A fine and very rare robin’s egg-glazed jar, Seal mark and period of Yongzheng | 清雍正　爐鈞釉罐　《大清雍正年製》款

Julian Thompson, The Alan Chuang Collection of Chinese Porcelain, Hong Kong, 2009, pl. 92.

Superbly potted with an ovoid body covered in a vibrant glaze with a bold pattern of turquoise streaks against a purplish ground, the current jar is a very rare example of robin's egg-glazed vessels from the Yongzheng period, when such richly variegated transmutation glazes were produced for the imperial court and prized for their striking effects.

Developed at Jingdezhen under the pioneering direction of the official Tang Ying (1682-1756), who is known to have studied in detail the finest imperial porcelains of the Song dynasty, the ‘robin’s egg’ glaze was created as a reinterpretation of the famous Jun glazes of the Song. Known as lujun (‘furnace Jun’) in Chinese, the glaze was fired at a lower temperature than that of the porcelain itself and thus required a second firing. In Taocheng jishi [Records of ceramic production], one of the most important documents about the Imperial Factory written by Tang Ying during the last year of the Yongzheng reign, lujun glaze is listed first among the nineteen major types of ceramics that he succeeded in firing and proposed as suitable for regular delivery to the imperial court. Although the production of ‘robin’s egg’ glaze lasted till the end of the Qing dynasty, the finest pieces were created in the Yongzheng and Qianlong periods.

出版

朱湯生，《中國瓷器：莊紹綏收藏》，香港，2009年，圖版92

此罐造型端莊，呈橢圓形，器身滿施絢麗的窰變釉，紫褐色地釉上流淌著鮮明的綠松石色條斑。作為雍正朝「仿鈞釉」器物中的極罕見例證，它代表了當時御窰廠專為宮廷燒造的「窰變釉」極致工藝，其強烈的視覺衝擊力在當時即被視若珍寶。

此類「爐鈞釉」由景德鎮督陶官唐英（1682-1756年）在深入研究宋代鈞窰精品後創燒而成，意在重新演繹宋鈞的釉色之美。其工藝關鍵在於「二次燒成」：先高溫燒成瓷胎，再施釉入低溫爐焙燒，故稱「爐鈞」。在唐英於雍正末年撰寫的陶務經典《陶成紀事碑記》中，爐鈞釉被列於「仿古採今」五十七種釉水之首，並被推薦為「歲例供御」的常規品種。儘管此釉色一直生產至清末，但公認最為精絕的巔峰之作，仍屬雍正與乾隆早期的御窰產品。