Underglaze Copper-Red
The earliest known underglaze copper red ceramics were made in the north-western Chinese province of Shaanxi during the Tang dynasty (618 – 907) and perhaps not uncoincidentally, it was also a starting point of the legendary Silk Road.
The production of underglaze copper-red ceramics continued through the Yuan and Ming dynasties but working with copper oxide as the colouring agent was notoriously difficult.
Firing underglaze copper-red ceramics requires precise heat control, atmospheric conditions and air circulation within the kiln as well as careful preparation of the pigment itself. There was no guarantee of the final colour of the vessels being fired, therefore the success rates of underglaze copper-red ceramics was typically low, hence why pieces today command such high prices.
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1 – M5144
£POAChinese imperial porcelain underglaze blue and copper-red bottle vase with tapered baluster body, chang jing ping, tall cylindrical neck and lipped rim, painted with an open-mouthed three-clawed chilong dragon encircling the body, the scales in underglaze copper-red.
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M5377
£POAChinese porcelain blue and white, underglaze copper-red and celadon brush pot, bitong, painted and carved in a continuous mountain river landscape scene, with a fisherman in his boat moving towards a village and a viewing pavilion nestled amongst the mountains, with elaborate pine tree and wutong and another viewing pavilion on a rocky promontory, beneath clouds and the setting sun, the unglazed base with recessed glazed centre in imitation of a turned-wood brush pot.
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M5395
£POAChinese porcelain blue and white and underglaze copper-red large ovoid jardinière with gently lipped rim, painted in a continuous mountain river landscape scene with a fisherman in his boat and another casting his net from a rocky promontory beside a willow and viewing pavilion, with large pine trees and underglaze copper-red wutong with two other standing scholars looking across the lake amongst rockwork, plants, pavilions all between underglaze blue lines, the base unglazed.
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R1347
£9,850Chinese porcelain blue and white and underglaze copper-red thinly potted shallow bowl, painted on the interior with a central flowering lotus plant with leaves, bud and arrowhead, surrounded by sprays of prunus, lily and chrysanthemum, beneath a single underglaze blue line at the rim, the exterior with two stylised branches beneath two rings at the rim, the base with a six-character mark of Xuande within a single ring.
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M4494
£38,000A Chinese porcelain small tea jar with ovoid body and short flared mouth, painted in underglaze blue and copper-red with two sections divided by double rings, the upper with poem in underglaze blue and seals in copper-red, the lower with flowering plants in copper-red and underglaze blue, the base unglazed.
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M3897
£POAChinese porcelain blue and white and underglaze copper-red basin painted on the interior with a large praying mantis on rockwork, beneath branches of prunus with a butterfly in flight above large leaves painted with a light blue wash, bamboo and daisy, all encircled within a double ring, the cavetto painted with flowering chrysanthemum and peony beneath prunus branches on the flat everted rim, the underside supported by a wide foot rim.
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