Microstructure characteristics of blue-and-white porcelain from the folk kiln of Ming and Qing Dynasties

Blue-and-white porcelain is a kind of famous underglaze color porcelain in Chinese ceramic history. In this paper, 13 pieces of blue-and-white porcelain shards collected in Beijing were adopted as samples. Microstructure characteristics and distributions of chemical elements were investigated. Quartz and mullite were the main crystalline phases in blue-and-white porcelain bodies. The column-like crystals in the glaze were anorthite crystals. Microstructures of interaction layers in the blue decorations could be divided into two categories with morphologically distinctive microstructures: column-like and flower-like structures. The coloring elements surrounded by dense anorthite crystals mainly concentrated in the center of interaction layers, and the cobalt blue pigments were identified as cobalt aluminate (CoAl2O4).