Longquan ware is the ceramic that comes to mind most readily when Chinese “celadons” are mentioned in the West. They are famed for their jade-like hues which range from blue-green to sea-green to olive to a rare powder blue resembling the color of Jun ware. Of these, the most prized is blue-green, known by the Chinese as “plum-green” and by Japanese connoisseurs as “Kinuta”; its fame surpassed even the legendary Mise or “secret color” ware of the Tang dynasty (618-907AD).

Originating from Longquan county in southern Zhejiang province, Longquan ware had its heyday in the Song dynasty (960-1279AD), and continued in some form at least until the end of the Ming, although its official demise was said to have occurred in 1751. Production was vast and quality varied. Over a hundred kilns producing this pottery have been discovered in Longquan county alone, and one of the largest had the capacity to fire 25,000 pieces at any one time. In addition, many more kilns existed all over Zhejiang, and Longquan-like product has been excavated from Song dynasty kiln-sites in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Jiangxi.

The Longquan kilns began operating during the Five Dynasties period (907-960AD), producing brown and black wares as well as celadons, which were first made in imitation of the neighboring Yueh ware. These “Dragon kilns”, able to achieve very high temperatures, were wood-fired, snaking uphill for 100 meters or more, and were responsible for massive deforestation in the south. By the 10^th century, Longquan had superceded Yuehzhou as the primary production center in the province, and celadons became its primary concern in the quest to emulate the appearance and spirit of jade in response to contemporary scholar-official taste.

The fine-grained, compact, Longquan body is almost pure Petuntse (one of the two clays used to make Chinese porcelain, the other being Kaolin). Iron in the body gives it a greyish tint, which burns to an orangey-brown where it is not covered by glaze. The firing temperature of 1200’C qualifies this as a “porcelainous stoneware” in the West as it is neither pure white nor translucent, even though it comes under the category of “Ci” (Chinese porcelain) in China. The glaze is a “Lime-alkali glaze”, descendent of the Yueh ware ash-glazes, containing both lime (in the form of wood-ash) and potassia (an alkali) as fluxes (substances which lower the melting point, so allowing silica in the glaze to vitrify). This is applied directly to the “raw”, unfired vessel, probably in several repeated applications in order to produce the characteristic depth and thickness of Longquan glazes. A 1-3% iron content in the glaze, fired in a reducing atmosphere, provides the green celadon hues. Deliberate under-firing allows crystals to form in the glaze, and prevents the thousands of tiny bubbles from rising to the surface (as they do in glazes fired to a temperature which allows them to “mature”). This leads to a lack of transparency, but also to the wonderful silky translucence that is much admired. The ideal Longquan glaze is not crackled, although it appears that some rather rare pieces of archaic shape from the Southern Song period had a deliberate crackle induced. These were likely the ancestors of the crackled Guan ware.

Usually undecorated, many types of decorative motif can nevertheless be found in the ornamental repertoire of Longquan ceramics. These include combing, wave patterns, cloud scrolls, banana leaves, lotus scrolls, chrysanthemum, prunus, peony, fishes, birds, and children. Dark iron-brown splashes were brushed onto some vessels during the Yuan dynasty to create a group named the “Spotted celadons”, a decorative technique in common with the concurrent Yingqing ware.

Early shapes followed on from those of Yueh ware, the commonest items being cups, bowls, vases, bottles, and the like. Tripod censers, and censers with straight sides were made throughout the period of Longquan production. When the Song court moved their capital to Hangzhou in northern Zhejiang at the beginning of the Southern Song period (11127-1279AD), production at the Longquan kilns expanded vastly, and the ware reached its apogee. One group of particularly elegant and thinly potted vessels possessed of a dark body has been labeled “Guan type” Longquan (Guan meaning “official”). Longquan ware was also developed based on archaic shapes (such as the jade “Cong”, a Neolithic tube of square section with a round hole said to represent communication between heaven (round) and earth (square)) in response to the antiquarian taste of the court.

Quality was pretty much maintained during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368AD), with a predilection for larger, heavily potted pieces, in parallel with developments in blue and white porcelain. Some bowls were so large that a hole had to be cut in the bottom to allow for expansion and contraction during firing. A glazed medallion was floated on top to close the hole, this medallion bonding as the piece cooled. Glaze color tended towards olive, with the loss of the celebrated “plum green”. Decoration was also much more evident in response to Mongol taste, applied to the surface by incision, carving, underglaze relief, or a combination of several of these techniques. One particularly Yuan piece is the large dragon dish with a central unglazed dragon. This dragon was first stamp-moulded, then applied on top of a glazed dish, bonding to the surface when the piece was fired. The unglazed dragon burnt brick-red, a striking contrast to the glossy green of the rest of the vessel.

Due to the rising taste for porcelain decorated with underglaze blue and overglaze enamels in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644AD), the less flamboyant Longquan wares fell out of favor during the early fifteenth century in spite of efforts to reinvigorate interest by introducing incised floral patterns in emulation of blue and white ware. Quality gradually declined, so that by the Qing dynasty, the Longquan kilns which still survived were only producing coarse, everyday ware for local consumption.

Thus ended one of the great traditions of Chinese ceramics, a ware which was widely exported and much admired before its eclipse by the products from the kilns of Jingdezhen.