Enamels analysis of Doucai porcelain with Chenghua mark by non-destructive micro-EDXRF

The Chenghua Doucai of the Ming Dynasty represents the highest level of craftsmanship among enamelled porcelain, and it remained popular throughout the Ming and Qing Dynasties. Consequently, Doucai porcelain with a pseudo-Chenghua mark was produced almost continuously after the Chenghua reign. In this article, non-destructive energy dispersive micro x-ray fluorescence (micro-XRF) is used to analyse Doucai wares with Chenghua mark from the Ming and Qing Dynasties and modern period. Using micro-XRF mapping technology, the different elemental maps in the blue, green, red, yellow enamels demonstrate that the Doucai is fired with a various colouring materials. The blue is coloured by cobalt, the green is coloured by copper, and the red and yellow are coloured by a lot of iron and a few of iron, and lead in all enamels except for the underglaze blue with different contents. Even though the primary enamels of Doucai wares with the Chenghua mark are similar, the wares made in the Qing Dynasty display more types of enamels than Chenghua reign's. For instance, there are two types of red enamels; the darker red enamel contains manganese (Mn) in addition to iron (Fe), and the modern yellow enamels of Doucai contain titanium (Ti) in addition to iron (Fe). This study compared the changes of colouring materials for Doucai of different times and demonstrated that the micro-XRF elemental mapping technology is a valuable tool to reveal the compositional characteristics and ware production procedures.

Automated summary

This study analyzed Doucai wares from the Ming and Qing Dynasties, as well as the modern period, using non-destructive micro-XRF technology. The research revealed the elemental distribution of various colored enamels in Doucai wares and found that Qing Dynasty wares had more types of enamels compared to the Chenghua reign.