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One
of the few constants in this world, for over 500 years, is the quality
of workmanship, design, and color of Bat Trang
pottery. Located near Hanoi, the local village sits on the Red River
and still produces works of a unique style with special
characteristics.
It is a harmonious blending
of modeling, sculpture, design, graphics, and color.
A labor intensive process begins with design, modeling, carving,
decoration, enamel coloring, and firing. The long history of
Bat
Trang pottery includes centuries of research into forms,
models, decoration, and enamel, both coloration and finish.
Principal among these are
crackle glaze and fine glaze, with colors led by celadon
greens, magenta reds and browns, and cobalt blues.
Combining modeling,
sculpture, form and design, colored enamels create graceful, timeless
motifs. Creative passion can be seen and felt in each piece.
The long French occupation
from the 1850s to 1954 nearly destroyed this finest of art forms.
Throughout the period of French domination of Vietnam, they restricted
general crafts production in both direct and indirect ways. Following
the 1954 Geneva Convention, Bat Trang pottery
production resumed, mostly by state-run cooperatives and small,
private enterprises.
Breakthroughs occurred from
this time in which modern, creative ideas blended with traditional
forms. This encouraged and enabled new shapes and colors to grow
from the best of the inheritance from the centuries of craftsmanship
before.
In the first ten years
following the modernization of Vietnam's economic fabric (beginning in
1986), production of Bat Trang products began to
travel to distant markets, first in Southeast Asia, then to Japan and
Korea, and more recently to Europe and America.
Modern
Bat Trang
pottery in various forms reveals the following distinctive
characteristics:
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Unique breakthroughs in
form, curve and sculpture
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Unique application of
decorative patterns
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Unique colors and use of
colored enamels
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A distinctly
Bat
Trang esthetic element of overall design and function.
Of the many artist in
Bat
Trang, we feature only the top artists and their best
designs. |
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or by wire transfer
(TT)
