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The History of Benjarong Porcelain |
Designs |
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Benjarong porcelain can be easily recognized by
distinctive design features :
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The decoration is densely painted and very delicately
detailed. Most patterns are symmetrical base on geometrical
designs
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Benjarong wares were enameled with relief glaze,
emphasizing the background color, while the Chinese wares were
thinly painted and never emphasize background color
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The dazzling designs are attractive and with
the lavish use of gold
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Patterns include traditional Thai motifs, such
as flora, plant and flame designs, as well as cultural symbols,
such as The Garuda (the half-man half-bird mount of the god
Vishnu and a symbol of Thai royalty), the emblem of the Siamese
kings
In the 13th – 18th century, Benjarong porcelain
was exclusively made for the royal court. Later its use extended
to aristocrats and wealthy merchants; today people of all nationalities
use Benjarong for formal ware
The designs on the earliest Benjarong used a limited
number of colors mostly for religions subjects but eventually
a new design style grew up known as “Lai Nam Thong”
which used gold as its distinctive colour. In the reign of King
Rama II (1809-1851) Lai Nam Thong wares with gorgeous gold accents
were very popular. Today, the original Benjarong wares are displayed
at the Thai National Museum in Bangkok.
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| Chakri Green Background |
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| Kao Larm Trad Blue color |
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Dok mai Khod Fancy Colors
on White Background |
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Pikul Flower
Blue Background |
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Making Benjarong |
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Fine quality Benjarong using traditional hand-painted
techniques, is usually made in limited quantities. The base is export
grade royal bone china. Chinese porcelain was developed during the
Song dynasty (960 - 1127 ) but bone china was an evolution created
in England in the 18th century. In addition to kaolin ( a form of
clay ) and feldspar used in porcelain, the English added 40-50 percent
bone ash to produce bone china. The resultant ware is superior in
strength, translucency, thinness, and whiteness
Benjarong is an enamel overglaze process painted on the china ware.
Enamel is a non-organic compound which becomes a glass matrix when
fired.The finish never fades and is strong enough to resist scratching.
The entire surface from rim to base is drawn by hand and the colors
are painted in one at a time, and 18 carat gold is painted to outline
every color
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The piece on the left is ready to be fired in the kiln
for 10 hours at 800 C. The kiln firing is where modern technology
helps keep the cost down. The small electric kilns made by the Japanese
allow a few pieces to be fired every night. The temperature and the
firing-cooling time is electronically controlled, resulting in very
few misfirings. Our exclusive protrusion technique can be seen by
multi-layering till there is a 3 dementional bubble of paint. Since
we developed this technique, it has been so popular, now we only produce
this line of dinner ware. |
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Complete Dining Sets
Our ultimate product, a complete modern ware set, is done in our new
and exclusive protrusion technique. A complete set will take 3 months
to produce. Every piece is painted by the same craftsman to ensure
artistic unity. If the idea of a craftsman producing only 4 dining
sets a year seems ludicrous to the rest of the world, this is traditional
craftsmanship at work in Thailand. Would the Kings of old Siam, for
whom the original Benjarong was produced, expect any less ? |
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You won't find our Benjarong in any department store, not even Neiman-Marcus.
Well, at least we haven't asked them, yet. We can only produce a limited
quantity anyway, so there is no point in trying to mass market. We
don't wish to give up our custom ordering process anyway. |
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