colour scheme
Chinese Blue and White Porcelain
Blue and White Porcelain
Chinese Blue and White porcelain is the most easily distinguishable and famous ceramic type. Blue designs are painted onto a white background, which shines through a clear glaze. The blue (Cobalt) in Blue and White wares was originally sourced from Persia and gained the name ‘Mohammedan Blue', however over time the Chinese managed to source cobalt on home ground, and eventually secured a formula that often mixed the two types.
The main centre for production was at Jing-de-zhen (Ching-tê Chên), Jiangxi Province, which as noted by Margaret Medley was ‘capable of producing virtually anything that a merchant might demand by the beginning of the sixteenth century' (2006:216). The wares were then transported 400 miles to Canton for export (Schiffer 1975:12).
Blue and white was the first real type of mass produced export ceramic ware, to the extent that the Chinese had a monopoly on this market. The reasons for this demand were because the Chinese had developed a form of ceramic known as (hard-paste) porcelain which did not chip unlike the European ceramics. The material was also more malleable and therefore the porcelain could be molded into delicate and elegant shapes. It was only in the early 18th Century that the Europeans discovered the secret recipe to hard-paste porcelain.
The blue and white in this collection can be dated to the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). Apart from the Chinese tea bowls, much of the form of the export ware has been designed to meet the needs of the Western lifestyle; for instance, plates, sauceboats, jugs and western style tea cups are all types of blue and white porcelain that would have been seen in country houses across middle class England during the 18th century. Yet, when one examines the decoration and detail, Chinese influence, or at least what the Chinese thought the Westerners wanted to see, can be observed. There is the Chinese Willow pattern, of which there are variations of a theme running through the collection; various flower motifs such as Chrysanthemum and Peonies, which symbolise seasons of the year, and other Chinese emblems such as scholarly attributes, which would mean nothing to the western eye, other than to provide aesthetic pleasure. However, there was a western obsession with ‘all things oriental', and the decoration on the Chinese ceramics was one way of providing a window to the Orient.
