@ming1449

Thank you Stuart.

I know that you have kindly shown images from your library of Chinese art and I was wondering if you have a book about the Dangyangyu kiln. I have been recommended to check out one of the few books about this kiln and I will be trying to find it in the British Library as the copies being sold in China as quite expensive.

Kind regards,

Jeremy

@jeremy 

Hi Jeremy - 

My apologies but no, unfortunately I do not have a copy of this publication ...

You could try Hanshan Tang books at www.hanshan.com who are based in London and hold quite an extensive stock ...

Warmest regards, 

Stuart 

@ming1449

Thank you Stuart for this suggestion, I will look at their website.

Kind regards,

Jeremy

@jeremy 

Hi Jeremy - 

Another suggestion would be www.purpleculture.net who are based in Hong Kong and also hold an extensive stock of titles ...

Warmest regards, 

Stuart 

@ming1449

Thank you Stuart for your kind help.

I have looked at Purple Culture, as I have purchased books from them, and they do have a book about the Dangyangyu kiln, but it it is not the one which was recommended to me. However, I have also looked at Hanshan after your kind suggestion and it looks like they may sell the book that I am looking for, so I will contact them.

Kind regards,

Jeremy

@ming1449

Hello Stuart

Thank you once again for suggesting Hanshan Tang Books, I have spoken to a very helpful gentleman there today and I have ordered a copy of the book.

Kind regards,

Jeremy

@jeremy

Hi Jeremy,

This page has some good information on the history and rediscovery of the Dangyangyu kilns. It's in Chinese, but the English translation you can get in your web browser is quite readable. I hope it's useful.

@william

Hi William,

I'd love to see some pictures of your oilspot piece, if you have any available. I have a similarly tricky black meiping, parts have that oilspot effect, but it's unusual on a meiping.

@craig 

I will take some photos in the morning.  The pictures are gone from my first posting two years ago, but there is some interesting background information.

Large Oil Spot Vessel : Recent or Old?

Craig, that was very interesting. I struggled to take it all in, not helped by some of the translated terms eg tires, so I will re-read it, but such beautiful pieces they made! 

William, I can't open your link. I will try searching on the phrase, later.

@craig

Hello Craig

Thank you for finding this extremely helpful information. I have been searching Chinese blogs, but I had not seen this one. I notice it mentions that the Dangyangyu kiln made white and black glaze wares which were equivalent in quality to Ding ware, which I am very happy to find out.

I have found the Chinese Art Museum website and although it does not have any Dangyangyu white and black glaze pieces, it does have a couple of persimmon glaze vases from this kiln as well as Ding pieces. They show some excellent images of all of these.

https://www.chineseartsmuseum.com/productinfo/91803.html

Kind regards,

Jeremy 

That is a very useful article for identification of genuine wares - and more beautiful items: the skills of these early artists were exceptional!

@julia @craig

The book which I have ordered is in Chinese and as I will be unable to read it, the article that Craig has kindly found will be very useful and I hope that I can tie up the information with the images in the book.

I have also found an article by Alain R. Truong which shows an image of a Dangyangyu white and persimmon glaze bowl.

Kind regards,

Jeremy 

The Alain R. Truong article I have mentioned which has the image of the Dangyangyu white and persimmon glazed plate at the end of this particular article is,

http://www.alaintruong.com/archives/2016/03/11/33495310.html

I have to admit that I was left wondering about my bowl after the information Mark kindly got for me which stated that Dangyangyu bowls had a taller and splayed foot when compared to Ding bowls, but the article Craig has found states that MOST had this characteristic and so I think that I can safely assume that my bowl with a taller but tapering inwards foot from top to bottom may be one of few that did not have this more typical characteristic. Below is a comparison image of my bowl on the top with a Ding bowl sold by Christie's on the bottom showing the taller, tapering inwards foot.

Kind regards,

Jeremy 

@craig

Hello Craig

This article is proving to provide extremely helpful information, thank you. I have read about Ding ware having a pure white porcelaneous stoneware body, but I see that the article covers the characteristics of the body of Dangyangyu dark glazed ware as well, "Most of Yangyu kiln's fine white body black glaze and sauce glaze products are extremely fine white, with a very high degree of porcelainization, and the glaze color is uniform and stable. Among them, the fine products have surpassed the level of similar products in Ding kiln."

Below are a couple of close up photographs of the unglazed footring of my bowl showing the white porcelain.

Kind regards,

Jeremy 

@jeremy I'm glad it was useful! Please keep us updated as your research progresses.

@william Thanks, I think I remember your oilspot piece from when you first posted it. 

@Julia, Haha I bet you were surprised to learn that Song ceramics were made from tires! That's a mistranslation of the character 胎 . It's actually referring to the clay or paste of the piece, so anytime you see "tire" they really mean "paste/clay". (A third and more common meaning of the character is "fetus". I'm not sure if the connection there is the idea that 'clay is the fetus of ceramics', but imagine your surprise if the mistranslation had gone in that direction!)