Sung potters produced elegant porcelain forms in lovely shades of green, blue, gray and ivory, for export to the West. The secret of making “chinaware” remained with the Chinese until eighteenth century, when German potters finally figured it out.
Any culture as refined and elegant as the Chinese was bound to be remarkable not only for its high intellectual arts, but also for its decorative wares, and indeed artisans of many dynasties excelled in carving jade, lacquering furnitureand embroidering silk. In addition, they made the first true porcelain, creating objects of unprecedented translucence, resonance and thinness. There were thousands of kilns all over China during the Sung, and potters jealously guarded their formula and techniques. Daughters were not allowed to learn the family’s secret techniques, should on marrying and leaving the family, they take the tricks of the trade with them.