Sparking Joy: When Chinese Neolithic Pottery Meets the Modern Designer

“This is exactly what art should do. It should move us.”

- Ronald W. Longsdorf

When you pick up an object, ask yourself: Does it spark joy? This is the sixth and most profound guiding principle to the KonMari Method™, Marie Kondo’s philosophy to organising. Since publishing her first book, The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing in 2014, the Japanese consultant has authored three more books, secured her own Netflix show, and built a business out of her method. By asking ourselves if the object brings joy we effectively permit feelings to be the standard for choosing the objects and items we want to live with. Consequently, every item we own will be one that gives us pleasure.

Sound familiar? It might. Common advice towards collecting art is to buy what one likes, to choose what makes you happy, and to decide if it’s a work of art you can see yourself living with. As the live sale, Ancient Civilisations II – Neolithic Pottery including the Collection of Ronald W. Longsdorf, draws near, we explore the appreciation of Neolithic pottery through the words of Ronald W. Longsdorf, product designer and renowned collector who held each of these objects in his own hands, exploring every inch of them with pleasure and an eye adept to modern design.

The Joy of Neolithic Pottery

“I have always been fascinated by the way the forms were conceived, engineered, decorated, and produced, and I am profoundly stirred by their aesthetic strengths. I have tried to articulate what it is that moves me about them.”

- Ronald W. Longsdorf

Published in The Pottery Age: An Appreciation of Neolithic Ceramics from China (2019) in which Longsdorf extensively documents 100 examples of Neolithic pottery from his private collection, his words bring an empathetic and modern approach to appreciating the beauty of centuries-old ceramics. Below we spotlight 10 pieces through his design notes. Bringing his skillset and familiarity with the processes of ceramics and his background in designing products for Western consumers, Longsdorf describes Neolithic pottery with the flair of a creative talent, and the touch of a man who clearly felt the joy of holding these pottery pieces in his own hands and living with them at home. “To fully appreciate a pot, one must handle it, feel the weight, the balance, the texture, the surface. Authentic pieces may even have a very particular pungent smell.”

Neolithic pottery, Longsdorf emphasises, was the fine art of its time. In his discussion of Neolithic pottery, Longsdorf outlines several key concepts of pottery design: “form follows function” and ergonomic designs were both drivers of Neolithic pottery innovation; inspiration on both a function and aesthetic level came from the natural world; and these objects encapsulated the creativity of the potter themselves within their design. It is also through consideration of these concepts that we can draw parallels between the appreciation of Neolithic pottery with a modern eye and contemporary design aesthetics where we strive to live with the beautiful and the minimal. Living minimally no longer means stripping our homes down to the bare necessities though, as Kondo’s method would suggest, it can simply mean living with objects that bring us joy. At the convergence of modern and minimalist design styles, where form and function are emphasised alongside pleasurable aesthetics and ambience, is the preference for simplicity, clean lines, geometric shapes, natural light, materials such as wood and glass, and neutral colour palettes. All this, we can find in the designs of Neolithic pottery, which all things considered were certainly ahead of its time.

A tall white pottery tripod ewer
A small red pottery human head bottle
A large painted 'spirals' pottery jar
A small painted pottery double neck jar
A black 'eggshell' pottery stemcup
A large grey pottery bowl with engraved designs
A small painted pottery jar
A pair of small abstract pottery ram and ewe
A large painted pottery human head jar
A red pottery double-gourd vase

A tall white pottery tripod ewer, early Bronze Age, early 2nd Millenium B.C.

These ewers, especially the taller ones, are unquestionably among the most remarkable pottery vessels to have ever come out of China. They are masterpieces of the potter's art. It has been suggested that their form might have been inspired by birds, but whatever they may abstractly represent, they were no doubt considered beautiful, if not awesome, within their culture.

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A small red pottery human head bottle, Yangshao culture, Banpo to Miaodigou phase, 4800-3500 B.C.

It is easy to imagine how a potter, looking at the bottle with an undecorated bulb top, might be tempted to transform it into a humanoid head.

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A large painted 'spirals' pottery jar, Majiayao culture, Machang phase, c. 2200-2000 B.C.

It is important to note that, in spite of these modern criticisms, all of these jars must have been considered acceptable when they were made or we would not have them today to appreciate and study. Taken as a category, whether painted for actual use, burial, or both, this pottery represents the best painting the culture could produce, and has even been called the 'fine art' of its day.

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A small painted pottery double neck jar, Majiayao culture, Banshan phase, c. 2600-2300 B.C.

The purpose of this extraordinary and extremely rare design with two necks is not known. There are very few other examples with two necks of roughly equal size. Sometimes these multi-neck jars are designed with one central neck surrounded by one to five smaller ones. There are too few of them extant to expect that they were used broadly, or for any normal daily use.

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A black 'eggshell' pottery stemcup, Longshan culture, c. 2500-2000 B.C.

The purpose of this extraordinary angled, globular stem on this stem cup may well remain a secret of its culture forever. However, theere may have been an ergonomic consideration, as it is surprisingly very comfortable to hold by grasping the globe in the palm of the hand.

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A large grey pottery bowl with engraved designs, Probably Zhaobaogou Culture, 5th - 4th Millennium B.C.

The complexity of the designs and the care with which they were executed would indicate that these bowls were highly valued in their culture.

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A small painted pottery jar, Qijia culture, 2050-1700 B.C.

The curvilinear design and smoothly finished surfaces of this small jar make it visually pleasing and comfortable to hold and handle. The triangles are repeated multiple times around the jar. In the context of 'form follows nature,' these graphics could be interpreted as mountains, perhaps reflected in water. They may also be merely abstract, decorative forms.

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A pair of small abstract pottery ram and ewe, Qijia culture, 2050-1700 B.C.

The delicately potted walls are no more than 1-2mm thick. Their fragility precludes them from any regular, normal daily use. What other purpose they may have had is not known, but they may well have been made for a very particular and important occasion and/or individual.

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A large painted pottery human head jar, Majiayao culture, Machang phase, c. 2200-2000 B.C.

There are many other examples of jars of this type, each with variations in the sculpting and painting of the added sculpture. It is usually an adult but there are examples of a child, and sometimes even an animal. Typically, these jars have vertical parallel lines painted under the eyes,a nd sometimes elsewhere on the faces.

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A red pottery double-gourd vase, Yangshao culture, Banpo phase, c. 4800-4300 B.C.

The distinctive shape of this bottle is a derivation of a natural double gourd. This clever adaptation is a nearly perfect design for containing liquids. The bottom-heavy form provides stability, while the narrow neck and bulbous mouth provide a place to hold the bottle while pouring, as well as a place to tie off a cover.

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