Vietnamese Pottery
Encyclopedia
Vietnamese ceramics refers to pottery
Pottery
Pottery is the material from which the potteryware is made, of which major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made is also called a pottery . Pottery also refers to the art or craft of the potter or the manufacture of pottery...

 designed or produced in Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. Vietnamese pottery and ceramics has a long history spanning back to thousands of years ago, including long before Chinese domination
History of Vietnam
The history of Vietnam covers a period of more than 2,700 years. By far Vietnam's most important historical international relationship has been with China. Vietnam's prehistory includes a legend about a kingdom known as Van Lang that included what is now China's Guangxi Autonomous Region and...

, as archeological evidence supports.

Much of Vietnamese pottery and ceramics after the Chinese-domination era was largely influenced by Chinese ceramics, but has developed over time to be distinctly Vietnamese..

Vietnamese pottery and ceramics were an essential part of the trade between Vietnam and its neighbors during feudalistic times, throughout many dynasties.

Cát Tiên

The Cát Tiên archaeological site
Cat Tien archaeological site
Cát Tiên archaeological site is an archaeological site located in Cat Tien National Park. Accidentally discovered in 1985, this site ranges from Quảng Ngãi Commune to Đức Phổ Commune, with the main archaeological artefacts concentrating in Quảng Ngãi, Cát Tiên District, Lâm Đồng Province,...

 in south Vietnam is site located in Cat Tien National Park
Cat Tien National Park
Cát Tiên National Park is an important national park located in the south of Vietnam, approximately 150 km north of Ho Chi Minh City. It has an area of about 720 km² and protects one of the largest areas of lowland tropical rainforests left in Vietnam.-History:Cát Tiên national park was...

. Accidentally discovered in 1985, this site ranges from Quảng Ngãi Commune to Đức Phổ Commune, with the main archaeological artefacts concentrating in Quảng Ngãi, Cát Tiên District, Lâm Đồng Province, southern Tây Nguyên. The unknown civilization which developed this site inhabited it between the 4th century and 9th centuries CE. A number of ceramic ware was found in this site.

Bát Tràng

Bát Tràng porcelain
Bát Tràng Porcelain
Bát Tràng porcelain and pottery is a type of ceramics made in the village of Bát Tràng, in the suburban outskirts of the northern Vietnamese city of Hanoi . The village is located in an area rich in clay suitable for making fine ceramic...

 and pottery is a type of ceramic
Ceramic
A ceramic is an inorganic, nonmetallic solid prepared by the action of heat and subsequent cooling. Ceramic materials may have a crystalline or partly crystalline structure, or may be amorphous...

s made in the village of Bát Tràng
Bát Tràng
Bát Tràng is an old, well established village in the Gia Lâm district of Hanoi, the capital city of Vietnam. It is about 13 km from central Hanoi....

, in the suburban outskirts of Hanoi. The village is located in an area rich in clay suitable for making fine ceramic. Bát Tràng ceramics are considered some of the best known porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 products in Vietnam besides those of Chu Đậu, Đồng Nai, Phu Lang, and Ninh Thuận
Ninh Thuan Province
Ninh Thuận is a province in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam .-History:The Cham principality of Panduranga had its center in Ninh Thuan Province, but also included much of what is now Binh Thuan Province. Panduranga became the political centre of Champa after the fall of Vijaya in 1471...

. The history of china making in this village can be traced back as far as the 14th century CE. During the past centuries, Bát Tràng china products have travelled in European trading ships to all parts of the world.

An'nan

Due to the so-called Nanban trade
Nanban trade
The or the in Japanese history extends from the arrival of the first Europeans to Japan in 1543, to their near-total exclusion from the archipelago in 1614, under the promulgation of the "Sakoku" Seclusion Edicts.- Etymology :...

 (hán tự: 南蛮貿易) in the 16th-17th century, fragments of Vietnamese ceramic were found in a northern part of Kyūshū
Kyushu
is the third largest island of Japan and most southwesterly of its four main islands. Its alternate ancient names include , , and . The historical regional name is referred to Kyushu and its surrounding islands....

 island. Among them was a wooden plate with character showing the date 1330 on it. Whether the Japanese went to Vietnam or Vietnamese traders came to Japan or if it all went through China is not quite clear. Vietnamese history records showed that when Lord Nguyễn Hoàng founded Hội An
Hoi An
Hội An , or rarely Faifo, is a city of Vietnam, on the coast of the South China Sea in the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is located in Quang Nam province and is home to approximately 120,000 inhabitants...

 port at the beginning of the 17th century, hundreds of Japanese residents were already there.

One of the more famous items is An'nan
Annam (Chinese Province)
Annam or Jiaozhi was the southernmost province of the Chinese Empire. It is now part of present-day Vietnam...

 ware (安南), which was exported to Japan and used in Japanese tea ceremony although the high-footed bowls were originally used for food. The bowls had an everted rim, high foot, were underglazed with cobalt floral decorations, lappets above base, unglazed stacking rings in well and were brown washed on the base. The diameters can range from 9 to 15 centimetres. They were produced from the 16-17th century CE.

Hội An wreck

The Hội An wreck
Hoi An Wreck
The Hội An Wreck lies 22 miles off the coast of central Vietnam in the South China Sea. Discovered by fishermen in the early 1990s, the Vietnamese government made several attempts to organise an investigation of the site but were confounded by the water depth - 230 feet.The ship was carrying a...

 lies 22 miles off the coast of central Vietnam in the South China Sea. The ship was carrying a large cargo of Vietnamese ceramics from the mid- to late-15th century. The provenance of the pieces was known to be the kilns of the Red River Delta (such as Chu Đậu) because excavations in the region had been ongoing since their discovery in 1983. The only pieces remaining at the kiln sites were wasters (pieces that had fused, collapsed or exploded in the firing process). Intact examples of the wares produced were rare, since all were exported. When the wreck was found there was excitement among collectors and archaeologists, for it promised the first cargo consisting solely of Vietnamese wares.

In 1996 over 250,000 intact examples of Vietnamese ceramic were recovered. 10% of unique ware was kept by the government for national museums, while the rest was allowed to be auctioned off to pay for recovery costs.

Modern ceramic

While ceramic ware in the traditional is still being produced and enjoys popularity, increasingly modern ceramics are produced for export. One of the noteworthy examples of modern ceramic art is the Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural
Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural
Hanoi Ceramic Mosaic Mural is a ceramic mosaic mural on the wall of the dyke system of Hanoi, Vietnam...

, which is affixed on the wall of the dyke system of Hanoi. With a length of about 4km, the Ceramic Road is one of the major projects that were developed on the occasion of the Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi
Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi
The Millennial Anniversary of Hanoi was celebrated from October 1 to October 10, 2010, the 1,000th anniversary of the foundation of the capital Thăng Long by the emperor Lý Thái Tổ...

.

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