Hi All, Peter!
What are your thoughts on this? How often do you see this?
I was told its kiln saggar, not only still containing a Qingbai porcelain bowl, but with the almost complete remains of another fused to its underside! This was excavated from a kiln site in the Jingdezhen area of Jiangxi province.
Does this seem authentic?
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Sure, I see them occasionally. They are not the object of collecting themselves, but a good example to show how things were fired. With this type several bowls could be stacked on top of each another for firing, saving space. So space saving was one reason, but do you know the other reason why saggars were used?
Hmm is it a mold in a way? when stacked and put in kilns, so instead of individually putting it, stacking prevents warping correct?
There exist many types of saggars. Some Chinese call it "baking boxes". In the case of this one a bowl was placed inside a saggar for firing, and then many similar ones were stacked to form a sort of pilar. This (1) allowed more items to be fired at the same time in a limited kiln space. And (2) a saggar allows to maintain a more or less uniform temperature around an item, resulting in a more uniform glaze color. It also kept ash away so that the glaze was not soiled by flying ash.