The microstructure of multicolor hare’s fur glaze: the correlation between morphological and compositional characteristics and glaze color

Abstract The hare’s fur glazed Jian wares characterized by radial fur-like strips, as one of the typical representatives of Chinese ceramics in the 10th-13th century (A.D.), were famous for the aesthetic values in highlighting the color sparkling effects of tea soup, which were one of the indispensable tea wares in tea culture. The firing technology of hare’s fur glaze of Jian wares not only played a crucial role in the development of Chinese ceramic history, but also enlightened the modern imitation technology. The hare’s fur glaze of Jian wares can be further grouped according to the color of strips, of which the yellowish-brown hare’s fur glaze (yellowish-brown matte strips), gold hare’s fur glaze (golden shiny strips) and silver hare’s fur glaze (bright silvery strips) were the most representative types. Epsilon-Fe2O3, a specific metastable crystal phase, has become a research hotspot as the chromogenic crystals of hare’s fur glaze, however, the comparative analysis focused on the correlation between ε-Fe2O3 and the macroscopic glaze color has been barely reported. In our work, the bright color strips (hare’s fur area) and black strips (black glaze area) of silver, gold and yellowish-brown hare’s fur glaze were morphologically and compositionally analyzed by SEM and EDS, respectively. The morphological features and compositional differences of three representative types of hare’s fur glaze samples were summarized, which indicated the differences in the size, distribution and coverage of crystals and the distribution and contents of materials. It was speculated that high-level of Fe2O3 and CaO with low-level of SiO2 and Al2O3 may relate to the crystallization of ε-Fe2O3. This work helps in laying the foundation of further explanation of the technological differences of hare’s fur glazes.