This bowl bought was bought by me in Jingdezhen 1991 directly in a street side shopping stall where I understood that porcelain workers could sell pieces they had made themselves 'on the side' so to speak. Pieces of this quality was not offered in any of the dusty state run shops that were all over the place. This bowl was the most complicated and rare design I cold find, still well made and quite decorative. It was originally one out of a set of three with underglaze blue and white decoration on the inside and a different decoration on the outside in combination with an unusual fine 'rice grain' pattern.
The reason for its rarity seems to be easy enough to figure out. The porcelain body is first pierced for the 'rice grain' pattern to appeard. On top of that, it is decorated with underglaze blue decoration both inside and out on a porcelain body just slightly thicker than paper.
The decoration in entirely underglaze blue and white on both sides of the wall, including the mark.
The bowl has been fired upside down (fushao) resting on eight fire supports in the notches of the rim. These slightly dull marks would have ultimately been hidden by a light blue on-glaze enamel border, which in this case has not been added.
The porcelain is extremely thin and in daylight the decoration on one side of the wall is easily seen from the other side, clear through the porcelain. The bowl must be handled with extreme care since it is very fragile.
The production of this kind of porcelain in Jingdezhen is now as far as I know discontinued due to its high cost and extreme fragility.
Mark: Zhong Yi Factory, Jingdezhen, Zhong Guo (China)
Size Diameter at rim c. 7 inch/18 cm
The Chinese scholars have it that this work was pioneered at the Hongzhou kilns around Luohu, Fengcheng, Jiangxi province, during the Sui and Tang dynasties.
"In the Yongle reign of the Ming, extremely fine porcelains with the 'ling long' decorations was made in the Imperial kilns. After the Qianlong reign of the Qing dynasty both the Imperial and the folk kilns manufactured such wares."
Openwork porcelain also exists half and fully pierced in export porcelain from the later part of the Ming dynasty.
Influences regarding this technique also seems to have come to China from Turkey during the 14th century. The openwork "rice grain" technique seems never to entirely have been abandoned even if it at times was rare. Sometimes the openings was left unfilled, which resulted in a wicker work appearance.
This open work was called ling long yan (eye-like openwork) or 'devil's work'. In the west the popular name of the modern version is rice grain porcelain.
To make this kind of decoration the holes are pierced through the rather thick walls of the rough and unfired porcelain and the holes are then filled with translucent glaze. When the whole thing have solidified together the walls are thinned down manually in thickness until the walls are as thin as the potter dares to make them.
The highly skilled potters, who in the 1990s at least when I was visiting a factory for this kind of porcelain in Jingdezhen, were young women - were judging the thickness of the walls and the work progress, by the sound of the paring knife against the unfired clay when then manually pared down the thickness of the walls after glazing and drying.
Up until the end of the 1990s "rice grain" porcelain was common, since it was much appreciated and could be bought over the counter in most Asian food and porcelain stores all over the world. The last years products do not differ much from earlier product beside that they might be made with slightly more machines and that part of their decoration might be stamped, but all in all there are not much there to help you see a difference in the pieces from any time during the entire 20th century.
After the state subsides of the government controlled Chinese porcelain industry was reduced, the production of the costly eggshell porcelain seems to have been greatly reduced.
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