7.5 Decoration (excluding painting)

Chinese Warring States Storage Vessel
Patterned by Paddle - courtesy Glade
Antiques

Sometimes the finish on a pot is functional rather than decorative, so cooking and storage pots may be left roughish to aid handling without dropping. Similarly bowls may be smooth to reduce food sticking. However, there was also scope for the potter to use various methods to express his design concepts on his pottery. The ease with which pottery can be manipulated and decorated made it a natural medium for even the earliest artists to express themselves. Decoration may be added when the vessel is being made, during drying or after firing. The many ways to decorate a pot usually involve fairly simple equipment. If made with a paddle and anvil, the paddle could be bound with cord or incised to impart the pattern onto the vessel.

Combing was used for multiple lines. Impressions may be made on the wet clay with the fingers or with an implement such as a shell, stick or bone (possibly with a cord wrapped round it). Other methods were to use a roulette wheel (an inscribed wheel on a pivoted handle for rolling over the clay surface) or a stamp (similar to a seal ring, made from stone, ceramic or bone).

If formed on a potter’s wheel, a range of patterns such as horizontal or wavy lines could be made very simply. The surface of the vessel may also be incised (scratched) while the clay is still wet or more often in the partially dry state.

Chinese Vessel with Stamped Decoration -
courtesy Glade Antiques

From 3,000 BC onwards clay “motifs” were applied to vessels. They could be simple strips, pellets or pads of clay fashioned by hand or moulds, or more elaborate with details incised or impressed. This method became common from 2,000 BC when faces and arms were also attached to vessels as decoration. The use of applied relief decoration made out of thin sheets of clay attached to the vessel surface is known as appliqué.

Chinese Liao Vase with Appliqué
decoration - courtesy Glade Antiques