Showroom displays fine porcelain as art

      Viet Nam’s leading fine porcelain maker Minh Long No 1 has opened a huge showroom in Binh Duong Province to display exquisite, exclusive artistic works that its artisans have produced over the last five years.
"The showroom will display and introduce high-quality porcelain ware that will not only serve daily use but can also be displayed as works of art," Ly Ngoc Minh, general director of the company, said at the opening ceremony yesterday.
This is the first time the company is producing artistic works in porcelain. Minh said these works were produced by 30 artisans over the past five years with assistance from "porcelain masters" from China, Swizerland and the Netherlands.
While porcelain industries in other countries bake their coloured works at 850oC, Minh Long No 1 employs a technique that does it at 1,250oC, he said.
"This high temperature helps to make the colour on porcelain unchanged and renders details of the painting more active," said Minh.
Minh Long has produced less than 200 porcelain works of this type in the past five years, with less than 10 copies of each work. Some of them are single pieces. The works cost between VND30-75 million (US$1,600-4,100) a piece, Minh said.
"We do not target any profit from this series of Minh Long products. We want to show that we can do, and even do better, whatever other porcelain makers around the world can produce," he added.
Family tradition
Minh Long No 1 was founded in 1970 by Minh, who was born to a family with generations of involvement in the ceramic trade.
Combining his passion for porcelain with the inheritance of generations of knowledge and experience from his ancestors, Minh dedicated his life to studying firing techniques and composition of the porcelain; and also spending a great deal of time designing and creating a unique style for Minh Long’s products.
The company has a 120,000sq.m factory in Thuan An District. Minh Long is the first company in the country’s porcelain industry to use gas-fueled kiln for its production lines.
Minh Long’s porcelain products, which have won over many connoisseurs and discriminating buyers, have been exported to the US, European countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands, and Asian countries and territories like Japan, Taiwan and Malaysia.