Ding kiln has a large production scale and a wide variety of products.
Most of them are bowls, plates, bottles, plates, boxes and pillows. They also produce pure bottles, conches and other Buddha offerings, but the quantity is very small, and they are mainly brought into the palace as tributes.
Among these relatively rare porcelains, in addition to the more famous children's pillows, there is also the conch.
The famous white-glazed snail from Ding kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty is 18.5 cm high. The shell is hollow and spiral-shaped, with holes at both ends. The cone-shaped top is slender and has three raised spiral patterns.
Regular trumpet shape.
The surface of the screw body is lightly engraved with water ripples, and it is covered with white glaze. The glaze color is white with a hint of blue.
The shape is completely hand-kneaded according to the natural conch, with accurate proportions and lifelike shape.
The conch is one of the "Eight Treasures" of Buddhism and is also a musical instrument used in rituals.
This porcelain conch can produce a loud sound. This fact fully demonstrates the superb modeling craftsmanship of Ding kiln in the Northern Song Dynasty.
This conch was unearthed from the pagoda base of Jingzhi Temple in Dingzhou in 1969 and is now in the Dingzhou Museum.
Although the white porcelain from the Ding kiln in the Song Dynasty is relatively plain in color, it is not as varied as the Jun kiln, because the changes made by the kiln are more colorful.
But it fully demonstrates the rigorous and elegant style of the Song Dynasty, and also reflects the pursuit of nature, harmony, purity and beauty at that time.
Ding kiln white porcelain is a rare treasure handed down from generation to generation, but its fetal bones are delicate and thin, making it appear beautiful and light;
Although some are not pure white, but white with a hint of yellow, they all have warm tones and the glaze is well-proportioned and soft;
The most important thing is that as white porcelain, Ding kiln white porcelain has a dignified and beautiful shape, without being tacky at all.
It can also be seen from the conch that Ding kiln white porcelain in the Song Dynasty was not limited to daily necessities such as bowls, plates, dishes, washbasins, boxes, bottles, etc. It also produced some unique shapes, just like exquisite porcelain sculptures.
This white-glazed water-corrugated porcelain conch is one of the most distinctive among the authentic products handed down from Ding kiln in the Song Dynasty.
Some experts even consider it "unique" because of its meticulous decoration and high authenticity;
Compared with the typical shape of the curved outer wall of other vessels, it is also more creative.
This can be said to be similar to the Ding kiln white porcelain lying-shaped child pillow that Chen Wenzhe now wants to imitate.
This kind of porcelain is brighter and brighter than marble. It should be a specially made furnishing for the palace at that time.
This kind of porcelain will definitely be more popular among collectors.
Therefore, collectors with more financial resources pay more attention to the authentic products handed down from the five famous kilns of the Song Dynasty.
In particular, some experts directly regard Ding kiln white porcelain as "the first kiln of the Song Dynasty". Whenever they encounter Ding kiln white porcelain, they regard it as a treasure.
Just like this bionic conch, it is lifelike in shape and color and is called the Three Magical Weapons.
The most important thing is that it is beautiful. This porcelain conch has fine white fetal bones, pure glaze color, and vigorous and powerful lines. It is recognized as the crown of Ding kiln bionic porcelain.
Porcelain of this level is definitely a treasure, but it is slightly less famous than children's pillows.
Of course, the "Dingzhou White Porcelain Children's Pillow" collected by the Palace Museum is definitely one of the representative works of Ding kiln porcelain.
The most familiar porcelain of the Song Dynasty to ordinary people, especially teenagers, is this white children's porcelain pillow, because it is also included in middle school history textbooks.
When Chen Wenzhe saw this porcelain pillow when he was a child, he wondered: It looks good, but is it comfortable to sleep on such a hard pillow?
Later, when I grew up and got more information, I realized that porcelain pillows are not only cool but can also regulate blood pressure.
In ancient times, women slept on porcelain pillows to keep their hair in a bun, so porcelain pillows have been used until modern times.
Emperor Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty also wrote a poem praising it: "The porcelain pillow has spiritual energy, which is better than that of tortoise and Shan. It sleeps in the clouds without realizing it, and the dreaming butterfly should be at peace."
Although Ding kiln porcelain is white porcelain, it is not pure white, but white with a slight yellowish "ivory white".
This kind of white looks old after a long time, so the craftsmen of Ding kiln worked hard on decorative patterns.
It is because of this that after continuous development, the decorative techniques of Ding kiln have formed the characteristics of white glaze printing, engraving and scratching.
Ding kiln wares have many patterns, with lotus petals and intertwining branches being the most common ones.
Others include daylily patterns, peony patterns, dragon patterns, unicorn patterns, deer patterns, phoenix patterns, mandarin duck patterns, wild goose patterns, etc. Anyway, whatever is popular in the market is used.
This also gives Ding Kiln porcelain the characteristics of "low-key luxury and connotation".
The key point here is mainly to keep a low profile.
If porcelain is compared to a beautiful woman, Ding Kiln porcelain belongs to that kind of "beautiful woman at the second sight".
At first glance, it seems unremarkable, but upon closer inspection, the more you look at it, the more interesting it becomes.
The "low profile" of Ding kiln porcelain is entirely due to the effect brought about by the plain white color. Of course, this effect also brings trouble to itself.
In Chen Wenzhe's hometown of Qilu Province, there is a municipal museum with a Song Dynasty white glaze flower bowl, which the director of cultural relics collected from a farmer's house for five yuan.
At that time, farmers used this bowl as a food bowl for dogs.
This is another legend of missing pieces in the collecting world. Who can get there first? A seemingly ordinary white bowl will be the masterpiece of Ding Kiln?
After receiving it, experts took a look and estimated the price to be no less than 1 million - this is because they are afraid of not knowing the goods!
But who told Ding Kiln white porcelain to be low-key?
For those who don’t understand, it looks like a white bowl. Who can see it first? It has a history of more than a thousand years? Or is it the royal porcelain at that time?
And being able to do all this must be because of its superb firing technology.
The Ding kiln can form a large kiln system, mainly because of the advancement of kiln industry technology, such as the invention of the overlay firing method, printing and decoration technology, and the use of coal as fuel.
At the same time, Ding kiln has rich documentary records and a large number of handed down products, which are valuable materials for future generations to study Ding kiln.
This is the main achievement of the Ding kiln system and the achievement of the Chinese ceramic industry.
Due to the amazing decorative skills and superb craftsmanship, kilns from all over the country followed suit in the Song Dynasty, eventually forming a huge Ding kiln system.
Ding kiln is the entrance of the kiln, and it has indeed formed its own set of porcelain making technology and porcelain making style.
For example, the most important achievement in the porcelain kiln firing technology in the Song Dynasty was the invention of the overlay firing method and the "fire lighting technique".
Overfiring is one of the porcelain firing methods. It is opposite to normal firing and is also called reverse firing or submersible firing.
This is a support-firing method in which blanks such as bowls and plates are placed on the kiln furniture. It is divided into two types: glaze over-firing and mang-kou over-firing.
That is to say, when baking, bake with the mouth of the bowl facing down.
Before using the over-firing process, one utensil could only be placed in one sagger;
After switching to overburning, multiple utensils can be placed in one sagger.
The same kiln consumes the same fuel, and the output of overfiring is several times that of ordinary firing.
The invention of the over-firing process increased the output of porcelain, lowered the price of porcelain, and eased the contradiction between supply and demand in the porcelain market.
It can be said that the over-firing process is an important technological innovation in the history of Chinese ceramics.
Of course, there is more than one kind of technological innovation, such as the fire technique Chen Wenzhe has used before.
If you want to make high-quality antique porcelain, using a fire photo to check the temperature is an indispensable method.