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Celadon
Celadon is named after
a character in Honore
d’Urfe’s 1610 play, L’Astree, a shepherd who wore a light green
cloak with gray-green ribbons. Nowadays the name is used to
describe particular type of (mainly green) stoneware. The hue
most popularly associated with the name is a pale willow green,
but in fact it ranges from dark jade to white, with grays,
yellows and greens in between. The precise color depends on the
clay, the glaze, and the temperature and conditions in the kiln,
which is high-fired to around 1250 degrees centigrade in a
reduction atmosphere. As one-authority notes: “ There has been a
recent move to call celadons ‘green-wares’. This is to be
deplored as many celadons are not green and many green wares are
not celadons.’ It is also worth nothing that some modern chemical
glazes that use copper or lead are not celadon.
In china, where it originated, it is still called green ware, and
the subtly glazed classics of the technique are those produced
during the Sung (Song Dynasty (AD 930 to 1280). Some believe them
to be the finest high-fired pottery ever made, on both technical
and aesthetic grounds, and they have always been difficult to
reproduce. Nevertheless, it was one specialty of the Sangkhalok
kilns. Their best output is colored a beautiful sea-blue-green,
and the glaze is usually rather shiny and glassy and much crazed.
Since celadon glaze is difficult to control as it melts at a
critical point, it was often not applied all the way down to the
base, to avoid problems of it sticking to the support.
Celadon was re-introduced into Thailand from Burma at the
beginning of the 20th century, and has since then, in fits and
starts enjoyed considerable export success. The center of
production is the northern city of Chiang Mai, to where Shans
moved across the border on a number of occasions as part of
re-settlement programs. The Shan potters, who appear to have come
from Mongkung in the Shan States, settled near the Chang Puak
Gate in 190, and began producing basic ceramic wares like pots
and basins, with a rather dull gray-green celadon glaze.
Later, in 1940, when Chinese celadon became difficult to find,
the Long-ngan Boonyoo Panit factory opened a little to the north
of here, using the skills of the Shan potters to make household
crockery. Although it lasted only a few years, it was followed by
other operations, and eventually by the Thai Celadon Company,
since 1960 other factories have opened, producing-varying
qualities of output. It was common, even in Sung Chian, for there
to be a slight crazing in the glaze, and even though an increase
of just a few percent in the silica content would have avoided
this, the network of widely spaced lines contribute aesthetically
to he depth of the glaze. The jar with ring handles on right is a
Sangkhalok ware with cracked celadon glaze. The range of wares
that the several factories now offer has expanded to include
blue-and-white, and also white, brown and bright blue
monochromes, but the core of modern Chiang Mai production remains
the traditional delicate green celadon.
02. December 2004