Chu Dau pottery plate champions Guinness World Record

The Chu Dau pottery plate, winner of Guinness World Record

A masterpiece of an age-old tradition

The plate, measuring 1.2 metres in diameter, features two leading colours: the yellow enamel and the deep blue tone of the patterns. The distinction of Vietnam’s largest Chu Dau pottery, however, is the calligraphy depicting the word “Long” (“Dragon”) a 1,000 times in different configurations: the shape of a soldier holding a rifle to safeguard the Motherland, a navy soldier on board a ship at sea, a young girl from Hanoi, an ascending dragon, birds, shrimps, a guitar, flowers, and more.

The unique plate also features traditional patterns such as daisies and flower strings – the key thematic elements of Chu Dau pottery.

This Guinness Record-holding plate has been crafted manually by 10 Chu Dau craftsmen, together with renowned calligraphy artisan Le Thien Ly in more than 200 days.

The materials used for the creation of this masterpiece were very carefully curated. White clay was taken from Truc Thon, Chi Linh, whereas kaolin was brought from the northern highlands, the birthplace of the famous Hung kings, perfectly matched by water taken from Kinh Thay River, creating a paste that is deeply imbued with the distinctive Vietnamese culture.

After the completion of the design, the product was covered with a unique enamel line – “tro trau” – an exclusive local enamel line that has made Chu Dau pottery unique among pottery lines available in the marketplace.

Raising the bar for Chu Dau pottery

At the Guinness World Record awards ceremony, Nguyen Huu Thuc, director of Chu Dau Pottery JSC, shared that taking on the nearly 500-year heritage of Chu Dau pottery under the guidance of BRG Group, the company has been working tirelessly to give birth to thousands of distinctly Vietnamese products shaped by the dexterous hands and creativity of local artisans and craftsmen.

Chu Dau is an age-old high-end pottery line, a symbol of Vietnamese culture that is widely chosen by the Vietnamese government, local organisations, and businesses as gifts to international guests at important foreign affairs events such as the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Danang or the DPRK-US Summit earlier this year.

Chu Dau pottery is now exhibited at 46 well-known museums in 32 countries around the world, including Tokyo in Japan, Istanbul in Turkey, and New York City in the US.

Chu Dau pottery is now exported to around 30 countries and territories worldwide.

With the uniqueness of the product and the efforts to revive and develop premium Chu Dau ceramics, Chu Dau Ceramic JSC received the award from General Vo Nguyen Giap who called Chu Dau Ceramic “the Essence of Vietnamese culture” and Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc who praised it for its Vietnamese character “shining over five continents.”