Wuyue Culture Museum—Porcelain Collection

Wuyue Culture Museum houses 350 pieces (sets) of secret color porcelain, nearly half of which are national first-class cultural relics. It is said to be the museum with the largest and most comprehensive collection of secret color porcelain masterpieces in China.

Secret color porcelain, as a special type of celadon from the traditional Chinese Yue kiln, represents the highest craftsmanship level of Yue kiln celadon. It is characterized by "like ice and jade, waterless yet watery" (like ice and jade refers to the fine texture and crystal-clear glaze of secret color porcelain), and its surviving quantity is extremely rare, with each piece considered a national treasure.

The term "secret color" first appeared in the late Tang poet Lu Guimeng's "Secret Color Yue Ware": "In the ninth autumn, the wind and dew open the Yue kiln, capturing the emerald color of a thousand peaks"—the "emerald color of a thousand peaks" in the poem praises the beautiful, moist, and bright glaze color of secret color porcelain and is the earliest known literary record of secret color porcelain.

A large stacked firing specimen from the Tianmu kiln, with black-glazed porcelain on the upper layer and celadon bowls on the lower layer stacked like a "thousand-layer cake," recreates the glory of the porcelain industry in Lin'an during the Song and Yuan dynasties.

Post by JamesAnderson.28 | Oct 21, 2025