Chinese Ge Kiln Celadon Vase with Tubular Handles. Classic pattern and crackle. 

Size: 6 x 5 x 9 3/4 in. 

Ge ware is a type of Chinese celadon or greenware recognized by later writers as one of the Five Great Kilns of the Song Dynasty. Modern scholars heavily debate its exact origin, manufacturing location, and whether surviving pieces genuinely date to the Song period or represent a later Yuan Dynasty revival. The distinguishing feature of this pottery is its deliberate glaze crackle, which often presents as a unique “double crackle” or “gold thread and iron wire” pattern created by stained networks of large and fine cracks. According to Chinese tradition, the ware takes its name from the elder of two potter Zhang brothers who reportedly developed the distinct style while working in Longquan, but the origin of this legend is as mysterious as the actual origin of the pottery itself. The stoneware bodies typically exhibit a cream, ivory, grey, or brown tint alongside a characteristic “purple mouth and iron foot” where the dark clay shows through thin glaze at the rim and base. Highly valued by emperors and connoisseurs, Ge ware became fashionable for scholars’ tables and was skillfully imitated in Jingdezhen porcelain during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

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