Celadon: of bowls and boots

Sat 21 November 2015

I’ve always had a thing for dusty blue-green shades and today I learned a beautiful word for one of those colours: celadon.  While at the Potter’s Market this morning, John the Potter commented on my boots, saying he’d never seen a pair of “celadon Dr Martens”. Seeing my blank expression he explained the origin of the word to me – back in the day the ceramics world was obsessed and overrun with blue and white porcelain but the French decided to start using a different colour from China, a light greeny turquoise. Apparently it matched the signature shade of a French ballet dancer whose name was Celadon and so the name stuck.

Reading the history on Wiki, it appears John used some artistic license in his tale – naturally the story is a little more complicated and there appear to be multiple theories on the origin of name, all of which I like, but I especially love the romanticism and whimsy of that French dancer story.

Bowls and boots

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Potter’s Market  |   John the Potter   |   Docs from That Shoe Lady

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