Korean ceramics

Korean ceramic history begins with the oldest earthenware from around 8000 BC.

Imaed Silla period (668–935) pottery was simple in colour, shape, and design. Celadon was subsequently the main production, with white porcelain or Baekja developing slowly in the 14th century, when the pace accelerated with new glazes, better clays, and variations of the white of different clays.

Simultaneously, the Buddhist traditions demanded celadon-glazed wares, and cheongja pieces of celadon porcelain with more organic shapes drawing on gourds, with animal and bird motifs that evolved very quickly. In some ways these were over-decorated wares, using exaggerated forms, stylized repeating designs and a wide variety of organic patterns. Cheongja wares used refined clays with a bit of iron powder added, then a glaze with a bit of added iron powder added once again, then fired. The glaze was durable with a slightly shinier and glossier finish, in an oily way, than whitewares.

Baekja wares came from highly refined white clay, glazed with feldspar, and fired in large regulated and clean kilns. Despite the refining process, white glazes invariably vary as a result of the properties of the clay itself; firing methods were not uniform, temperatures varied and glazes on pieces vary from pure white, in an almost snowy thickness, through milky white that shows the clay beneath deliberately in washed glaze, to light blue and light yellow patinas. After having succeeded the tradition of Goryeo baekja, soft white porcelain was produced in Joseon Dynasty, that carried on, but from the mid-Joseon on hard white porcelain became the mainstream porcelain.

The baekja wares reached their zenith immediately before the Joseon Dynasty came to power. Fine pieces have recently been found in the area around Wolchil Peak near Mount Kumgang. The transitional wares of white became expressions of the Joseon Dynasty celebrations of victory in many pieces decorated with Korean calligraphy. Traditionally white wares were used by both the scholarly Confucian class, the nobility and royalty on more formal occasions.

The Goryeo Dynasty (918–1392) achieved the unification of the Later Three Kingdoms under King Taejo. The works of this period are considered to be the finest small-scale works of ceramics in Korean history.

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Wikipedia