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Sweet-White Porcelain: Tianbai vs. Qingbai
A clear guide to sweet-white porcelain, historical tianbai, qingbai and the questions to ask when choosing modern white ware.
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Essays on Jingdezhen, ceramic history, glaze, care and the everyday rituals that give porcelain meaning.
Hare’s-Fur Glaze: Jian Ware and Modern Tea Bowls
Learn what hare’s-fur glaze is, where Jian ware began, how the streaks form, and how to assess a modern tea bowl honestly.
Read essayGongfu Tea: A Beginner’s Guide to Essential Teaware
A practical guide to gongfu tea: the essential vessels, how to choose porcelain teaware, and what a beginner can leave out.
Read essayCeladon, Qingbai, and the Colors That Took a Thousand Years
Before color came from a catalog, it came from fire. The story of porcelain's great glazes — celadon, qingbai, and the blue-tinged whites of Jingdezhen — and why...
Read essayBlue and White for the Modern Table: A Styling Guide
Blue-and-white porcelain has a grandmother problem — and it's entirely fixable. How to set a table with the world's oldest color scheme and make it look like this...
Read essayWhite as Jade, Thin as Paper: The Four Ancient Tests of Great Porcelain
Centuries before ISO standards, Jingdezhen judged porcelain by four sensory tests: white as jade, bright as a mirror, thin as paper, resonant as a chime. Each one is...
Read essayJingdezhen Today: A Living City of Potters
Jingdezhen is not only a historic kiln centre. It remains a working ceramic city of studios, specialist workshops, shared kilns, markets and new generations of makers.
Read essayThe Two Letters That Explained Jingdezhen to Europe
In 1712 and 1722, the Jesuit François Xavier d'Entrecolles wrote detailed accounts of porcelain production around Jingdezhen. Here is what those letters explained — and what they could...
Read essayPorcelain vs. Ceramic vs. Bone China vs. Stoneware: What Actually Matters
Porcelain, ceramic, bone china, stoneware — the labels get used interchangeably, and they shouldn't be. Here's what each one actually is, and two 10-second tests you can do...
Read essayThe Kiln Letter
New pieces, considered slowly
New arrivals from the kiln, notes on Chinese porcelain, and a closer look at new pieces. A few letters a year — never more.