Decorative Characteristics of Fish & Algae Ceramic Linings in Qing Dynasty

Fish & algae ceramic lining is quite common to see on Chinese ancient porcelains, it is an important part in Chinese porcelain decorative arts. Qing Dynasty is a period when Chinese ceramics highly developed, then many talented porcelain craftsmen with special skills gathered in Jingdezhen, forming a prosperous sight of "Gifted craftsmen gathered, best-selling porcelain are made." Ceramic fish & algae linings on porcelains made in Qing Dynasty not only inherited Ming Dynasty's traditional decorative techniques, including blue & white, under-glaze red, five-colored as well as contending colors, but also adopted some innovative decorative techniques such as famille-rose and cloisonne enamel. This paper is going to demonstrate the decorative characteristics of fish & algae ceramic linings in different periods. Qing Dynasty is a period when Chinese ceramics highly developed, then many talented porcelain craftsmen with special skills gathered in Jingdezhen, forming a prosperous sight of "Gifted craftsmen gathered, best-selling porcelain are made." Qing Dynasty is the prime time in Chinese porcelain-making history, especially in the flouring years when Emperor Kangxi, Emperor Yongzheng and Emperor Qianlong reigned, porcelain-making techniques in shaping and glazing reached the highest level in history. Famille-rose porcelain-making is an innovative technique, directly effected by cloisonne enamel porcelain-making technique and it is based on five colored porcelain-making technique (developed in the reign of Emperor Kangxi), Famille-rose ceramic linings are mostly made with arsenic glass white base, and then arsenic glass white is blended with other pigment which will change its original color into a softer degree after blending. The new color varies from dark to light. So the pigments used this technique will have richer colors than the original basic five colors.