In 1960, Hongqi Porcelain Factory filled the exquisite eyes with underglaze color materials, creating blue and white exquisite eyes for the first time.
In 1965, ceramic artists at the Art Porcelain Factory successfully prepared four kinds of exquisite glazes: red, yellow, cyan and blue.
These exquisite porcelain, that is, modern porcelain, are not antiques, let alone official kilns.
Otherwise, this kind of top-quality exquisite porcelain would definitely be no worse than Qianlong's exquisite porcelain.
The specific method of making exquisite porcelain is not too difficult for professionals like Chen Wenzhe.
To make a piece of exquisite blue and white porcelain, you must first design the flower shape on the green body.
Then carve millet holes one by one to make the two walls penetrate, like small windows;
Then a special transparent glaze is applied on the lake, just like window paper, and then the whole body is glazed.
After baking, the engraved parts become clear and translucent. This kind of light-transmitting rice grain-shaped holes is called "rice flower".
In Neon, it is called "Mi Tong" or "Firefly Hand".
Some furnishings, such as dragon boats and vases, have hollow areas without glaze, which are also called exquisite.
This kind of porcelain, especially some small bowls, after being made, is as white as jade, has a glaze as bright as a mirror, is as thin as paper, and has a sound like a rock.
If the petals and leaves of various shapes are carved around the bowl, the whole bowl will be exquisite and translucent under the light.
During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, a large number of skilled craftsmen gathered in the imperial kiln factory.
No matter the production cost, the exquisite carved patterns have also developed from a single rice grain pattern to a variety of flower patterns.
The combination of hollowing out and half-knife clay gives the pattern more layers and brings Linglong porcelain to its heyday.
Due to the complicated process, difficulty in carving and low yield, exquisite porcelain is mostly used as display porcelain exclusively for the royal family.
These exquisite porcelains, which appear to be transparent but are actually airtight, are both practical and ornamental, have won the favor of everyone from the royal family to the common people.
It can be said that it is unique among the wide range of ceramic categories!
Unfortunately, this was just a flash in the pan.
The decorative content of this kind of porcelain during the Qianlong period was also more diverse than that during the Yongzheng period, but generally speaking, the decorations were mainly auspicious patterns.
In addition to the year mark, the most common types of inscriptions during the Yongzheng period include miscellaneous treasures, four flower patterns, animal-shaped inscriptions, etc., while the hall-name inscriptions are less common than in the Kangxi period.
There were more famous titles in the Qianlong reign than those in the Yongzheng reign, and the year titles were often written in seal script, and also had four-flower inscriptions.
Unfortunately, by the late Qianlong period, the heyday of the Manchu Qing Dynasty had passed. From then on, the country was in decline and getting worse day by day.
In the late Qianlong period of the third dynasty of the Qing Dynasty, porcelain had begun to decline, so it was even worse in the Jiaqing period.
It can be said that all official kiln porcelain after Jiaqing began to gradually decline.
The utensils of the early Jiaqing period are basically the same as those of the Qianlong period, but the craftsmanship is rough, the shape is thick and clumsy, and the glaze is thin, gray, and bluish.
The utensils from the Daoguang, Xianfeng and Tongzhi periods are generally similar.
They are all blue and white with floating color, rough texture, thin glaze, loose glaze bonding, and mainly auspicious patterns in decoration.
Under this situation, it was not until the reign of Guangxu that blue and white porcelain was revived.
The blue and white porcelain of this period was of higher quality in imitation of Kangxi wares, but the body was lighter, the white glaze was thin and astringent, and the repair work was not precise enough.
Other utensils are similar to Tongzhi in terms of glaze and shape.
Blue and white colored wares are common. In addition to the year mark, there are also "Changchun Palace System", "Kunning Palace System", "Chuxiu Palace System", etc.;
False entrustments are often found in "Kangxi Year System", "Ruo Shenzhen", etc.
After that, there was Xuantong, the last emperor. An important thing during this period was that chemical green materials began to appear.
Of course, as an official kiln ware, it is impossible to use cheap chemical green materials.
The green materials used during the Xuantong period were mainly Huiqing materials, Zhejiang materials, etc.
Huiqing is said to be produced in the Western Regions, Xinjiang, and Yun Provinces.
The color of this material is green and purplish. If used alone, it will be scattered and not collected. Therefore, it is often mixed with Shiziqing.
From the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty to the early Wanli period, this material was mostly used.
Among them, it is divided into green, that is, mixed with 10% of stone green, which is used to mix water (filling color) to make the color green and bright;
Medium blue: mixed with 40% stone blue, used for coloring (outlining), making the strokes clear and clear.
Zhejiang material, also called asphalt, is produced in Shaoxing and Jinhua areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Among the domestic materials, Zhejiang material is the most superior, with its green color. From the mid-Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, this material was used in the blue and white wares of the Jingzhen official kiln.
In addition to the above two well-known green materials, there are also Pingping Qing.
This is not for people in the industry, and ordinary people don’t know this.
Chen Wenzhe understands this best.
Because when making porcelain, especially blue and white porcelain, you have to understand these things.
Pingpingqing, also known as Pitangqing, is produced in Leping, Xijiang Province.
It was used in the late "Blank Period" of Ming Dynasty and in Chenghua, Hongzhi and early Zhengde periods.
The color of this material is elegant, bright and stable, which made Chenghua blue and white wares famous for a while.
Then there is Shi Ziqing. This kind of green material is also called Shi Qing and is produced in the Gao'an, Yifeng and Shanggao areas of Xijiang Province.
When this material is used alone, the blue and white hair color becomes gray or even black.
Folk kilns in the Ming and Qing dynasties generally used this material, while official kilns used it to blend with Huiqing.
Of course, among the green glazes used in the Qing Dynasty, there was also a high-quality glaze, which was Zhuming glaze.
Zhuming material is produced in Xuanwei, Huize, Yiliang and other counties in Yunnan Province, among which Xuanwei material is the best.
This material has a bright and pure color, and was often used in Kangxi blue and white porcelain. Chen Wenzhe even specially imitated this kind of Kangxi blue and white porcelain before.
Of course, the above-mentioned domestic cobalt materials are mostly high manganese.
For example, the most famous Suma Liqing is a low-manganese and high-iron cobalt material, so the blue and white are thick and green in color with "rust marks", commonly known as "tin light".
Part of the blue and white materials of the Yuan Dynasty and the green materials used in the Yongle and Xuande official kilns of the Ming Dynasty are all of this type, and they are all produced in ancient Persia or present-day Syria.
The last commonly used green material is chemical green material.
Chemical green material is green material prepared from the chemical cobalt oxide.
The hair color is purple-blue, pure and rich, but it is frivolous and lacks adhesion, and the price is also low.
The blue and white wares made using this material lack the beauty of natural green materials.
However, it can't be said that it is cheap, so it is still the most used nowadays.
What's more, modern green materials are not all defective.
No matter what it is, there are experts who determine the top quality.
For example, modern chemical green materials can imitate almost all known blue and white hair colors.
Of course, other glaze colors can also be imitated. Otherwise, how would modern people present some lost glaze colors?
It is produced by using modern chemical means to adjust the color.
To put it more clearly, the raw material of blue and white is cobalt oxide.
This is a painting raw material with extremely strong tinting power and excellent stability.
Not only does it have a wider firing surface, but it is also easy to fire, which is its main performance.
In addition to cobalt oxide, the blue and white raw materials also contain varying degrees of other elements such as iron oxide and manganese oxide.
The amount of other elements determines the color properties and variety classification of blue and white raw materials.