Jingdezhen · Blue and White

01The story

When Jingdezhen fired mature blue and white in the Yuan dynasty, it used an imported cobalt rich in iron, which pooled under the glaze into black-brown speckles known as iron-rust spots or tin sheen. Cobalt was expensive and the kiln was hard to control, so a fine Yuan blue-and-white bowl was never a rational product. From the Ming dynasty onwards, when domestic cobalt appeared and colours shifted towards the greyer Pingdianqing and Huixin recipes, blue and white turned from a rare material into a reproducible image language. This theme takes the character of that second stage: a clear blue-and-white relationship, which suits a working interface that has to be looked at for a long time.

02Where the colours come from

The background is shadowy-green white, the slightly blue porcelain white; the panel is one step deeper in the blue-and-white glaze; the accent is the deep cobalt of blue-and-white shading. Body text carries a blue cast rather than neutral black, so the screen reads more like a shard of porcelain than like a monitor.

03How the palette was built

This set has the highest contrast of the porcelain collection — the lightness difference between body text and background approaches 90%, so long reading stays easy. Dividers use a blue-cast grey so that they do not look grubby on a cold white ground. The syntax palette separates cobalt, ochre, violet-grey and blue-grey; blue-and-white ornament stays in the plate and never enters the code-reading area.

04Sources and references

• ClassicA History of Chinese Ceramics (中国陶瓷史)Feng XianmingThe ceramic industry of Jingdezhen through its periods, and the phasing of blue and white.
• ClassicYinliuzhai Shuoci (饮流斋说瓷)Ji Yuansou (Chen Liu), Qing dynastyCritical records of how blue-and-white colour and the iron-rust spots of Sumali cobalt were appraised over the dynasties.
• ClassicTaoya (陶雅)Chen Jieqi, Qing dynastyA catalogue of blue-and-white wares, their shading technique and brushwork.
• ClassicTiangong Kaiwu (天工开物) · The Official Kilns (porcelain making)Song Yingxing, Ming dynastyRecords of Ming dynasty Jingdezhen porcelain production and the use of cobalt.

05Credits and licence

Palette

Theme Atlas editorial team

Text

Theme Atlas editorial team

Graphics

Theme Atlas (original SVG)

Data licence

Palette data released under CC BY 4.0

Illustration licence

All illustrations are original SVGs; no third-party imagery is used.