Jar with tiger-head spout

Developments in Stoneware

The Chinese began to produce high-fired, intentionally glazed stoneware more than three thousand years ago. But ceramic technologies developed slowly over the following millennium or so, until around two thousand years ago, when kiln designs, firing temperatures, and understanding of clays and glazes reached a high point. At that time, potters in Zhejiang province in the lower Yangtze river valley were producing high-fired wares with green or brown glazes. From the middle of the 500s, changes in taste and in ceramic industries led to the production of white-bodied stoneware in northern China. These wares were the first true porcelains.