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Myanmar
Pottery
China
Ceramic
Celadon..
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Blue & white
porcelain, Myanmar pottery, pottery,
porcelain, Chinese porcelain, China porcelain, stoneware, china
ceramic, antique bowl, celadon.
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- The use of pots
and other earthen-ware containers for
cooking and table-ware originated about 5000
years ago.
Pots or pottery
were used in Myanmar for storage of foods
such as fermented fish or ngapi, fermented
fish sauce or nganpyaryay, cooking oil and
water. Prior to that Myanmars used bamboo
joints, leaves and stone cups. Indigo powder
was applied to earthen basins and bowls and
these blue-tinged and striped tableware
items were affordable only by the wealthy. Earthen-ware pots
are used for for boiling water, offering water at shrines
and pagodas, for waterpot stands, for dipping eugenia sprigs
in water at thingyan, for pouring water at the kason bodhi
tree, water festival and other festive
occasions at monasteries and shrines. At Twantay, a town just 24
kilometres from Yangon ' reachable by road in an hour or by
boat in about two hours on the Twantay Canal ' there are
over fifty pottery works.
Over time
more earthenware and pottery was also
imported from China, in particular blue &
white porcelain and celadon ceramics. All
other ceramic bowl, pots, jars and vessels
were produced locally as you can see at the
pictures below showing the
Twantay Pottery Village were all kind of earthenware
is made since more than 2 hundred years ago
in the traditional kilns. Further below you
can read about antique Chinese porcelain and
Chinese and Thailand Celadon recovered from
shipwrecks in the South China Sea and the
strait of Malacca.
- Traditional eating utensils
in Myanmar included lacquered
round wooden or split bamboo
trays called wobyatwaing, circular trays on a stand used for
serving meals, called daunglan, earthen bowls or basins
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myayzalone and glazed earthen basins called
aindonsintthoke. Although today, steel, aluminium, brass and
bronze pots are popular throughout the world, about 85% of
Myanmars still use earthen-ware pots for cooking. They
believe cooking in earthen-ware makes rice tastier and more
aromatic and meat more tender and sweet.The poor had to be
content with lacquered, interwoven bamboo strip
containers, trays and unglazed earthen pots, covers and
plates. Later on circular teak salvers, |
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lacquered or painted with
vermilion were developed but again only the wealthy
could afford them, the solution for everyone is a
pottery product such as a pottery jar, pottery pots
and other stoneware.
How to make
terracotta pottery
has been
handed down from generation to generation in Myanmar and is
still carried on in the time honored tradition. Twantay pottery is recognized and distributed
throughout Myanmar. Thousands of water pots, flower
pots, basins, jars of from 5 to 25 viss (Myanmar
volume unit) capacity are produced daily. The pottery building
itself is constructed using a frame of bamboo posts,
woven palm leave mat walling and beaten earth
flooring.
A simple wooden potter's
wheel is made of pyinkado, jackfruit or any other
hardwood. The potters wheel consists of a circular
wooden base 5 centimeters thick and from 94
centimeters to 91 centimeters in diameter depending
upon the size of the pot to be molded.
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Twantay terracotta pottery water pots, flower pots , basins,
jars. |
Pottery Painting |
Clay of the right
consistency and quality is obtained along the canal
bank. Clay diggers and suppliers do a thriving trade
supplying potters with basic raw material. Another
ingredient is earth of the right quality, obtained
from leased plots of land on the outskirts of the
town. The earth is dug and carted to the production
site. This earth for
pottery has to be pounded, crushed and
thieved to get the required particle size. Then, it
is mixed with the clay in the appropriate ratio ,
water is added and the mix is left overnight. The
next morning further kneading is done by trampling
on this earth\clay\water combination until it has
been evenly mixed.
Two persons, a master and an assistant do the pottery making, operate the potter's wheel
and after pottery painting is done.
The size of the clay pieces is adjusted to the size
of the pot to be made. The piece of clay is placed
on the wheel and with his assistant turning the
wheel by hand or foot, the master potter uses both
hands to shape and mould the ball of clay on the
rotating wheel.
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The potter uses the hoop and the
oyster shell in producing the desired shape. A
rectangular piece of wood 20 centimeters to 30
centimeters by 15 centimeters to 25 centimeters, is
placed on top and the two are attached by a wooden
spindle or shaft running through the centre of the
two wooden pieces. This constitutes the only
equipment made up of more than a single part. The
only instruments required for pottery making are an
aluminum hoop, 2 centimeters wide and 13
centimeters in diameter; a lethnee, literally a pot
holder made of some textile material, an oyster
shell and a pointed wooden spoke for pottery. |
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The pot-holder cloth is used to even out and
smooth the surfaces and to pull the clay up
and out to make the rim of the pot uniform.
Finally, the |
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wooden spoke is used to detach the base so that the
pot can be lifted out and the pottery is air dried. A brick lined kiln is
the major component of the pottery works.
The kiln, a brick
line kiln here, has to be heated for up to 5
days to prepare for baking. Pots are arranged in the
kiln , firewood stocked in and lighted. The door of
the kiln is closed with bricks and the baking process continues for
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Brick lined pottery
kilns for pottery ware
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Pottery is air dried |
another two days at
increasing intensity temperature. Three days later the
burnt charcoal and the embers are removed from
the kiln and the door is partially opened by
displacing a few layers of bricks. On the 4th day
the door is completely opened and the baked pots are
taken out 8 days later. In total the process takes
22 days.
After the pottery is dry,
usually a three day process in the dry season and 10
days during the wet season, pottery glazes are
applied using a compound of fine canal
earth and lead slag. Not all pots are glazed. The
final glazed terra cotta pottery is loaded and
shipped throughout the country. All this is handmade
pottery usually with some pottery painting. There is also garden
pottery with pretty native designs. All this is
pottery for sale as wholesale pottery.
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The
earthenware
wasn't glazed all the time since it
needed a high, sustained temperature that is
required in order to get pottery glazed. It
took probably two thousand years or so
before kilns were created to allow pottery
producer to control the temperatures of the
fire, reach the desired temperature and
keeping the temperature over the required
timeframe.
It seems that
early Chinese pottery producer were
successful on this technological front of
pottery glazing.
Several hundred years later this finally
resulted in a process to produce antique
oriental porcelain finally known as blue &
white porcelain from China. Pottery probably
started as an Asian art not only in China,
there are traces of ancient pottery
practically in every part of the world, the
Chinese probably were the first to refine
the technology to produce the real good
stuff. Today we have Asian antiques made
from porcelain, Asian pottery such as
terracotta flower pots, terra cotta pottery,
ceramic art, vases, bowls, figurines and
hundreds of other items of stoneware. |
Stoneware |
- Chinese
Porcelain, Celadon and Pottery
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Antique Chinese blue & white
porcelain plus celadon is a
other subject, admired for ages
years and always kept in a high
value in particular when the Chinese
started to export their blue & white
porcelain. This was the real antique
oriental porcelain and was one of
the export highlight of China until
recent days. Blue & white porcelain
plus normal pottery and celadon
ceramics found in sunken ships
mainly in the South China Sea and in
the sea between Malaysia and
Indonesia have a very high value.
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Sunken treasure ships with ceramics
and porcelain |
Several sunken treasure ships
with ceramics and porcelain were
recovered, among them Chinese Junks,
Dutch Sailing Ships, English Trading
Ships and several Portuguese Sailing
Ships which sunk for various reasons
such as storm and attracts of
pirates. Almost all trading ships at
that time on that route carried high
priced blue & white porcelain, green
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celadon
and all kind of pottery and
earthenware. Even today after
hundreds of years laying in the
ocean they
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show
intricate and amazing beauty as
well. The celadon in the ships was
not only from China, also pottery
and |
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Antique
Chinese blue & white porcelain from a sunken
treasure ship.
Antique Green
Celadon pottery from a sunken treasure ship |
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celadon
from Old Siam and Vietnam was carried for
trading. The celadon pottery was of
exceptional quality. |
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Blue & white
porcelain with fine artistic texture
great glaze colors and various styles have
fascinated the people in Asia and Europe for
centuries. China porcelain was what the rich
wanted. Various European Kings and Queens
commissioned fine Chinese |
Antique blue & white porcelain
Chinese porcelain |
Antique blue & white porcelain China
porcelain |
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Antique Chinese Porcelain from a sunken
vessel 15. Century
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Chinese Porcelain Celadon pottery China vase
antique oriental |
Blue & white porcelain 16. Century
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porcelain for
the royal court, the blue & white porcelain
or simple China porcelain was sometimes
manufactured together with gold as unique
and very valuable gifts for royal households
in Europe.
The forms and
styles of the pottery in the sunken
trading vessels included bowls, cups, vases,
boxes, figurines and various other shape and
forms such as Chinese antiques in form of
porcelain Buddha Statues, Chinese blue white
and other China ceramic.
There was
antique oriental porcelain, china
ceramic, ceramic jars other pottery and
porcelain, blue & white porcelain,
antique bowl, China ceramic tableware and plenty of wholesale
pottery and stoneware. The pottery kilns of Jing de Zhen in China, at Singburi in
Thailand and elsewhere were very productive
over hundreds of years. They also produced
large quantities of celadon. Myanmar pottery has
no record of a bigger export business,
earthenware, glazed tiles, pots, jars and
other vessels were only used domestically.
The antique ceramic and porcelain items
pictured here and more are in the
Shipwreck Treasure
exhibition at the
Kuala Lumpur Marine
Archeological Museum.
Today probably the most attractive
celadon pottery, table ware and art
objects are made in Thailand in particular
in northern Thailand with focus on Chiang
Mai is one of the premier manufacturing
place for celadon in the case naturally Thai
celadon. It's a modern fusion of Thai art,
oriental decor and oriental design always
with an eye on practical use. E.g. have a
look at the celadon pottery items pictured
right. The ceramic items look excellent and
fulfill a purpose, that's the best possible
fusion of art pottery and Thai celadon.
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Blue & white porcelain from an old
Chinese merchant junk sunk south
China Sea |
China Porcelain Antique recovered
from a sunken vessel
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China ceramic 16. Century from a
sunken vessel |
Antique Bowl from a sunken ship
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Celadon |
Celadon Antique Bowl |
Celadon Tableware and other items
manufactured at Chiang Mai Thailand |
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all at e-books
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Myanmar
Pottery
China
Ceramic
Celadon..
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