Yaozhou ware

Yaozhou ware (Chinese: 耀州窯; pinyin: Yàozhōu yáo; Wade–Giles: Yao-chou yao) is a type of celadon or greenware in Chinese pottery, which was at its height during the Northern Song dynasty. It is the largest and typically the best of the wares in the group of Northern Celadon wares. It is especially famous for the rich effects achieved by decoration in shallow carving under a green celadon glaze which sinks into the depressions of the carving giving contrasts of light and dark shades.

Although "the term Northern Celadon has never been regarded as anything but vague and unsatisfactory", and the Yaozhou kiln site has been known for a long time, some scholars have felt that the wider term retains its usefulness as an umbrella category and because of the difficulty of distinguishing Yaozhou wares from those of other sites. The most important of these are at Linru and Baofeng in Henan, but their quality is regarded as inferior to Yaozhou, although the bodies are extremely similar, and the range of glaze colours overlap. The "products are only distinguishable by very small technical differences in the carved wares and of style in the moulded ones".