Blue and white ceramics developed in China where the naturally occurring cobalt was first used as a flux in the glaze or as a blue dripped down the Tang ceramics. China also had all the natural ingredients for pottery, stoneware which could be fired at high temperatures to be become porcelaneous and porcelain. The cobalt when ground down could be used for underglaze blue decoration. It is difficult to be exact when this happened if you work from negative evidence i.e., Marco Polo didn’t mention blue and white decorated pieces, or examples have not been found on Song or early wrecks. There are examples of Yuan Blue and White ware, but large-scale production began at the end of the Yuan Dynasty or start of the Ming dynasty – late 13th century /early 14th century.
Blue and white underglaze decoration takes great skill. To paint on a fired unglazed body is difficult as the bisque porcelain is dry and sucks the cobalt in. But the ability to show definition, pattern and form grew quickly; a quick brush stroke can show a facial feature or an impression of an emotion. The use of heaping and piling up to the end of the Ming Dynasty allowed the painter to heap on the cobalt to darken and shade the decoration producing a two dimensional quality, sometimes this was used too much and actually cracked the surface of the porcelain, but this technique ended during the Transitional period – end of the Ming and beginning of the Qing dynasty with better kiln technology and experimentation a more refined decoration could be achieved with vibrant blues and more detail to the design. The ultimate quality was when the painter achieved four blues in the decoration by over painting and refining better cobalt.
The first two Qing rulers – Shunzhi (1644-1661) and Kangxi (1662-1722) saw a demand for the porcelain with the vibrant blue decoration in the west grow out of all proportion. This trade was carried by both the Dutch and British East India Companies. The porcelain was predominately made at the kilns in Jiangxi province at Jingdezhen although there was a little blue and white produced at Dehua in Fujian and some illicit ware at Swatow. The Hongs -Merchants – placed the orders they received from the west with their contacts and the pieces would be ready to be shipped 12-24months later. The decoration to begin with represented Chinese taste with scenes from legends or myths
The development of the Tea, coffee and chocolate drinks demanded even more porcelain and until the development of the western porcelain factories e.g., Meissen,. Worcester and Chelsea the demand was almost insatiable. Once the manufacture of porcelain grew in the west the trade declined with China and by the late 18th century the trade was more of bespoke orders.
Period
Blue and white ceramics developed in China where the naturally occurring cobalt was first used as a flux in the glaze or as a blue dripped down the Tang ceramics. China also had all the natural ingredients for pottery, stoneware which could be fired at high temperatures to be become porcelaneous and porcelain. The cobalt when ground down could be used for underglaze blue decoration. It is difficult to be exact when this happened if you work from negative evidence i.e., Marco Polo didn’t mention blue and white decorated pieces, or examples have not been found on Song or early wrecks. There are examples of Yuan Blue and White ware, but large-scale production began at the end of the Yuan Dynasty or start of the Ming dynasty – late 13th century /early 14th century.
Blue and white underglaze decoration takes great skill. To paint on a fired unglazed body is difficult as the bisque porcelain is dry and sucks the cobalt in. But the ability to show definition, pattern and form grew quickly; a quick brush stroke can show a facial feature or an impression of an emotion. The use of heaping and piling up to the end of the Ming Dynasty allowed the painter to heap on the cobalt to darken and shade the decoration producing a two dimensional quality, sometimes this was used too much and actually cracked the surface of the porcelain, but this technique ended during the Transitional period – end of the Ming and beginning of the Qing dynasty with better kiln technology and experimentation a more refined decoration could be achieved with vibrant blues and more detail to the design. The ultimate quality was when the painter achieved four blues in the decoration by over painting and refining better cobalt.
The first two Qing rulers – Shunzhi (1644-1661) and Kangxi (1662-1722) saw a demand for the porcelain with the vibrant blue decoration in the west grow out of all proportion. This trade was carried by both the Dutch and British East India Companies. The porcelain was predominately made at the kilns in Jiangxi province at Jingdezhen although there was a little blue and white produced at Dehua in Fujian and some illicit ware at Swatow. The Hongs -Merchants – placed the orders they received from the west with their contacts and the pieces would be ready to be shipped 12-24months later. The decoration to begin with represented Chinese taste with scenes from legends or myths
The development of the Tea, coffee and chocolate drinks demanded even more porcelain and until the development of the western porcelain factories e.g., Meissen,. Worcester and Chelsea the demand was almost insatiable. Once the manufacture of porcelain grew in the west the trade declined with China and by the late 18th century the trade was more of bespoke orders.
