Blue-Green Decorated Stoneware Charger

Southeast Asia was a major market for Chinese blue underglaze ceramics. Local ceramicists began to create works with local materials and techniques that were inspired by these Chinese imports and followed the model of linear designs on a white background in different ways. An example is this charger, a term for a large decorative plate. It is not porcelain, like the Chinese underglazes, but stoneware, a ceramic fired at a lower temperature. To recreate the effect of white porcelain, the charger was covered with a white, tin-based slip, a watery slurry of clay. The design was drawn with a copper-based glaze on top of the slip that turned green when fired, so it is an overglaze technique detailed elsewhere in this exhibition.