Celadon Glaze

Celadon

Celadon is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware", and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains. Celadon originated in China, though the term is purely European, and notable kilns such as the Longquan kiln in Zhejiang province are renowned for their celadon glazes. Celadon production later spread to other parts of East Asia, such as Japan and Korea, as well as Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand and Vietnam. Eventually, European potteries produced some pieces, but it was never a major element there. Finer pieces are in porcelain, but both the color and the glaze can be produced in stoneware and earthenware. Most of the earlier Longquan celadon is on the border of stoneware and porcelain, meeting the Chinese but not the European definitions of porcelain.

Shades of green

Varieties of the color green may differ in hue, chroma or lightness, or in two or three of these qualities. Variations in value are also called tints and shades, a tint being a green or other hue mixed with white, a shade being mixed with black. A large selection of these various colors is shown below.

celadon

Noun

1. A pale green colour, possibly tinted with gray.
2. A pale green Chinese glaze.

Adjective

1. Of a pale green colour tinted with gray.

glaze

Noun

1. The vitreous coating of pottery or porcelain; anything used as a coating or color in glazing.
2. A transparent or semi-transparent layer of paint.

Verb

1. To install windows.
2. To apply a thin, transparent layer of coating.