Blanc-de-Chine (French) Smooth, creamy white glazed ware with no underglaze or overglaze decoration made at Dehqu (Fukian Province) and Jingdezhen, especially models of the Guanyin goddess. Appliquéd cups and figurines are often blanc-de-Chine.

Canton (Guangzhou) A city in Guangdong Province, the single port open to Westerners on the China count from 1710 to the 1840s. “Canton” refers to a crude type of blue and white, which may have the same central design as “Nanking”ware but has a different border and rarely is gilded. As a term, “Canton” apparently arose in the late 18 th C. particularly among Americans possibly because it was made at the kilns near Guangzhou as well as being exported from there. For the English, “Canton Rose” refers to gold-red 19 th C. Chinaware.

Celadon (French)- In ceramics, referring to a glaze color from deep brown to a variety of greens to yellow, but normally in the green range. In 18 th C. France, the term denoted a pale willow-green named for Chelation, hero of D’Urfes’s drama Astree, whose costume was this color. Now it is increasingly being referred to as greenware.

Charger A large round serving dish, originally a silver and pewter piece duplicated in porcelain and other ceramics.

China The origin of the name is still debated. It may derive from the first emperor to unite China, Qin Shi Huangdi, who ruled from 221-220 B.C. In the West, by the 1 st century. AD, the word Thin, meaning “the country” came into use possibly derived from the dynastic name, Qin. By the late 13 th C., Marco Polo called the country Chin, but it was not until early 16 th C. did Westerners refer to it as it China. Chinaware or china dishes would come to be known simply as china. As early as 851 B.C., a Middle Eastern Traveler reported, “There is in China a very fine clay with which they make vases transparent like bottles: water can be seen inside of them. These wares are made of clay.” The Persians called such items “chini”, and by 1350 they were known as “china-ware.”

Chinese “Imari” The combination of underglaze blue, overglaze iron red, and often gilt in ware made in China in Japanese style. The Chinese were attempting to recoup a market in export were captured by the Japanese during the mid-Transitional period, c. 1660-1680. In the West, this ware continued to be popular from the late 17 th C. to the mid 18 th C.

Cobalt Blue A mineral ore used in painting porcelain under the glaze. Before firing, it appears dark green, then dries to black, afterward to various shades of blue. In the 8 th C. (Tang dynasty), it was probably imported into China from the Middle East as glass bricks. The Chinese altered the Persian word for it, sulimai, to sumani and other similar terms. In the early 16 th C. it became known as “Mohammedan blue”, perhaps to distinguish it from the native Chinese ore consistently used by then. Following its appearance in the mid 15 th C. Chinese cobalt or “abolite” contains more manganese and less cobalt than the Near Eastern mineral: the latter may also have traces of arsenic. Only laboratory tests for the amounts of manganese and arsenic in a specimen, not the tone of blue, determine the difference between the two.

Copper-red An oxide of copper applied under the glaze to obtain a number of colors, not only red, in a reducing atmosphere. By the Zhengde period (1560-1621), the technique had deteriorated and was abandoned until the late 17 th C., when it appeared rather differently. Its replacement was overglaze iron red, which continued after copper red’s re-introduction

Crackle A cracking of the glaze resulting from a deliberate cooling of the glaze ata different rate from the body. Aesthetically pleasing, a special effect may be obtained by applying fine-ground iron oxide to the cracks, another thin layer of glaze, and firing the piece a second time. “Crazing” is the unintentional appearance of very fine cracks in the glaze, which occurs from imperfect balance in its ingredients or from burial and aging, and should not be confused with intentional cracking.

Cutwork/ Lattice work Linglang- A type of openwork in a number of trellis patterns, often not completely through the vessel, and often unglazed. Objects of this technique date from the Wanli period (1573-1620).

Doucai (Chinese), A decorative technique of “dove-tailed” or contrasted colors. An underglazed-blue outline with areas of translucent overglaze enamels in a precise, delicate technique. The first pieces so decorated are believed to date from Chenhau (1465-1487) and are small in size.

Earthenware Clay of varying color, ranging from coarse to fine, fired at low temperature (800-1500 ° C). Because it is porous, it must be glazed at low temperature to become impermeable. At higher temperatures, the whole object melts.

Famille Rose (French) A 19 th C. term, introduced by the collector and author Albert Jacquemart to describe the spectrum of pink shades of porcelain. These shades are produced by the introduction of a small amount of gold chloride with a white oxide of arsenic to the overglaze palette of metallic oxides in the red range. The addition of the arsenic white oxide in varying amounts to the gold chloride gave not only various rose hues, but when combined with other colors produced the “soft” or pastel shades. Gold-red and white oxide used in this double way, for a range of reds and to produce pastels, came from Western enameled ware, according to the Chinese themselves. Therefore, famille rose may be translated as either yangcai- foreign colors, or yuancai- pastel enamels.

Glaze A glassy, transparent, usually thin, protective covering to ceramics. A glaze may be low fired and fluxed with a lead flux (thus called a lead glaze) or high fired and fluxed with alkalines, e.g. potassium, sodium, and calcium (thus called an alkaline glaze). The bridge temperature which is 1150-1250 ° C is between the two. Colors may be mixed with the glaze, painted on the unfired vessel before glazing, or painted over the glaze and refired.

Mei p’ing (Chinese) A vase with wide shoulders and a small mouth, also called a plum blossom vase

Porcelain A term applied to chinaware by the West, derived from the Italian porceletta for the shape of the cowrie shell whose surface is similar to china. It is composed of two related ingredients both forms of decomposed granite china clay (kaolin) and china stone (petuntse).

Stoneware A multicolored clay of varying quality but harder than earthenware, fired at 1200-1300 ° C. It is at this temperature that it sinters and fused. It is already impermeable, and requires no glaze, but one is often applied for aesthetic reasons.

Tea Caddy A box used for the daily use of tea probably derived from the term catty, which is a weight equivalent to 1? lbs., the amount roughly held in such a container.

Underglaze Painting applied to the unfired body of an object e.g. cobalt blue or copper red. After, it is better preserved than overglaze enamels.