Bowl with paired dragons decoration in sweet-white glaze, Ming dynasty, Yongle reign (1403-1424)-China Archive

Image Number: K1B002699N000000000PAD
Dynasty: Ming dynasty
Category: Ceramics
Function: Container
Material: Minerals/Ceramics/
Description:
The mouth of the small bowl is slightly extravagant, with deep walls and short legs. The embryo is delicate and white, semi bodiless, and weighs less than 50g. The whole body is covered with white and warm glaze, and the body is exposed only at the foot landing place. The inner wall of the body is tapered and arched with double dragons. In the center of the bowl is carved a double line four character seal script of “Yongle Year”, with a single circle. The white glazed porcelain of the Yongle period has a fine white body, warm glaze, and soft glaze light. It is famous for its pure white glaze, which is called “sweet white”. According to the test of scholars, it is found that the glaze color characteristics are related to the more quartz particles and mica content in the glaze. Therefore, it visually presents a warm and moist light that is different from the previous generation of Ding Kiln porcelain whose glaze color is off white or bluish white porcelain with light cyan. The word “sweet white” originated from the literati in the late Ming Dynasty. Liu Xinyuan speculated that because white granulated sugar had just been invented in the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, the color white was used as