Benjarong

Benjarong, 19th century

Benjarong (Thai เบญจรงค์) porcelain ware is a kind of painted Thai ceramics. While the name literally means "five colours (Wucai)," it is a figurative description and actual decoration can have anywhere between three and eight colours. For the decoration, repetitive forms, usually geometric or flower-based, are used. A design is usually named after the decoration base name and a background color (for example, Phum Kao Bin on dark blue). Recurring motifs include the thepphanom (เทพพนม, from Sanskrit devapraṇama, an adoring deity), the norasing (นรสิงห์, Sanskrit narasiṁha, man-lion), Matchanu, the son of Hanuman and the mermaid Suphannamatcha in the Ramakien, and the kanok flame scroll.

Enamel colors are applied and overglazed, creating a swelling effect over the surface of the piece. The production process is extremely labor-intensive, as each color is applied individually and the piece is kiln fired after the application of each color. The firing process brightens the colors of the finished piece and adds to its beauty. Gold is also used in painting the porcelain. Hiram Woodward treats benjarong and lai nam thong (ลายน้ำทอง, gilded design) as two types of Chinese porcelain made in China for the Siamese market in the 19th century.

History

The chronology of Thai-made benjarong is disputed. Hiram Woodward holds that the ware is no earlier than about the 1820s, and rejects a date of 1728 that has circulated for it; he traces that date to a caption in a 1995 publication describing a bowl recovered from the Gulf of Thailand, notes that the Princessehof Museum now dates the same bowl to 1850, and reports that no reference to a 1728 wreck could be found in the papers of the author who published the caption. Pimpraphai Bisalputra and Jeffery Sng date the ware from at least 1728 into the reign of Rama VI; Pariwat Thanathanyakon places its beginning in the late reign of Rama I; and Dawn Rooney has associated it with fragments bearing Daoguang marks. Woodward observes that no benjarong has been recovered from a shipwreck, and that the eighteenth-century framework can be traced to a treatise by Prince Damrong Rajanubhab, first published in 1917 and based largely on oral tradition. He describes his own argument as falling far short of proof. Pimpraphai Bisalputra and Jeffery Sng set out their own case in the same volume. They argue that Chinese export wares found at Ayutthaya carry Islamic decorative motifs alongside Buddhist iconography. On their reading the combination rules out a Persian buyer, since the pieces carry a cross-vajra and, on one charger, a Siamese-style lotus. They attribute the Islamic element to the Muslim officials who supervised the trade rather than to the market it was made for. They date the first Siamese embassy to Nanjing to 30 October 1371, note that the Hongwu emperor forbade overseas trade in the same year, and hold that Ayutthaya continued to profit through tributary relations during the two centuries the ban lasted. Woodward sets out his case as a sequence of objects rather than a proof. It runs from chao tak ware through a dated dish of 1824–25, a gold-ground bowl, a bowl with a norasing and a white-ground bowl associated with two Daoguang-marked vessels, to the predominant form. His sharpest claim concerns the black ground. He compares the framing branches on the porcelain with the kanok motif in Thai manuscripts. On that comparison the adoption of a black background owed nothing to the Chinese tradition of famille noire porcelain and followed a Thai model instead. He illustrates the shift by an imagined exchange between a Thai patron and a Chinese decorator, which he presents as a way of understanding the change rather than as evidence for it.

Among the pieces Woodward publishes is a dish in the Walters Art Museum (acc. 49.1303) carrying an Arabic invocation of Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn and a date equivalent to 1824–1825. Ünver Rüstem, in an appended note, reads the Shiʿi invocation and the Persian form of the numeral as indicating a buyer in the Persianate world. He infers from the rarity of such invocations, and from the presence of a date, that the dish was commissioned for a particular purpose rather than made for the open market.

Enamelled wares of this kind were made in China from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). They have been said to have been first produced in Zhejiang province in the reign of the Xuande Emperor (1425–1435), and to have become popular under the Chenghua Emperor (1464–1487). In China three or more colours are used, against five or more in Thailand. An account current in Thailand holds that the ware was brought to Siam about six hundred years ago by a Chinese princess who married into the Siamese royal house. It was thereafter supplied from China to the Siamese court over several reigns, including that of Prasat Thong (1629–1656). Siamese production is said to have followed the discovery of local kaolin and the establishment of workshops staffed by artisans brought from China. The first Thai-made pieces are assigned to the reign of Rama V, who permitted their use by the aristocracy and by wealthy merchants, and the ware became generally available under Rama IX.

Production

Production of Benjarong is a process known to only small communities of Thai artists which have passed down the knowledge from generation to generation. The artisan who makes Benjarong has to be very skillful and careful. The production process also requires skilled laborers. Form and pattern are the distinguishing features of the ware. In the porcelain selection, only white porcelain (Bone China and Royal Porcelain) which has been fired at the proper temperature (1150-1280 degree Celsius) for many hours, are selected. White ware must not have any flaws. After selecting the perfect porcelain, it is then cleaned. During this process, it is necessary to avoid oily surfaces from sweaty and dirty hands. The piece is then painted, beginning with hypodermic syringe or paint brush to draw lines. The process begins with drawing circular guide lines on the piece while rotating it on a turning wheel, which is manually controlled. While drawing on the design, the artist will keep the sample pattern in front of him so they can draw the pattern correctly. The initial pattern drawing is very crucial to how the design will turn out, so it must be done by a well-experienced artist (usually drawn by a master craftsman). This is the reason why the pattern is drawn in very fine lines on each Benjarong. In the painting process, there are various colours of paint, but five are basic (black, green, yellow, red and white). The specialized paint for Benjarong needs a skillful painter. The paint is made from mineral colors and must be well crushed and mixed with water in the proper ratio. The crushing equipment is ceramic (or equivalent material) mortar. The paint should not be too thick or thin. If the paint is too thick, it will not be completely fired and the color will not be shown as expected. If the paint is too thin, the color will fade. Also, the paint must not overlap with any line of another color. At the final stage of painting, 18 karat gold might be added to the rims in order to make it look glamorous. The next step after painting is firing. Painted wares will be put in the kiln. The spaces between them are 0.5 – 1.0 cm; otherwise, the painted wares might touch each other and might damage the pattern that was painted after firing. The temperature in the kiln is controlled between 800 and 1000◦C and takes about 10 hours firing time. The Benjarong must be put in the kiln five times. After finishing the firing, the Benjarong will be cooled down; then it is taken out of the kiln. Once the Benjarong has been fired, it can be seen as three-dimensional bubbles of paint on the surface, which is the reason why Benjarong is unique. At the end of production, there will be quality control. A piece found to be flawed is returned to the studio or discarded.

Usage

Benjarong is commonly given as a gift on occasions such as weddings and New Year, and is also used as a decorative object in the home. The ware is fragile and breaks if dropped. The enamels are durable and do not fade, although prolonged direct sunlight is avoided, and pieces are cleaned with a soft sponge or cloth rather than with abrasives or chemical cleaners.

References

• Fernquest, J. (2012, March 20). Thai Heritage: Benjarong Porcelain. Retrieved from Bangkokpost: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/285215/about-business
• History of Benjarong. (n.d.). Retrieved from Siam-Traders: "Benjarong - History of Benjarong". Archived from the original on 2014-08-19. Retrieved 2014-11-16.
• History of Benjarong. (n.d.). Retrieved from Globiztar: http://www.globiztar.com/benjarong/benjarong-catalog.pdf

External links

Media related to Benjarong at Wikimedia Commons