Galerie Golconda

A very fine pair of fine Quinbaï cups with multi-lobed rims shaped like a blossoming lotus petal made of a porcelain. The porcelain is white and very thin due to its fine texture and is covered in a translucent monochromic bluish celadon glaze of a ferrous light green, typical of celadon. A more rough support base show traces of patina in a rust colour due to contact with a metal. 
The porcelain is made of white clay, the kaolin (name given to a clay extracted from the Gaolin hill), a feldspar composed of mica and quartz fired at a high temperature (1350°C.) thus obtaining a material with the same hardness as iron on the Mohs scale. Porcelain was invented by Chinese people. The word Qingbai, meaning “bluish-white”, designates the porcelains made in southern China.
The Song period saw the development of a very sophisticated ceramic that combines in perfect manner the shape, the potter’s techniques, the glaze and the firing methods to the point of excellence. The Songs liked simple and pure forms with monochrome glaze going from blue to light green and including all the tones of grey and blue. The goal was to reproduce both the hues of the sky and of jade, the most precious matter of all. Some of these objects were already worth so much during the Song period that they were used in trade and even to pay taxes to the imperial court.