Longquan celadon: Song dynasty celadon from Zhejiang
Longquan celadon is the green-glazed stoneware of Zhejiang province, and in the Song dynasty it was the finest celadon China made. This guide explains the kilns, the glaze, and the motifs, including the twin fish on the dish we have for sale.
The Longquan kilns
Longquan is a county in the mountains of southern Zhejiang, and its kilns fired celadon from the Northern Song through the Ming. At their height in the Southern Song, the best Longquan workshops made a thick, unctuous glaze the colour of jade, applied in several coats over a grey stoneware body. The glaze is so thick that it can look almost soft, and where it pools in carved or moulded decoration it turns a deeper green.
The glaze
What collectors look for in Longquan is the glaze: even, deep, and with the slightly blue-green tone that the Song potters achieved by firing in reduction. Later Longquan, and the many copies made since, often look either too grey or too bright a green. The dish below has the soft, jade-like glaze of the Southern Song, with the moulded twin fish in the centre showing through it clearly.
Twin fish and other motifs
Longquan dishes were often moulded with designs in the centre: twin fish, lotus, peonies, pressed into the clay before glazing. Twin fish symbolise abundance and marital harmony, and the motif was popular for centuries. Because the designs were moulded, not painted, they are always slightly soft under the thick glaze, which is part of their charm and one of the things that separates genuine Song pieces from later, sharper copies.
Buying Longquan celadon
Song Longquan is collected worldwide, and good pieces are not cheap, but small dishes like ours, at $4,100, are an accessible way in. Check the glaze first, then the foot: Song pieces have a neatly finished, unglazed foot ring, often with a brownish wash from the firing. Old firing flaws, small glaze flakes and tiny kiln grit stuck in the glaze, are normal. We describe the condition of every piece in full, including the small glaze flake on the rim of our dish.
