Blue and White Decorated Bag-form Vessel

Ceramicists in the Kingdom of Sukhothai (1238–1438), in today’s Thailand, produced high-fired stoneware with underglaze decorations inspired by Chinese imports that are among the high points in the history of art in Southeast Asia. The kilns at Si Satchanalai in Sawankhalok produced beautiful ceramics both for domestic use and for export to what is today Indonesia and the Philippines.

Vietnam in the late 15th to early 16th centuries was another high point for ceramics. China, for hundreds of years the largest supplier of ceramics, suddenly restricted exports, creating a vacuum in the international market. Vietnamese ceramic makers took advantage of this situation and significantly raised the quality and volume of their production, becoming one of the leading sources of ceramics in the Chinese style like this blue underglaze, pear-shaped vase, a type called Yùhúchūnpíng 玉壺春瓶.