Myanmar ceramics
By the mid-14th century, Burmese potters were producing large brown-glazed stoneware jars known as Martaban, after the trading port of the same name (now Mottama) in Lower Myanmar. Early western travellers, such as Ibn Battuta (14th century) and the Portuguese, Duarte Barbosa (16th century) mentioned seeing ‘huge jars’.
Between the late 14th and 17th century, high-fired stoneware with celadon glaze was produced in kilns at Twante in south-western Myanmar. Typically, Myanmar celadons have simple forms and minimal incised decoration. Another variation of white ware includes the addition of green design painted under (or sometimes over) the white glaze. This lead-based glaze contains some tin, a constituent unknown in any other Southeast Asian or Chinese ceramic tradition. However, it had been used in glazes in the Middle East in the 9th and 10th centuries.
