Want to know the whole 5,000+ year story? Great! You’ll learn it quick. Remember this: It’s one story with two storylines. The first storyline has a plot that you can look and see right away. It’s the physical, the story of clay and glaze and kiln technology. You can see it in the ordered (but otherwise random) list of neolithic to Qing Dynasty pieces below.
TL,DR: The 5,000=year tech plot is earthenware > stoneware > glazed stoneware > underglaze blue > overglaze enamels.
In 5,000 years the bodies went from earthenware to stoneware to porcelain and the surfaces went from incised and cold painted to burnished then lead glazed, iron glazed (white, green, brown and black) then underglaze blue to many colored enamels.
In the broadest possible terms , that’s the Technology Timeline of this 5,000 year story. To understand Chinese ceramics, keep this technology timeline in mind and look at another: the Dynastic Timeline.Chinese ceramics are often organized this way. But for b From these two timelines, you’ll be able to see the whole story, and place many or most pieces you come across in it.
