Chinese cloisonne - antique vases

Magazine Antiques, Jan, 1999 by Beatrice Quette

The Musee des Arts decoratifs in Paris has one of the world's best collections of Chinese cloisonne made between the beginning of the fifteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries. Cloisonne was first described in China in 1388 by Cao Zhao in his Ge gu yao lun (Essential Criteria of Antiquities):

The base of this ware is of copper, and designs an it are in five colours, made with chemicals and fired. It is similar to the Fo-lang-k'an (enamel ware). I have seen pieces such as incense-burners, flower vases, boxes, and cups, which are appropriate for use [only] in a woman's apartment, and would be quite out of place in a scholar's studio. It is also known as Ware from the Devil's Country (Kuei-kuo yao).(1)

The devil's country comprised the countries situated to the west of China. The technique of making cloisonne was probably imported from Byzantium, reaching China at the end of the fourteenth century. This theory has been reinforced by the technical analysis of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century examples from the museum's collection by the Laboratoire de recherche des musees de France.(2) These tests found that in composition and manufacture the Chinese cloisonne is close to its Byzantine counterpart.

In China the bodies of the vases and tripods were cast of brass in shapes inherited from the Bronze Age, whereas plates, dishes, bowls, and decorative panels were made of sheet brass in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and of copper by the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). The decorative design was drawn on the vessel with ink, and thin metal ribbons were soldered perpendicularly to the surface, following the inked lines. During the Ming dynasty the ribbons were made by hammering sheet metal, which explains their frequently irregular thickness. After the seventeenth century ribbons were make by rolling out the metal between two metal cylinders, which ensured a uniform thickness. The ribbons are always of the same metal as the body and are generally one or two millimeters high. The powdered enamel colors were mixed with water and probably some kind of glue to form a paste that was then used to fill the cells left by the soldered metal ribbons. When the enamel colors had dried, the object was fired in a muffle kiln at 700 to 800 degrees centigrade. This had the effect of reducing the level of the enamels, so the process was repeated until all the cells were full. The resulting irregular surface was polished, leaving a dull sheen, and the exposed metal, including the top edge of the ribbons forming the cells, was gilded.

In the champleve enamel technique practiced in France since the Middle Ages the cells were incised into the body of the piece and filled with enamels. In Chinese cloisonne the champleve technique was used only for marks and the decoration of handles or feet, mainly during the fifteenth century.

According to Cao Zhao, cloisonne enamels were considered too brightly colored to please the scholar aesthete, who found them vulgar and aggressive compared to the matte finish of a simple celadon bowl or a monochromatic ink painting. However, Buddhist temples and imperial palaces had no such reservations and proved to be the main market for the enamels.

The lotus flower, the Buddhist symbol of purity and perfection, is the first design found on Chinese cloisonne of the fifteenth century [ILLUSTRATION FOR PL. II OMITTED]. The oldest date mark found on a cloisonne object is for the Xuande reign (1426-1435), indicating that the piece was ordered for a palace. As the mark is enameled in the champleve technique, it could not have been added later. Also, the decorative styles and shapes are those found during the Xuande reign.

Incised marks that have not been enameled must be treated with caution, for they could have been added at any time. This is particularly true of the Jingtai reign (1450-1457) marks. Jingtai, who had a short and politically difficult reign, could simply not have ordered all the surviving objects that bear this mark. Moreover, the objects so marked are in such varied decorative styles that they cannot all belong to the same seven-year period. It is also sometimes impossible to tell if differences in style are attributable to different workshops, regions, or periods. It is therefore more profitable to consider the evolution of decoration and shapes.

The pan (basin) shown in Plate II illustrates all the characteristics of Chinese cloisonne of the first half of the fifteenth century. The lotus flowers are composed of massive petals of four colors distributed in an arbitrary, not a naturalistic, fashion on the green scroll and a turquoise blue background. The relatively plain design covers the entire surface of the vessel. The lotus is taken from Indian iconography, but the pan form is antique Chinese. The meiping (plum blossom vase) in Plate III shows how the rendering of the lotus had changed by the first half of the seventeenth century. The design is more sophisticated, especially the center of the flower and the shape of the petals. As the lotus is the most frequently found motif on Chinese cloisonne and its evolution is quite well known, it is useful in dating objects.