By Tan It Koon
Please enjoy a few pieces of Celadon wares from Longquan in Zhejiang Province, China: a jade-coloured dish with cracked design and a pair of turquoise-green crackle glaze bowls with wavy pattern edges.
The following is a story on the accidental discovery of crack formation on the surfaces of celadon wares. Legend has it that in ancient times there were two brothers who operated kilns separately in Longquan. The kilns were known as “Older brother kiln” and “Younger brother kiln.”
The older brother was more skilled than his younger brother and had more customers. Even the Royal Palace preferred products by Ge Kiln. This aroused the jealousy of his younger brother. To damage the older brother’s reputation, the younger one added a lot of plant ashes to the glaze prepared by the older brother, without the older brother’s knowledge. After the firing process, the older brother found the glaze on the surface of his porcelain wares all appeared to be cracked.
The crack line patterns were fascinating; some looked like natural cracks in the ice, others like small fish patterns, and some like crab’s claws patterns. The kind-hearted brother was stunned by this scene. He took the entire batch of apparently “spoilt” porcelainware with cracked line patterns to the market to see the reaction of his customers. Unexpectedly, to his great amazement, people thought he started a new decorative design and showed great interest, so much as that his entire batch of celadon with cracks was sold out in no time.
From that incident, Ge Kiln became famous throughout China and eventually worldwide. The younger brother continued to make celadon ware in the usual way. The quality has remained slightly inferior to that produced by the Ge Kiln.
Dr. Tan It Koon
Before retirement, Dr. Tan It Koon was, among many appointments, Head of Clinical Biochemistry of SGH’s Dept of Pathology. He was the Deputy Chairman of the National Theatre Trust and Chairman for Grants and Scholarships of Spore Cultural Foundation. He received the National Day Awards, PBM and PPA, for his contribution to cultural and community development and excellence in public administration. Dr. Tan has performed in solo, duet, two-pianos, and an orchestra in public concerts and radio/TV recording programmes.
