Title	Small plate
Description	Stoneware, Dia. 5 3/8". Chinese ceramics are far better understood than Southeast Asian wares because careful excavations and the imperial records of the kilns of Jingdezhen, which began producing ceramics in the Tang dynasty, have provided a clearer chronology of Chinese wares. Although the ceramics of the imperial kilns differ from wares made specifically for export, the stylistic development of the two types share enough traits so that the one informs the other. The Chinese wares produced with underglaze blue range from folkish kitchen ware to sophisticated imperial porcelains. Variations in color from grey to a vivid blue depend on the source of the cobalt. Local Chinese cobalt, discovered in the fifteenth century, has a high content of manganese, which causes the blue to tend toward a pale grey, while the high iron and low manganese content of the imported Middle Eastern cobalt creates an intense blue. Yuan (fourteenth century) blue-and-white wares have been discovered in insular Southeast Asia, but it was during the Ming dynasty that the quantity of blue-and-white exports increased greatly. These small plates are glazed in underglaze blue that is painted freely in plant-like motif. The base is glazed and has an underglaze blue marking that may indicate the potter. Chinese wares can be distinguished from Thai by the clay body, and by the fact glaze is often painted on the base and over the footring.
Country	China
Historical Period	China - Qing Dynasty 1644 - 1911
Date of Content	17th-18th century
IDEAS Topic	Arts Arts-Ceramics
Type	Still image
Format	Image/jpg
Date Photographed/Recorded	10/30/2007
Permissions	Materials may be used for educational, non-commercial purposes only. Acknowledgement to be given to the ASIANetwork-Luce Asian Art in the Undergraduate Curriculum Project and to the college from whose collection the work comes. The individual college retains copyright to the work.
IDEAS Collection	ASIANetwork-Luce Asian Art in the Undergraduate Curriculum Project
Institution Name	Lake Forest College
IDEAS Identifier	soclaa000760
Collection Editor	Kucera, Karil
Image preparator	Sonnichsen, Amy