Sancai

Sancai (Chinese: 三彩; pinyin: sāncǎi; literally: "three colours") is a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery mainly using the three colors of brown, green, and a creamy off-white for decoration. It is particularly associated with the Tang Dynasty. Therefore, it is commonly referred to as Chinese: 唐三彩 Tang Sancai in Chinese.

It uses lead-glazed earthenware, and was much easier and therefore cheaper to make than Chinese porcelain, and suitable for making large figures, if necessary made up of several molded sections assembled after a first firing. Flatware dishes and other vessels were made in the technique as well as figures.

Technique

The body of sancai ceramics was made of white clay, coated with a layer of glaze, and fired at a temperature of 800 degrees Celsius. Sancai is a type of lead-glazed earthenware: lead oxide was the principal flux in the glaze, often mixed with quartz in the proportion of 3:1. The polychrome effect was obtained by using as coloring agents copper (which turns green), iron (which turns brownish yellow), and less often manganese and cobalt (which turns blue).