Elegant of Pottery

3 min read

While painted pottery was popular in the mid and upper reaches of Yellow River, in the lower reaches a special kind of black pottery was prevailing. With a lacquerlike luster and a wall as thin as en eggshell, these black pottery wares are called “eggshe11 black pottery”. Such elegant black pottery is one of the primary cultura characteristics of Neolithic cultures in the region, thrived both in the Dawenkou culture and the Longshan culture.

The arts and crafts of black pottery reached its peak during the Longshan culture period. First of all, the selection of clay underwent a careful process, where only fine clay rich in minerals such as iron and manganese from the alluvia plain of Yellow river basin would be selected for aborative elutriation and fermentation. Wheel-making method was already widely adopted by the time, leading to regulated nishing. As a result of all these elaborate procedures, black pottery wares became very hard with a metal-like lustrous surface. Among all black potteryproducts of Longshan, the”eggshell black pottery”is the supreme. Its exterior wall is generally from 0.5 to 1 centimeter thick, in the thinnest part at mouth rim no more than 0.1 centimeter. The craftsmanship of making black pottery is much more exquisite and unique than that of primitive painted pottery, and in many ways it has reached the height of porcelain producing techniques which would only appear several centuries later.

With unique form, elegant appearance, light body and delicate craft, the eggshe11 black pottery live up to the compliment “as black as lacquer and as thin as a piece of paper”. Different to the intricate colour decorations of painted pottery, black pottery appears natural, simple and elegant, adopting single black colourization with occasional openwork decorations. Such great craftwork indeed reflects the exquisite technique and unique aesthetic taste of that period.

Shapes and even walls. Furthermore, due to the development of kiln techniques, kiln temperature could reach up to 1,000℃. After high-temperature firing, potteries should go through some further processing, such as polishing and bur nishing. As a result of all these elaborate procedures, black pottery wares became very hard with a metal-like lustrous surface. Among all black pottery products of Longshan, the “eggshel1 black pottery”is the supreme. Its exterior wall is generally from 0.5 to 1 centimeter thick, in the thinnest part at mouth rim no more than 0.1 centimeter. The craftsmanship of making black pottery is much more exquisite and unique than that of primitive painted pottery, and in many ways it has reached the height ofporcelain producing techniques which would only appear several centuries later.