Posts Tagged ‘blacks’

The Renaissance
During the 15th century in northern Europe the fashion for very elaborate and complex head coverings continued: the voluminous double horned headdress was extremely popular as well as the sugarloaf headdress hennine. In early Renaissance Italy this fashion subsided and the natural beauty of the hair was appreciated once more. This did not mean that very elaborate coiffures were not devised to enhance that beauty. Indeed a popular type of hair arrangement consisted of the hair drawn up into a chignon at the back with a wide band, a ribbon or a strand of pearls known as frenello encircling the head and usually decorated at the centre with a jewel in the form of a flowerhead cluster. With such an abundance of jewels on the head and with the ears concealed beneath the head-band, there was still no point in wearing earrings.
This can clearly be seen in the portrait of Battista Sforza (circa 1465) by Piero Bella P 36 Francesca, in which the Duchess displays a great number of jewels on her head, one fastened to the band at the top and three smaller clusters securing the very elaborate coil of hair placed over the ears. Also popular were rich be-jewelled hairnets placed at the back of the head with the hair combed over the ears and the stones set amongst the gold threads. An inventory of the jewels of Ippolita Sforza given to her on the occasion of her marriage to Alfonso of Aragon in 1465 mentions a net set with 89 rubies and 464 pearls. There was, therefore, no place for earrings. Even when no head jewels were worn the hair was left hanging down in curls over the ears. Throughout the 15th century in Italy, earrings are never mentioned in inventories.
After centuries of neglect, earrings begin to make a timid appearance in Italy around the 1530s, mainly prompted by a change in fashion in hairstyles in favour of parting the hair at the centre and drawing it away from the face which was framed by a padded roll. The design of the new earrings was fairly simple: usually a plain gold hoop with a single pearl drop. This type of earring is depicted frequently in contemporary portraiture but hardly any examples survive. This is because pearls are one of the few organic materials employed in jewellery, and, unlike gemstones, they only last about 300 years.
Another design for which there is pictorial evidence can be seen in a portrait, by Moroni of the mid-to-late I 500s in the National Gallery, London. It shows a pearl drop suspended from a gold spherical element and connected to the gold hoop in the ear by a satin ribbon bow matching the colour of the dress. This is one of the earliest records of this kind of earring, but the combination of satin or velvet ribbon bows and jewelled elements becomes a recurring feature in early and mid-17th century earrings. All earrings were worn with pierced ears: a hoop was threaded through the ear to support the pendent element. The screw and clip fitting is a comparatively recent innovation apparently unknown during the Renaissance. The single mention of the clip earrings which occurs in Cellini’s autobiography merely proves that they were not in common use: Cellini describes dressing up a friend to impersonate a woman at a party given by Michelangelo: ‘In his ears I placed two little rings, set with two large and fair pearls: the rings were broken; they only clipped his ears as though they had been pierced.’
In other parts of Europe, and especially the north, earrings remained out of fashion, the reason again being that elaborate headdresses such as the horseshoe bonnet went on the back of the head and down over the ears.
Towards the end of the 16th century the use of pendent earrings was still limited
36 not so much now by headgear but by the new fashion for very high and stiff ruff collars. The extreme examples of the high ruff occur in Spain, England and France, and in these countries women continued to be unable to wear earrings for about one hundred years after their reintroduction in Italy. They are seldom seen in portraits and are not mentioned in contemporary inventories such as those of the jewels of the French crown from Francois I to Henri III; grand parures of jewels are repeatedly referred to but these include not earrings but items known as `bordures d’oreilletes’, a jewelled ornament that encircles the head from one ear to the other. The only mention of earrings comes in the Chronique du Bourgeois de Paris, in a descriptor of the jewels worn by Eleonore of Austria at her arrival in France for her marriage with Francois I in 1529: ‘hanging from her ears were two large stones as big as nuts’. The earrings were part of the jewellery which she had brought from Spain, and reflect a southern European fashion. In fact her fondness for large, Spanish style earrings is displayed in a portrait where she wears large elliptical gold ones set with three pearls supporting a fringe of a further three pearls.
Shortly before i 60o the high ruff collar gave way to the standing collar, freeing the area around the neck, and long pendent earrings finally began to make their appearance in northern Europe. They are clearly visible in the portrait of Queen Anne of Denmark painted by De Critz at the beginning of the 17th century — large baroque pearls linked by gold-set lozenge-shaped diamonds to gold suspension loops which are completely concealed by red ribbon bows. Two features are noteworthy: the use of the ribbon bows, which had already appeared half a century before in Italy and continued to be favoured in the first half of the 17th century; and the use of large faceted diamonds. It was around this time that improved techniques of gem-cutting prompted a shift in emphasis from the gold and enamel setting typical of Renaissance jewellery to the faceted gemstone.
The 17th Century
As earrings began to gain independence at the beginning of the 17th century a variety of new designs made their appearance, exemplified by those of Arnold Lulls, a Netherlands-born jeweller (active in England circa i585—circa 1621) greatly favoured by James I of England and his consort Anne of Denmark. Prominent among them were aigrettes (a plume-shaped ornament) and earrings set with faceted gemstones. His book of coloured drawings includes three pages of designs for earrings; one page shows two different pairs of earrings. The first has three green pear-shaped stones, the largest at the centre, suspended from a gold crescent enamelled in white and set with a step-cut ruby-, the green enamel suspension loop is in the form of a serpent with four square-cut diamonds set on its head. The second pair is similar but has only one drop, the central element being set with faceted diamonds and the hoop with rubies. Another page shows a pair of earrings, each formed from two pear-shaped pearls with a larger green gemstone suspended from an openwork surmount set with eleven table-cut diamonds. It is worth pointing out that at this time all diamonds portrayed in designs and paintings were painted black, the reason being that diamonds were set in closed settings backed by a black foil or varnish and therefore would appear, in reality, nearly black.
By the early 1600s designs were already fairly elaborate compared to the plain pearl drops which had been common up to then: noteworthy is the serpent-shaped hoop and the use of faceted gemstones reflecting the new interest in cut stones and especially diamonds in consequence of the improved techniques of cutting. Also new is the use of the three drops which will remain a favourite form of earring for two centuries. It most probably derives from the three pearl drops, a larger one in the middle flanked by two smaller, always found suspended from Renaissance pendants. It is interesting that in early 17th-century earrings all elements remain very separate: the hoop, the central element and the drop, and it is only at the end of the century that all parts of earrings begin to be conceived of as a whole. Besides conventional earrings, the rather bizarre fashion for earstrings developed in Britain around 1620. These were suspended not from the ear but from a cord at the sides of the face or a loose corkscrew of hair.
The popularity of earrings at the turn of the 17th century is clear from an inventory of the personal items of Catherine de M6dicis, Queen of France, compiled in 161o, which lists nine pairs of earrings all set with faceted diamonds and gemstones.
One of the best collections of this period is the Cheapside Hoard, now in the Museum of London and the British Museum, part of a jeweller’s stock, probably hidden in London about 16¢o because of the English Civil War. It includes an elaborate pendent earring in the form of three white enamel links supporting ten amethyst briolettes; the suspension loop is missing. Again evident is the interest in cut stone and in a complex design.
During the second quarter of the 17th century there was a change in favour of greater simplicity in dress and ornament, but this seems not to have disturbed the newly established popularity of earrings. Very large pearl drops were one of the favourite types. The difficulty of finding two beautiful pearls matched in size, shape and colour made these earrings extremely valuable and sought after; they were known as ‘union d’excellence’ earrings, the large pear-shaped pearls emerging from flowing curls. At times it is one large pearl, at others one may find two or three pearls hanging
P. 37 from one ear, as can be seen in the English portrait of Ann Carr, Countess of Bedford, painted by Anthony Van Dyck (1599-16¢¢). The fact that so few of these examples have survived is partly because they have decayed and partly because pearls can easily be mounted in a new setting and, unlike a faceted gemstone, are not easy to identify. exceptional pair earrings still exists Only one exceptional pair of pearl earrings still exists today, though not in their original 17th-century setting. They are two extremely large natural pear-shaped pearls known as the Marie Mancini pearls; they were given by Louis XIV to his mistress Marie Mancini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin.
The importance attached to pearl earrings is also substantiated by contemporary literature: Francis de Sales, in his Introduction d la vie devote of 16o8 which was reprinted (mainly in Antwerp) thirteen times in the 17th century alone, writes in a chapter entitled ‘Advice to the Married’ that:
Women of both ancient and present times customarily hang pearls from their ears because of the pleasure they derive (as Pliny observes) from feeling them swing when they touch each other. But because I know that God’s great friend, Isaac, sent earrings as the first token of his love to the pure Rebecca, so do I believe that this jewel signifies spirituality; that the first part that a man must have from his wife and which the wife must faithfully preserve is the ear, so that no speech or sound may enter in other than the sweet sound of chaste words which are oriental pearls of the Gospel.
The expression ‘pearls of the Gospel’ derives from the parable of the merchant searching for rare pearls in Matthew 13 and is used by Sales as a metaphor for Christ’s teachings.
Around the middle of the l7th century earrings had become an essential item of adornment and their shapes were becoming increasingly complex and interesting. It is known that Louis XIV gave an important pair of emerald and diamond earrings to his mistress Madame de Soubise, who used them to signal to the king that her husband had left Paris and that they were free to meet. Typical of the new complexity of design is a pair of polychrome enamel, turquoise and ruby earrings designed as an openwork garland of floral motifs carrying a fringe of pearls, the centre decorated with a tulip, and suspended on a flowerhead cluster surmount. As well as the overall intricacy, it is interesting to notice how the contemporary interest in flowers, especially tulips, is reflected in these earrings. At the end of the i 6th century a garden with hothouses in Paris had plants which served as models for designers of embroidery; later the establishment was bought by Henri IV and the Jardin du Rol, as it was then called, remained a centre for the study of rare and beautiful flowers. But it was the increased European contacts with the Levant that brought exotic flowers to the forefront, and the tulip, first seen in the West in 1559, conquered Europe; in 1634. it generated a real tulip `rage’ known as tulipomania. This explains why tulip motifs are to occur so prominently on contemporary jewels. On one pair of pendent earrings the front is typically set with faceted gemstones, rubies and emeralds supporting a fringe of pearls; but the back is decorated with three tulip flowerheads in painted black and red enamel on a light blue enamel ground.
Around 166o the girandole, which became a very successful form of earring, emerged. It consisted of two main elements worked into a coherent design: a stylized ribbon bow surmount supporting three pear-shaped drops. The bow motif undoubtedly derives from the ribbon bow used in earlier earrings made of satin or velvet in a colour to match the dress; the three drops derive from early 17th-century examples, such as those of Arnold Lulls, going back ultimately to the three pearl drops suspended from Renaissance brooches. The girandole is an extremely becoming shape of earring, as it fills out the space around the ear to complement the face. Its popularity is attested by numerous engravings of the i 66os, such as those by Gilles Legare and Francois Lefebvre. The engraved designs frequently show front and back views of the girandole; the front was set either entirely with faceted gemstones or with three pear-shaped pearls; the back was decorated with enamelwork, a feature that distinguished the early girandoles from later examples. Frequently the designs for the girandole earrings are accompanied by those of brooches of similar design known as sevignes which would have been worn together as a set. Drawings which record the earrings owned by Anne of Austria, the wife of Louis XIII, show girandoles of great elegance set with diamonds of exceptional dimensions; while the inventory of the jewels of Marie Therese, the wife of Louis XIV, dated 1691, lists various girandoles: two pairs set with diamonds, one with very rare stones, the other with pearls.

Art Nouveau: Furniture
Furniture
The French, the main exponents of Art Nouveau, adapted Arts and Crafts designs to create inventive, sculptural furniture, embellished with fine organic decoration. Elsewhere in Europe interpretations of the style varied, although nature was always the main source of inspiration. In Belgium designers such as Victor Horta and Gustave Serrurier-Bovy combined originality
with traditional influences; in Austria the firm of Gebruder Thonet developed the bentwood technique, and the Wiener Werks6tte created rectilinear pieces. In Spain the designs of Antoni Gaudi were exotic, asymmetrical, and idiosyncratic, while in Italy those of Carlo Bugatti were highly inventive and inspired by North African motifs.
The two main centres of Art Nouveau furniture production in France were Nancy, in north-eastern France, and Paris. The Nancy School (est. 1901) drew heavily on nature for inspiration – a theme that was central to all Art Nouveau design. Furniture by members of the school typically features superb, Intricate marquetry panels, used to decorate organic-, naturalistic-, even zoomorphic-shaped supports and mouldings. The furniture made by the Paris School also took inspiration from nature but in a much more THE NANCY SCHOOL
Although perhaps more strongly associated with glassware, Emile Galle (1846-1904), one of the most prominent members of the Nancy School, also produced some of the most exquisite Art Nouveau furniture. He often ignored the conventions of traditional furniture construction and created sinuous, curving forms such as tables supported by huge dragonflies’ wings, bronze mounts in the form of insects, and handles in the shape of snails, grapes, corn, and barley. Much of his furniture. is embellished with fine marquetry decoration. In 1885 a cabinetmaking and marquetry workshop was added to Galle’s glassworks in Nancy: tea-tables, screens, nests of tables, and gueridons were produced until 1890, after Which larger, more sophisticated and exclusive furniture Was made. Furniture was produced in Galle’s workshop after his death, but these pieces are more traditional and have less inventive decoration than items produced during his lifetime.
Another celebrated member of the Nancy School was Louis Majorelle (1859-1926). An accomplished cabinetmaker with a sound knowledge of wood and veneers, Majorelle stayed within the established limits of furniture design, applying superb floral decoration to largely conventional carcasses. He combined dark, exotic, strongly grained hardwoods with mother-of-pearl and metal inlays. Majorelle worked mainly to commission, so his work is rare and highly sought after. Distinctive characteristics such as superb marquetry, often incorporating a chicory-leaf motif, pleated silk back panels, inlaid decoration, and symmetrical forms are found on his individual, elegant pieces. His finest pieces were produced between c.1898 and 1906 and were decorated with beautiful ormolu mounts of waterlilies and orchids. From 1906 to 1908 Majorelle’s workshop was industrialized and produced a wide range of lightly sculptured furniture, which was aimed at a more general market than his earlier, one-off pieces.
THE PARIS SCHOOL
Samuel Bing’s gallery, La Maison de I’Art Nouveau, provided a focus for the Paris School, with members including Hector Guimard (1867-1942), Eugene Gaillard (1862-1933), and Georges de Feure (1868-1928). Pieces were more restrained and sculptural than those of the Nancy School, but decoration was still based on nature. Guimard, heavily influenced by Victor Horta, whom he met in Brussels in 1895, is best known for the wrought-iron entrances he designed for the Paris Metro, which are the epitome of Parisian Art Nouveau. His finely made furniture, crafted mostly from fruitwoods, was equally stylized and sculptural. The same balance between naturalistic forms and elegant design is evident in the work of Gaillard and De Feure, whose symmetrical, graceful forms with bold outlines often feature organic marquetry designs and carved whiplash decoration.
The Nancy School
• STYLE most designs are highly imaginative in form, typically inspired by nature, and extremely decorative
• DECORATION this is important: designers used exotic-wood veneers, mother-of-pearl and metal inlay, ormolu Mounts, and superb marquetry, often with chicory-leaf or whiplash motifs
• COLLECTING all pieces are rare and valuable
The Paris School
• STYLE this is more stylized than that of the Nancy School, with nature often used symbolically
• DECORATION whiplash motifs are typical
Belgium Art Nouveau first took a clearly defined form in Brussels with the building of the Hotel Tassel, designed in 1892-3 by Victor Horta (1861-1947), but the style was short-lived and was quickly moderated after the International Exhibition of 1905 in Liege. However, Horta’s influence was longer-lasting, with his ideas and motifs – in particular his whiplash design –reinterpreted by many European designers. Elsewhere in Europe, although nature’s curves were a source of inspiration for all designers, interpretations of Art Nouveau were varied. Austrian designers preferred rectilinear, often severe forms, and Spanish and Italian designers created highly idiosyncratic furniture.
The painter, architect, and graphic designer Van de Velde gained renown after he created three rooms for
La Maison de I’Art Nouveau, the Parisian gallery owned by Samuel Bing (1838-1905) that acted as a centre of artistic inspiration for the Paris School. Van de Velde’s designs – similar to those of the Paris School – are characterized by an overall restrained sculptural form with little applied decoration. Chairs typically have slender splats, out-curving legs, and upholstery held in place by studwork. Van dc Velde designed whole interiors, including that of his own
house, Bloemenwerf, at Uccle, near Brussels, which he completed in 1896. He produced furniture mainly to commission, so his designs are rare, and correspondingly keenly sought after.
AUSTRIA
One of the major factors in the development of Art Nouveau furniture in Austria was the pioneering of the bentwood technique by the innovative furniture designer Michael Thonet (1796-1871). The process involved steaming
solid or laminated wood so that it could be bent into shape, allowing angular corner joints to be replaced by gentle curves. The sinuous curves associated with Art Nouveau featured heavily in the first catalogue of bentwood furniture, produced by the Viennese firm of Gebruder Thonet (est. 1819) in 1859; the first bentwood rocker was created the following year.
One of Thonet’s major designers was the architect Josef Hoffmann (1870-1956), a leading member of the Vienna Secession, an independent group of architects and designers who aspired to introduce a purer, more abstract style of design. Hoffmann was one of the founders of the Wiener Werkstatte (1903-32), an association formed with the aim of producing
V Recliner by Gebruder Thonet
The elegant, curving shapes typical of bentwood furniture were a precursor of the Art Nouveau style and have remained popular. Larger examples, such as bentwood rocking-chairs, are highly sought after and valuable. This Austrian bentwood and cane recliner (no. 7500), with an adjustable back hinged in the centre, is a rare and collectable model.
aesthetically pleasing objects, including furniture,
for everyday use. Hoffman’s furniture designs for the Wiener Werkstatte were strongly influenced by the work of the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928), and included tables and chairs made from beechwood, mahogany, limed oak, and other ebonized woods. The forms were characteristically linear and geometric, although his bentwood designs have gently rounded corners. Decoration consists largely of open-centred rectangles or squares, with a ball motif at intersections. From 1903 these rectangular and rectilinear shapes replaced the more French-influenced floral and curving style of the earlier Austrian Art Nouveau style.
SPAIN
In Spain the Art Nouveau style was dominated by a small group of Catalan architects, most notably Antoni Gaudi (1852-1926). Gaudi’s highly idiosyncratic furniture was generally designed for the interiors of his extraordinary, sculptural buildings: for example, he designed a kidney-shaped chaise-longue and dressing-table for the Guiell Palace (1885-9) in Barcelona, the home of the textile-manufacturer Count Eusebi Guell, who was one of Gaudi’s major patrons. Especially striking in the designer’s work is his bold rejection of symmetry and his use of twisting, strangely contorted forms. The employment of the central Art Nouveau theme of nature is evident in Gaudi’s preference for extremely sculptural, curving, organic
structures over straight lines, and his frequent use of floral decoration. In common with other Spanish Art Nouveau
furniture, Gauch’s pieces often serve multiple roles: sofas sometimes incorporate
small tables, while display-cabinets house mirrors and cupboards. Gaudi’s preferred wood was oak, but other Spanish designers used pale woods including ash, birch,
Lind sycamore, which were characteristically combined with burnished metal and fine marquetry decoration.
ITALY
The major designer of Italian Stile Liberty (Art
Nouveau) furniture was Carlo Bugatti (1855-1940), who, like Gaudi, designed furniture for specific locations, notably the Moorish interior he created for the Italian Pavilion at the Turin International Exhibition of Modern Decorative Arts in 1902. The influence of North Africa is evident in his use of subdued colours (largely browns and blacks), circular seat-backs, strips of beaten and pierced metal, tassels, and vellum upholstery. Bugatti’s lavish use of ivory, brass, and pewter inlay is also a predominant feature, but such intricate decoration is very vulnerable and often slightly damaged. However, the rarity and desirability of Bugatti’s work means that even less than perfect examples are still highly collectable. His range of designs included larger pieces
such as sectional bench seats, elements of which were produced as cabinets, tables, and chairs. As with Gaudi, Bugatti’s designs were highly inventive and often involved a combination of different elements – scats had integral lamps, and tables sometimes included cabinets. Another Italian designer of this period was Carlo Zen (1851-1918), whose furniture is typified by inlaid mother-of-pearl, silver, and brass and restrained forms similar to those of the Paris School.
Belgium
• STYLE Serrurier-Bovy: designs are more restrained than French pieces; Van de Velde: pieces have a restrained, sculptural form with no applied decoration; most chairs have slender splats and out-curving legs, with upholstery (often leather) held in place by studs
• COLLECTING commissioned furniture is rare and sought after; Serrurier-Bovy: Silex furniture is more accessibly priced; fakes are virtually unknown
Marks
Serrurier-Bovy: the Silex range is all clearly stamped “SILEX”; Van de Velde: work is rarely marked; pieces can often be identified from contemporary photographs
Austria
• STYLE Thonet; bentwood furniture is strongly characterized by sinuous curves; Wiener Werkstatte: their work is typified by geometric, angular designs
• COLLECTING Thonet: bentwood chairs with cane seats were mass-produced in various designs and in large quantities so arc readily available; more desirable are the rarer large rocking-chairs and recliners
Marks
Wiener Werkstatte: pieces are rarely signed but the quantities of original designs and contemporary photographs that survive make identification easier
A Dressing table designed by Antoni Gaudi
The keynote to this dressing-table, designed for the Guell Palace in Barcelona, is asymmetry The piece rests on five inlaid and carved legs, each of which is a different shape, with a curved iron stretcher. The mirror is placed at an angle, and the cylindrical cupboards at the sides are placed at different levels. Such a rejection of traditional forms is absolutely typical of Gaudi – both in his fantastic architectural work and in his furniture design.

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Early Chinese Ceramics
By the Shang period (c.1600-c.1050) when stonewares were first produced in China, there was an advanced ceramic technology, with the separate high-fired and low-fired traditions of Chinese ceramics already apparent. The high-fired Yue stonewares produced from the 3rd century AD were the precursors of the great celadons of the Song period and represent a high level of technical and artistic achievement.
EARLY WARES
The earliest known Chinese ceramics are low-fired eathenwares dating from the Neolithic period. Distinct traditions emerged in the Central (c.5000-c.2500 BC) and Western (c.3300-c.1800 BC) Yangshao cultures and the Dawenkou culture (c.5800-c.1500 BC) in the north-east. The distinctive bulbous red Yangshao earthen wares were coil constructed and were sometimes decorated with impressed cord-like patterns or painted with bold black or purple geometric designs, often of spirals and loops enclosing checkered patterns. Dawenkou wares are thin, wheel-thrown pots made of red, grey, or black earthenware, which was burnished.
During the Shang period thick, white, unglazed pots were made of kaolin (china clay), while other fine clays were used to make stonewares, which were then glazed. A, ceramics technology developed, wares became
increasingly sophisticated; the potter’s wheel became more common, and new types of body - such as high-fired stoneware-were introduced. Forms at this time tended to be based On such bronze ritual forms as the ding and the hit. In the Han period a huge variety of wares was made, including models of houses, farms, ponds, and human figures in lead-glazed earthenware, which were all produced as funerary goods to accompany the deceased into the afterlife.
sophisticated desk ornaments, such as water droppers and brush rests in the shapes of frogs, lions, and other animals, as well as burial urns with applied models of buildings, animals, people, or Buddhist deities. Yue
wares also include more functional items, including straight-sided basins. From the second half of the 4th century ewers with characteristic “chicken-head” spouts were produced, and within about 100 years more elegant versions with taller proportions were being made. In general, later Yue wares are more graceful than earlier ones, the glaze becoming progressive less olivey and more jade-like and translucent owing to the use of finer raw materials.
TANG WARES
Some fine white-bodied wares, which led to the production Of true porcelain, were made during the Tang period, and included both glazed and unglazed wares. The glaze on Tang wares is particularly distinctive as it has a bright, glassy appearance. In the low-fired range the most characteristic wares of the period are the sancai (”three colour”) wares, namely earthenware vessels and models made as tomb goods, decorated
with runny lead-fluxed glazes coloured green, chestnut,
amber, cream, and, later, blue. Vessels are typically squat
and rounded, and include jars, vases, and bowls. Decoration was Moulded or painted with spotted designs based on contemporary textile patterns. Figures include tomb guardians (whose faces were often left unglazed and painted with coloured pigments after firing), camels, and horses. Because these wares have been buried for such long periods they are usually relatively undamaged; nevertheless, they can be very reasonably priced.
Principal Chinese dynasties
Shang (c.1600-c.1050 BC) Song (960-1279)
Zhou (c.1050-256 BC) Yuan (1279-1368)
Han (206 BC-AD 220) Ming (1368-1644)
Tang (618-907) Qing 1644-1911
Neolithic wares
• BODY red, grey, or black earthenwareFORMS
• funeral jars, cooking utensils, and ewers
• DECORATION cord-like patterns; bold painted designs
YUE WARES
Grey-bodied stonewares covered with a green-grey glaze were made in the Yue district in northern Zhejiang Province from the 3rd or 4th century AD until the 10th or 11th century, when they Isere superseded by the famous Longquan celadons. Yuc wares are exceptionally fine and were presented as tribute at the Tang court as well as being exported to South-East Asia and the Near East. Early Yue wares include
Yue wares
• BODY stoneware
• FORMS desk ornaments (water droppers, brush rests, etc); “chicken-head” ewers; bowls and jars
• GLAZE green-grey with an olive tinge in early wares
• DI CORATION incised decoration and applied figures
and modelling on desk ornaments and burial urns
Tang sancai wares
• BODY earthenware
• GLAZE lead-fluxed green, amber, brown, cream, blue
• DECORATION Pots re-create woven textile patterns; horses have superbly modelled tack