Chinese Pots

The Chinese were the first civilization to make ceramic pots. The earliest known pot has been dated back to 18,000 B.C. Commonly used for ceremonial purposes, Chinese peoples made these pottery vessels throughout the Neolithic period using clay found on the banks of the Yangtze River. The earliest ceramic Chinese pottery took on crude forms and was decorated with geometric patterns.

Pottery later evolved into painted funerary items made by shaping stacked coils to create a vessel shape. By late Neolithic period, the Chinese had mastered the art of molding clay into eggshell thin goblets. By 1600 B.C., during the Shang Dynasty, the Chinese had developed methods of firing clay pots at high temperatures, and had developed their first glazing techniques.

Yixing violet sand pottery was the most popular of all types of pottery methods particularly among scholars in Song Dynasty China and 17th century Europeans. Materials for yixing clay are found deep underground and processed to make pots in an extremely complicated process that is rarely shared outside of the trade. By mixing the violet sand with a variety of other mediums, the resulting item could come in several different colors ranging from an earthy chestnut to azure, red, or gray.

Quick Facts

• Nixing pottery, known for its extremely smooth, polishable surface, is known for its resistance to acids and bases, and it’s ability to preserve the freshness of its contents for lengthy periods of time
• Jianshui purple pottery, the result of purple clay mixed with various colors of mud, is not only known for its rigidity and smooth luster, but also for the sound it creates – when tapped, it sounds like bronze
• Most of the earliest clay pots in China were created by stacking coils of clay which were then fired into a rigid shape in bonfires