Gongfu Tea Gift Set - Rare Azure Glaze Ru Porcelain

$99.95

Rare Art Treasure - Crazing Ru Ware Gift Set

Ru Ware was once only for imparial use in ancient China, the Ru kilns were near the Northern Song capital at Kaifeng. In similar fashion to Longquan celadons, Ru pieces have small amounts of iron oxide in their glaze that oxidize and turn greenish when fired in a reducing atmosphere. Ru wares range in colour—from nearly white to a deep robin's egg—and often are covered with reddish-brown crackles. The crackles, or "crazing", are caused when the glaze cools and contracts faster than the body, thus having to stretch and ultimately to split. The art historian James Watt comments that the Song dynasty was the first period that viewed crazing as a merit rather than a defect. Moreover, as time went on, the bodies got thinner and thinner, while glazes got thicker, until by the end of the Southern Song the 'green-glaze' was thicker than the body, making it extremely 'fleshy' rather than 'bony,' to use the traditional analogy, the glaze tends to drip and pool slightly, leaving it thinner at the top, where the clay peeps through.

Ru porcelain can be divided into several types based on glazing color: sky blue glaze, azure glaze, bluish white glaze, pea green glaze and egg white glaze. This set is a typical example of azure glaze Ru ware.

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