Lidded Jar with Blue-and-White and Under- Glazed Red Decorations

The Lidded Jar with Blue-and-White and Under-glazed Red Decorations was unearthed in 1965 from a Yuan-dynasty kiln site in Baoding City, north China's Hebei Province. Coated with blue-and-white glaze, the jar has a cute little lion on the lid. The belly is engraved with grotesque rocks, peony, chrysanthemum, and other decorations.

The body features blue and red colors under the glaze, which contrast sharply with each other. It isn't easy to generate both blue and red colors through a single firing process, and this technique didn't emerge until the Yuan Dynasty. The blue color is attributed to pigment made of cobalt, which is stable in nature and easy to achieve. However, the red color under the glaze, which uses pigment made of copper, is difficult to achieve due to extremely high requirements for the temperature and oxygen content of the kiln. Therefore, perfectly colored blue-and-white porcelain objects with under-glazed red decorations are very rare.

This artifact not only has an elegant shape and bright colors but also features a variety of decorative techniques such as painting, hollowed-out carving, and molding, reflecting the superb firing technology for blue-and-white porcelain with under-glazed red decorations in the Yuan Dynasty.

青花釉里紅蓋罐

青花釉里紅鏤雕蓋罐于1965年出土于河北省保定市元代窖藏，器物造型飽滿，通體施青白釉，蓋子上的小獅子憨態可掬。罐腹局部鏤空，雕飾怪石、牡丹、菊花等。器身藍、紅兩種顏色對比強烈，為施在胎體之上、釉面之下的青花和釉里紅。二者經一次燒制顯出藍、紅色，并不容易實現，這種技藝出現在元代。青花采用鈷料呈色，性質穩定，呈色不難。釉里紅則采用銅料，呈現紅色難度較大，對瓷窯溫度和氧氣含量等要求極高。因此顏色完美的青花釉里紅成器非常難得。

這件器物不僅造型優美、顏色艷麗，還使用了繪畫、浮雕、貼塑等多種裝飾技法，體現出元代高超的青花釉里紅燒造技術。