Featured HUGE asain vase

I have bought this piece for 150 euro without knowing how big it realy was untill the people delivered it. Would like to know from which country it is and how old. The dragon has 4 claws.

 

It probably be good to see the bottom, but you may have to get a crane to lift that thing!

Is that a regular-sized desk it's sitting next to?!

 

impossible to move it, and next to it is a bedside table, 103 cm high is the vase.

 

the inside is unglazed but can't see if it is hand turned or cast in one piece.

 

I don’t know what Asian country this was from but I can show you a little on how they are made.

this is a factory in Jingdezhen, China ATM they are making blue and white.

these would crush your desk they are made sections two or 3 craftsman will stack the sections dry attaching the pieces with slip once assembled they get a final trim. In these you can see where they were joined. depending on size 2 or 3 potters work together making each section.

 

WOW even bigger, that will not fit in my tiny house

 

IIRC, that style of flaming pearl looks like a Tibetan style. I forget about the number of dragon toes, but this isn't Japanese. @Any Jewelry may be able to enlighten us further!

 

could be vietnamese Bien Hoa

 

I LOVE those giant blue and white vases ! Oh to have a house big enough to put those in !

 

found a same one and it is chinese 1850-1900 according the site of caroussel

 

well again proven you can´t rely on the information on the internet. It turnes out that the info i posted about the dragon motif is not correct and was just thought up by the seller to make more money. So please if anyone knows more about this jar would love to hear it.

 

here is the bottom and a closeup

 

can you make more out of it now you have seen the bottom. nobody seems to know the age and origin so it seems???

 

Sorry to say, I can't! I was hoping there were more 'clues' on the bottom.

 

I don’t know if viewing it this way provides any help, other than the lighting is the unglazed portion the same color inside and out, any build up from dust and dirt settling inside through the open top.

it looks like the inside glaze is applied by brush, I’m curious why they chose to leave the inside bottom largely unglazed, there must be some reason to do that because why not unless there is something structural I’ve never had issues one way or the other and it doesn’t look like other ware was fired on a stilt inside, just the way they glaze I guess? I notice a small crack running along the bottom that looks to have happened during the firing.

Im sorry probably none of this information is helpful but I do wish you luck in the search for answers.

 

Well your not far off, but the bottom of the jar has a more orange color where the inside is a bisquit color and is indeed unglazed. But the splashes you see on the inside are drippings from the glazing of the neck portion and indeed very strange to glaze the inside of the neck but not the whole inside especialy if the vase or jar was for storing liquids or food. The is indeed a crack in the bottom from the firering process and filled up with a sort of pink paste.

 

OK, so the inside for the most part is unglazed, that makes more sense to me and how I’d do it myself, the picture looks like the inside is glazed to the bottom. My guess it was never intended to hold anything it is a beautiful large decorative vase. As far as age this I’m only guessing but not to old possibly from a container full of ceramic pieces made to export but could as easily have been for domestic consumption. I don’t see where the bottom shows signs of years of sliding it around due to the weight of picking it up and no trace of grime build up from years of dust and oils inside.

but guesses from photo observations only, a better understanding of the raw materials would be more conclusive unfortunately I’m just speculating.

 

The crack is a stress crack it runs across the bottom, opposed to a spiral from the center (thrown in a circle stress follow in a circle) this suggests to me the walls were thrown without a bottom and the bottom was rolled out flat and attached (stress follow the direction the clay is stretched and the inversion pulls them back in the other direction. The clay body shrinks around 15% during the drying and firing process and around red heat there is a phase in the firing called the quartz inversion this occurs theoretically around 570c where an abrupt change in the volume of quartz crystals abruptly change in size this is and important time to carefully control the firing to slow the process and reduce thermal shock. Sometimes the crack happens because too much water is used and the clay particles are not compressed enough.

the crack is also occurring while the clay body is soft from the heat when the crack happens from from cooling to quickly the crack travels through both sides in the brittle ceramics.

the difference in clay body color is likely due to some small amount of residual glaze on the bottom. As glaze was applied this runny glaze had probably run down to the foot area and after glazing and before firing the excess glaze was removed with a wet sponge leaving a trace of glaze on the surface the inside only has drips. That orangish color probably is from the residual glaze.