Old car batteries and the Tang Dynasty

Though I try to make these posts entertaining as well as informative, the truth is that this blog is also my scrap-book of useful information. Many times I’ve whipped out my phone to refer to a post: perhaps to show someone the new Famen Temple (cue yelps of disbelief), or to check if Mahendravarman I was the father of Narasimhavarman I (yes he was).

So while visiting a pottery-making village in Myanmar recently, I realised that I needed to put down some accessible facts on the complicated subject of ceramic glazes. This arose because I asked the potter (a nice young woman) what type of glaze she used, and she pointed to a pile of old car batteries.

“No, the glaze,” I repeated foolishly, making paint-slapping movements with my hand.

“Yes,” she said, “we grind up old car batteries to make glaze.” She showed us a bucket of what looked like lumpy black soot.

Because of my hazy recall of glaze technology, it was a while before I realised (with horror) that she was using the lead from recycled batteries. This was why her pieces looked a bit like Tang Dynasty sancai ware which has a lead-based glaze. I will make jolly sure that the little jar I bought (see below) never comes anywhere near food or drink. What happens to the potter families, who all seem to work without protective equipment, is anyone’s guess.

 (Left): Sancai lead-glazed jar (H: 19.5cm), China, Tang Dynasty (8th C). Art Institute of Chicago.
(Right): Lead-glazed jar (H: 10cm). Myanmar, 2019.

I had no excuse for not remembering lead-based glazes, as I’ve studied Chinese ceramics for a while and even wrote an essay on Song dynasty crackled glaze. So the next couple of posts will focus on this somewhat arid but crucial subject. Sorry! Normal service will resume eventually.

Probably the finest authority on this subject is Science and Civilisation in China, Vol V Part 12, by Rose Kerr and Nigel Wood, both masters in the field of Chinese ceramics. But what caught my attention on opening this massive tome was the dedication to Dr Lee Kong Chian, the late Singaporean billionaire and philanthropist. It turns out that Dr Lee and his friend Tan Chin Tuan (another heavyweight of Singaporean economic history) were major sponsors of the Science and Civilisation in China project, begun in the 1950s by the Cambridge academic Joseph Needham. This later grew into the Needham Research Institute which specialises in the history of Chinese science and technology. Kerr and Wood’s treatise on ceramics is only one of over 25 volumes published by the NRI on subjects ranging from mechanical engineering to language structures. The NRI is based in a secluded old house in leafy grounds behind Robinson College, Cambridge, and if I were offered even a cleaning job there, I would take it just to spend my days in such idyllic surroundings.

Meanwhile, I must stick to my aim of writing about ceramic glazes, so first stop: the Tang Dynasty!