Some people call underglaze red the aristocrat of porcelain. However, its birth, experience, and its own temperament and value are more like a chivalrous man who left many legends in the world. It is a rare treasure, and has the twists and turns of retreating and reappearing in the world.
1. What is underglaze red?
The so-called underglaze red refers to porcelain that is decorated or painted with copper red material on the body, covered with transparent glaze, and fired in a high-temperature reduction flame, so that red patterns appear under the glaze.
Underglaze red has strict requirements on the atmosphere in the kiln. Copper must be in a reducing flame atmosphere to show red. If the firing temperature is slightly higher, the red will be burned out. If the temperature is slightly lower, the red will be darker. They are all failures. At a high temperature of 1300 degrees, the allowable temperature difference is only 10 degrees, which means there is not even a 1% difference. Not allowed. Nowadays, it is very easy to control the temperature with thermometers, but in ancient times, kiln workers could only observe and grasp the 10-degree temperature difference with the naked eye. This 1% temperature difference determined the life and death of underglaze red, so the yield of underglaze red was very high. Low, the burning cost is extremely high, and the price is expensive, which is also the reason for the burnout.
2. The development history of underglaze red
The firing of underglaze red began in the Yuan Dynasty, flourished in the early Ming Dynasty, matured in Yongxuan, and became refined in the early Qing Dynasty.
Underglaze red was created and fired in the Yuan Dynasty. It was produced almost at the same time as blue and white or even earlier.
It was popular in the Hongwu period of the early Ming Dynasty. During this period, there were obviously more underglaze red than blue and white. The reason why Hongwu glaze is red: red represents orthodoxy; red represents the color of the south (Zhu Yuanzhang made his fortune in the south); Zhu Yuanzhang’s red finger is red; Hong and Hong are homophonic; Zhu Yuanzhang historically participated in the Red Turban Army. Therefore, we can see today that there are more underglaze red than blue and white during the Hongwu period.
After Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty, Yongle and Xuande followed, that is, the "prosperous age of benevolence and xuande". The trend of favoring red in Hongwu directly affected Yongle and Xuande. Feeling at ease.
After Xuande, ceramics entered a dark period. Underglaze red suddenly disappeared after Xuande, and the firing stopped for about 200 years.
In the Kangxi period of the Qing Dynasty, the underglaze red that had been dormant for many years returned to the world. During the Kangxi period, the national power was significantly enhanced. In the early Kangxi period, the underglaze red often turned black (the temperature should not be too high, and the underglaze red was too high Between the colorless and the blackening at too low temperature, low temperature is mostly chosen).
During the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty, Yongzheng's requirements for porcelain resulted in the underglaze red decoration being painted very finely and lightly, with very fine strokes and no blurring.
In the early Qianlong period, underglaze red had a very high status. Qianlong attached great importance to porcelain, but in the later period of Qianlong's reign, underglaze red was not taken seriously, and it had no breakthrough. With the end of Qianlong's prosperous era, the golden age of underglaze red also ended.
In the late Qing Dynasty, the Xianfeng Dynasty once fired some underglaze red paintings, and the paintings were thinner, but they were not fired again.
The reasons for the decline of underglaze red in the Qing Dynasty: the emergence of other colored porcelain varieties, especially the emergence of pastels, had a strong impact on underglaze red; there were many other red glazes (Langhong in the Kangxi period Glaze, cowpea red; Ji red during the Yongzheng period; coral red and alum red during the Qianlong period); although the underglaze red process is mature, it is still difficult to fire, the cost is still high, and it lacks market competitiveness.
3. The collection value of underglaze red
The small stock and high value of underglaze red are largely due to its difficulty in firing and high scrap rate. In the past, In the collection, the price of underglaze red is much higher than that of blue and white. It has always been 10 times that of blue and white. In 2004, an auction house in San Francisco, USA, auctioned a large plate (48 cm in diameter) from the Hongwu period. The transaction price at that time was 5.7 million. US dollars, setting a world record at the time.
Underglaze red, this rare porcelain variety has become a true aristocrat in porcelain collections with its outstanding and majestic style! There is a hidden beauty! The "blue and white underglaze red" decorated with blue and white usher in the spring of underglaze red. Compared with the elegance of blue and white and the enthusiasm of underglaze red, blue and white underglaze red combines the beauty of both, forming blue and red. The contrast between cold and warm is a harmonious unity of elegance and beauty, forming an elegant yet simple artistic style.
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