are more than a dozen glazing methods such as green glaze, coral red glaze, imitation Ru glaze, and purple gold glaze.
It can be said that this is a masterpiece that combines high and low temperature glazes and colors, and its firing process is extremely complicated.
Such a complex process can only be completed successfully if the properties of various glazes and colors are fully mastered.
From the perspective of firing technology, blue and white and imitation official glaze, imitation Ru glaze, imitation brother glaze, kiln-changing glaze, pink celadon glaze, sacrificial blue glaze, etc. are all high-temperature glazes and colors, and need to be fired at high temperature first.
However, foreign glazes, gold glazes and turquoise green glazes are all low-temperature glazes and should be baked in a low-temperature charcoal furnace.
This large vase with various glaze colors combines more than 10 kinds of high and low temperature glazes and colors, and all the glazes and colors are pure in color.
Such a complex process can only be completed successfully if the chemical properties of various glazes and colors are fully understood.
In addition to these, there is also the shape of the vessel. This porcelain matrix is huge. The bottle is divided into 15 decorative layers from top to bottom, with a total of 17 different glaze colors.
According to the decorative level of the porcelain mother, Chen Wenzhe couldn't figure out for a while how many times it would have to be fired before it could be successfully fired during the repeated kiln process.
You know, every time it is fired in the kiln, there is one more possibility of failure.
And such a large vase may need to be fired in the kiln more than a dozen times.
Fifteen decorative layers need to be fired at least fifteen times, right?
What's more, there are seventeen different glaze colors. If each glaze color is fired in the kiln once, it will be at least seventeen times.
The difficulty of firing this kind of porcelain is definitely beyond everyone's imagination.
Even Chen Wenzhe was a little dumbfounded when he first saw it.
He had never thought that there were bottles with such complicated craftsmanship in the world.
He never thought that there would be people who would put all imaginable top glaze colors and craftsmanship on one bottle.
After careful calculation, he figured out what kind of bottle it was.
This is really a work specially designed to show off your skills. It was burned for dozens of times just to show off.
However, if you really see such a bottle, no matter how artistic it is, you can only admire it because it is so awesome.
In particular, it is densely covered with layers of craftsmanship. Just analyzing these craftsmanship is enough for Chen Wenzhe to study for a long time.
First of all, the first to third layers of this porcelain mother-of-pearl, as well as the mouth edge of the mouth, are decorated with "flowers in foreign colors and rouge".
In the first layer of Yangcai decoration, the rolling decoration technique was also used, which can be said to be the icing on the cake.
As long as this layer of craftsmanship is done well, the value of this piece of porcelain will not be low, and this is the most recent decoration.
Next, the second layer of the porcelain mother imitates the copper body cloisonné enamel.
It is also commonly known as cloisonné, and its decorative pattern is "flowers with green branches and branches in foreign colors".
Another new technology adopted during the Qianlong period is bionic porcelain technology. Bionic porcelain refers to the use of ceramics to imitate objects made of other materials.
The third layer of decoration, decoration, uses the technique of imitating Ge glaze.
This is also the reason why Chen Wenzhe imitated the Ge Kiln bile bottle, because this large bottle also used Ge Kiln technology.
In particular, the characteristics that Ge Kiln's garbage shredding technology can achieve are really obvious.
For example, gold wire and iron feet, purple mouth and iron feet, if you don't understand Ge Kiln, you will definitely not be able to make these.
The fourth layer of decoration is a typical Qianlong official kiln blue and white intertwining flowers. The blue and white flowers used above are green in color, calm and stable, and have clear layers.
On the left and right sides of the fourth layer of decoration, which is the neck of the bottle, there are two ears with golden Kui dragon patterns.
The two ears with the Kui dragon pattern imitate the shape of jade from the Han Dynasty, and are made with exquisite craftsmanship.
The fifth layer is decorated with a turquoise green glaze, which is also a layer of bionic porcelain.
It is a combination of turquoise green glaze and open pattern, imitating the color and iron lines of natural turquoise, which is lifelike.
When it comes to the sixth layer of the porcelain mother, it becomes a little more difficult. The decoration at this time is called imitation Jun glaze, also called kiln glaze.
Jun kiln, like Ge kiln, is listed as one of the five famous kilns in ancient times.
The biggest feature of Jun kiln is the kiln change. It is said that one color enters the kiln and comes out with many colors. Sometimes it does not refer to one kind of porcelain specifically, but many fine porcelains have this characteristic.
If he had encountered such craftsmanship before he imitated Jianzhe, Chen Wenzhe would have avoided mentioning it.
But now, he has some confidence.
The kiln changes, the same color enters the kiln, and the kiln comes out with many colors. He is also sure that the flowers will come out.
At this point, it’s the first five levels. How many crafts are involved?
The simplest ones are blue and white and green glaze, while the slightly more difficult ones are copper-bodied filigree enamel, especially the patterns and decorations on it, which are "foreign-colored green ground with twining branches and flowers."
This is another glaze color that Chen Wenzhe has never played with before and needs to be studied carefully.
Other techniques, such as pastel lining, bionic porcelain, Jun kiln, and Ge kiln, are all more difficult.
Fortunately, Chen Wenzhe has done many crafts before, and he can still do them the best.
Otherwise, who would dare to think of imitating a porcelain mother?
And this is only one-fifth of the decoration and craftsmanship on the front, there are ten layers below!