Chinese pottery: Chinese clay art, Chinese porcelain, Chinese ceramics, Chinese influences on Islamic pottery, Blue and white porcelain, Kraak porcelain, Celadon, Blanc de Chine, Chinese export porcelain, Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, Yixing clay

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 59. Chapters: Chinese clay art, Chinese porcelain, Chinese ceramics, Chinese influences on Islamic pottery, Blue and white porcelain, Kraak porcelain, Celadon, Blanc de Chine, Chinese export porcelain, Porcelain Tower of Nanjing, Yixing clay, Tiger Cave Kiln, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art, Chinese porcelain in European painting, Sancai, Jingdezhen ware, Yue ware, Longquan celadon, Qingbai ware, Fonthill Vase, Ding, Jun ware, Chinese Tongzhi ceramics, Proto-celadon, Hunping, Kangxi transitional porcelain, Clay Figure Zhang, Ming presentation porcelain, Swatow ware, Tenkei blue-and-white ware, Meiyintang collection, David Sanctuary Howard, Ding ware, Gong, Green-glazed pottery, Zun, Truxton Bowl, Shiwan Ware, An hua, Cizhou ware, Yaozhou Kiln, Yingqing ware, Cochin ware, Canton porcelain. Excerpt: Chinese ceramic ware shows a continuous development since the pre-dynastic periods, and is one of the most significant forms of Chinese art. China is richly endowed with the raw materials needed for making ceramics. The first types of ceramics were made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese Ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court. China had a monopoly on porcelain production until relatively recently, and porcelain is also often called "china" in English. A qingbai porcelain vase, bowl, and model of a granary with transparent blue-toned glaze, from the period of the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).Porcelain "it is a collective term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent, no matter what ingredients are used to make it or to what use it is put." The Chinese tradition recognizes two primary categories of ceramics, high-fired and low-fired . The oldest Chinese dictionaries define porcelain as "fine, compact pottery" . Chinese ceramic wares can also classified as being either northern or southern. Present-day China comprises two separate and geologically different land masses, brought together by the action of continental drift and forming a junction that lies between the Yellow river and the Yangtze river. The contrasting geology of the north and south led to differences in the raw materials available for making ceramics. Chinese porcelain is mainly made by a combination of the following materials: A black pottery cooking cauldron from the Hemudu culture (c. 5000 ¿ c. 3000 BC) In the context of Chinese ceramics the term porcelain lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made. Claims have been made for the late Eastern Han period (100 to 200 AD), the Three Kingdoms period (220 to 280 AD), the Six Dynasties period (220 to 589