Panchronia

Ming and Qing Porcelain

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c. 1368 – 1912 · Asia · decorative arts · origin: Jingdezhen

Thin white porcelain painted in cobalt and enamels: the first global brand, carried across the seas

Ming and Qing Porcelain
Rosemania → Jbarta · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons

How to recognise it

Why it emerged

The imperial kilns at Jingdezhen had the finest kaolin and a division of labour close to a factory. Demand from the court, then from Portuguese and Dutch merchants, turned porcelain into a mass export copied from Iznik to Delft.

Examples

Porcelain Tower of Nanjingc. 1412–1431A pagoda clad in white glazed tiles that Europeans called a wonder of the world; destroyed in 1856Chenghua chicken cupc. 1470An early doucai masterpiece; in 2014 one sold at auction for over $36 millionKraak warec. 1570–1640Export blue-and-white carried on Portuguese carracks; Delft potters copied itFamille rose porcelainc. 1720Pink enamels from Europe gave Qing painters soft gradations impossible in blue-and-white

How it spread

Meanwhile elsewhere

Wikipedia (Russian) · Wikipedia (English)

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