Pics: The secret behind Chinese ceramics

Published Dec 5, 2015

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Pretoria - Kaolin, not animal bones, not human bones – that was the secret ingredient in porcelain that the Chinese kept hidden from the world for at least 1 000 years.

The addition of the soft white clay was what gave porcelain its exquisite white colour and transparent quality once glazed and fired at extreme high temperatures of over 12 000C. They became the must-have items for the wealthy and prominent in Europe from around 1520.

Keeping mum and deceiving would-be competitors with tall tales for so long was easy to do in a world still young, still unhurried and still connected just by sea routes. The long-held riddle of the origins of china is, after all, what with some help from a capital “C” gives China its English moniker.

Ditto why centuries later we still have “fine bone china” that has nothing to do with bones or is even made in China.

It makes the history of Chinese ceramics an enduring narrative of intrigue, of shifting trade patterns, the rise and fall of political influence and the whim of artistic fancy.

One of the best places to understand this story is located on the first floor of the Old Arts Building of the University of Pretoria. This is the home of the University of Pretoria’s Ceramics Museum.

UP’s collection is regarded as one of the most complete collections of Eastern ceramics, including pieces from China, Japan, Korea and Indonesia.

The museum holds the entire timeline of Chinese ceramics, beginning with primitive Celadon pieces. Tomb excavations in Zhejiang, China, have produced shards of ceramics that date back to the Eastern Han Dynasty of (25 – 220AD), the period when porcelain first makes its appearance.

From this start ceramics rise through the different Chinese dynasties right through to present day ubiquity of knock-offs as well as pieces that are already modern-day classics.

Gerard DeKamper, chief curator: collections and ceramics, says: “Ceramics are an ultimate form of art to me because it elevates objects of daily use into art forms.”

He shows one of his favourite pieces, a delicate cup, almost transparent under its showcase lights with a script of Chinese writing in miniature along with detailed images of a person, three plants that make up a Chinese ritualistic trinity, and images of a chicken and a cockerel.

“It’s so delicate that you feel like just looking at it too long will crack it.

“At the same time porcelain is one of the strongest and most durable items so long as you don’t drop it.

“Chinese ceramics hold a lot of symbolism and meaning. From the very beginning they have been pieces bestowed as gifts from the emperor and were fired in royal kilns,” says DeKamper.

Rare pieces

The cup is one of the museum’s rare pieces. It’s believed to be part of a set of cups that were designed by Emperor Qianlong (1711 – 1799) himself. Even the British Museum has a copy of only one of these cups. The university is also custodian to a set of rare Ming bowls with motifs in relief and coloured in a brilliant turquoise glaze.

“We know of nine of these bowls that are still intact in the world. Four of them are here with us,” says DeKamper.

While Ming Dynasty (1368 – 1644AD) ceramics are hugely distinctive in cobalt and white it’s in the later years of Emperor Wanli’s reign that he allowed porcelain to be made outside of the royal palace.

It allowed porcelain to be used by the common man. Free from the constraints of royal dictates, the so-called Swatow porcelain from this period took on more artistic fancy and experimentation. About this time Japan and Korea became trade routes for Chinese ceramics, and this sparked their own traditions of ceramic ware.

“It was from Japan that the kaolin secret was finally leaked to Europe in about the late 1600s, early 1700s,” says DeKamper.

As the Ming Dynasty gave way to the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911AD) the rise of ceramics from the regions of Tibet saw a break away from the blue and white of the Ming Dynasty colour to the introduction of colour.

Many pieces from this era and this region were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, making them among the most rare and valuable today.

The UP collection remains one of the most celebrated and was donated to the university in 1976 by a wealthy Dutch citizen who made South Africa his home. Jacob (“Jaap”) Abraham van Tilburg, born in Leiden in the Netherlands in 1888, was an almost compulsive collector. He settled in Pretoria in 1951, bringing with him from the Netherlands his considerable art collection that includes art works and furniture.

Four years before his death in 1980 he donated his entire collection to the University of Pretoria.

“A lot of people were far more interested in Van Tilburg’s artworks. It was 1976 and people in South Africa didn’t have much interest in China,” he says.

Reshaping the story

Chinese in South Africa at the time were a minute minority. They were still the “geel gevaar” and part of the invisible or the ignored in an apartheid state.

But the collision of history, politics, the advancement of science and technology and even the fortune of the stars keep reshaping the story. Fast forward to the dawn of democracy in South Africa and China’s global prominence in the last few decades and Chinese ceramics and chinoiserie in general are considered once more significant treasures.

A quick glance through last month’s auction catalogue for Stephan Welz & Co shows an item described as “Chinese Wanli-style blue and white jar” on auction for between R50 000 and R65 000.

A pair of “massive Chinese vases” are expected to fetch close to R30 000.

The upsurge of repatriation of rare ceramics including from South Africa to China is yet another mirror to an unfolding story of politics, power and statements of Chinese national pride in a time when the world’s gaze remains fixed eastwards.

The UP Ceramics Museum is open weekdays between 8am and 4pm while the university itself is open.

SATURDAY STAR

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