Blue and white pottery

"Blue and white pottery" () covers a wide range of white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide. The decoration was commonly applied by hand, originally by brush painting, but nowadays by stencilling or by transfer-printing, though other methods of application have also been used. The cobalt pigment is one of the very few that can withstand the highest firing temperatures that are required, in particular for porcelain, which partly accounts for its long-lasting popularity. Historically, many other colours required overglaze decoration and then a second firing at a lower temperature to fix that.

The origin of the blue glazes is thought to lie in Iraq, when craftsmen in Basra sought to imitate imported white Chinese stoneware with their own tin-glazed, white pottery and added decorative motifs in blue glazes. Such Abbasid-era pieces have been found in present-day Iraq dating to the 9th century AD, decades after the opening of a direct sea route from Iraq to China. According to Jonathan Bloom, these 9th and 10th century Iraqi examples were the first blue-and-white wares. This technique was transmitted to Europe during the Arab conquest of Spain and North Africa and is also believed to have influenced Chinese ceramics through the activities of Muslim traders. The influence of Islamic pottery can be clearly seen in the work of Gongxian potters when they switched to making stonewares for use in daily life. Instead of drawing from the typical repertoire of Tang ornamentation, their angular lozenge motifs and palmettes look like a direct take on Mesopotamian quatrefoil panels filled with Arabic writing and surrounded by leaf fronds.

In China, a style of decoration based on sinuous plant forms spreading across the object was perfected and most commonly used. Blue and white decoration first became widely used in Chinese porcelain in the 14th century, after the cobalt pigment for the blue began to be imported from Persia. It was widely exported, and inspired imitative wares in Islamic ceramics, and in Japan, and later European tin-glazed earthenware such as Delftware and after the techniques were discovered in the 18th century, European porcelain. Blue and white pottery in all of these traditions continues to be produced, most of it copying earlier styles.

Origin and development

thumb|upright=0.85|[[Islamic tin-glazed earthenware, with blue and white decoration, Iraq, 9th century. The Arabic calligraphy is ghibta, i.e. "happiness".|left]]

Cobalt blue glaze became popular in Islamic pottery during the Abbasid Caliphate, when the cobalt was mined near Kashan, Oman, and Northern Hejaz. Blue-and-white wares were first produced in the 9th century in Iraq. Following an analysis of the literature regarding blue-and-white ceramics, Edwards and Colomban (2025) characterized the decoration style as an Abbasid innovation. Early Chinese craftspeople used blue-and-white porcelain to replicate the styles of Islamic pottery and metalwork. Even earlier, during the eighth century, Chinese potters adopted motifs like lotus scrolls directly from Persian silverwork.

Tang and Song blue-and-white

thumb|left|upright=1.1|A blue and white stoneware plate with floral motif (cobalt-blue pigment over white slip), manufactured in kilns in Gongxian, Henan. Found in the [[Belitung shipwreck, dated c. 825–850, Tang dynasty.]]

The use of cobalt as an underglaze color was introduced to China from Iraq, where Abbasid potters had been using it on white glazed earthenware since the 9th century. In China, it was first applied to earthenware during the Tang dynasty (618–907 CE) and subsequently to porcelain. Shards of blue-and-white porcelain from the late Tang dynasty have been discovered at the Huangye and Baihe kiln sites in Gongyi, Henan Province. Tang period blue-and-white is more rare than Song blue-and-white and was unknown before 1985. The Tang pieces are not porcelain however, but rather earthenwares with greenish white slip, using cobalt blue pigments. It appears that the technique was forgotten for some centuries. There are still those arguing that early pieces are mis-dated, and in fact go back to the Southern Song. Still, most scholars continue to reject this view.

In the early 14th century, mass production of fine, translucent, blue and white porcelain started at Jingdezhen, sometimes called the porcelain capital of China. This development was due to the combination of Chinese techniques and Islamic trade. Cobalt was so prized that manufacturers in Jingdezhen considered cobalt a precious commodity with about twice the value of gold. due to the influence of Muslim eunuchs serving at his court.

By the end of the century, a large Chinese export porcelain trade with Europe had developed, and the so-called Kraak ware style had developed. This was by Chinese standards a rather low-quality but showy style, usually in blue and white, that became very popular in Europe, and can be seen in many Dutch Golden Age paintings of the century following; it was soon widely imitated locally.

File:Blue and white jar with Persian characters Ming Zhengde 1506 1521.jpg|Blue and white jar with Persian characters, Ming Zhengde (1506–1521)

File:Blue and white porcelain box with Arabic and Persian inscriptions Zhengde 1506 1521.jpg|Blue and white porcelain box, with Arabic and Persian inscriptions, Zhengde (1506–1521)

File:Ablution basin with word Taharat (cleanliness) in Solos-Thuluth calligraphy, China, Ming dynasty, Zhengde period, 1506-1521 AD, underglaze painted porcelain - Aga Khan Museum - Toronto, Canada - DSC06903.jpg|Ablution basin with word Taharat (cleanliness) in Thuluth calligraphy, Ming Zhengde (1506–1521)

File:Ming Dynasty porcelain vase, Wanli Reign Period (2).JPG|Blue and white vase, Ming Wanli (1573–1620)

File:Blue and white jar Ming Wanli 1573 1620.jpg|Blue and white jar, Ming Wanli (1573–1620)

File:Ming dynasty dish Inv. 2120.tif|Ming dynasty export porcelain highlighted in the CCCM Museum (Macau Museum) in Lisbon, Portugal

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17th century

During the 17th century, numerous blue and white pieces were made as Chinese export porcelain for the European markets. the Transitional porcelain style, mostly in blue and white greatly expanded the range of imagery used, taking scenes from literature, groups of figures and wide landscapes, often borrowing from Chinese painting and woodblock printed book illustrations. European symbols and scenes coexisted with Chinese scenes for these objects. From about 1640 Dutch Delftware also became a competitor, using styles frankly imitative of the East Asian decoration.

File:MET DP-12231-014 (cropped).jpg|Jingdezhen Kraak ware dish of typical shape. Width: 18 5/8 in. (47.3 cm).

File:China, Jiangxi province, Jingdezhen, Qing dynasty, Shunzhi period - Brush Pot with Episode from Life on Sima Guang - 1964.179 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|Transitional porcelain brush pot with episode from the story of Sima Guang

File:Chinese blue and white export porcelain with European scene and French inscription Kangxi period 1690 1700.jpg|Blue and white export porcelain, Qing Kangxi era (1690–1700)

File:Export porcelain vase with European scene Kangxi period.jpg|Export porcelain vase with European scene, Qing Kangxi era (1690–1700)

File:Bottle, c. 1675, De Grieksche A Factory, Samuel van Eenhorn, Delft, Netherlands, tin-glazed earthenware - Art Institute of Chicago - DSC09950.JPG|Delftware bottle, c. 1675, tin-glazed earthenware

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18th century

In the 18th century export porcelain continued to be produced for the European markets.

Though polychrome decoration in overglaze enamels was now perfected, in the famille rose and other palettes, top-quality blue and white wares for the court and elite domestic markets continued to be produced at Jingdezhen.

File:Blue and white export plate Jingdezhen Qing Qianlong 1736 1795.jpg|Blue and white export plate, Jingdezhen, Qing Qianlong (1736–1795)

File:Porcelaine chinoise Guimet 281112.jpg|Blue and white Chinese export porcelain (18th century)

File:Chinese - Plate - Walters 492591 - Interior.jpg|High-quality plate, Yongzheng reign, (1722–1735)

File:Chinese - Flask - Walters 491632 (square).jpg|Flask with blue and red underglaze, a difficult technique, Qianlong reign, 1736–1795

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Outside China

Islamic pottery

Chinese blue and white ware became extremely popular in the Middle East from the 14th century, where both Chinese and Islamic types coexisted.

From the 13th century, Chinese pictorial designs, such as flying cranes, dragons and lotus flowers also started to appear in the ceramic productions of the Near-East, especially in Syria and Egypt.

Chinese porcelain of the 14th or 15th century was transmitted to the Middle-East and the Near East, and especially to the Ottoman Empire either through gifts or through war booty. Chinese designs were extremely influential with the pottery manufacturers at Iznik, Turkey. The Ming "grape" design in particular was highly popular and was extensively reproduced under the Ottoman Empire.

File:Blue relief vase Florence 2nd half 15th century.jpg|Blue relief vase, Florence, 2nd half of 15th century

File:Blue and white faience albarello with designs derived from Kufic script Toscane 2nd half 15th century.jpg|Blue-and-white faience albarello with Pseudo-Kufic designs, Tuscany, second half of 15th century

File:Vase alla porcelana Cafaggiolo 1520.jpg|Vase alla porcelana, Cafaggiolo, Italy, 1520

File:Vase, c. 1680, Delft, Netherlands, tin-glazed earthenware - Art Institute of Chicago - DSC09979.JPG|Dutch Delftware vase in a Japanese style, c. 1680

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Direct Chinese imitations

By the beginning of the 17th century Chinese blue and white porcelain was being exported directly to Europe. In the 17th and 18th centuries, Oriental blue and white porcelain was highly prized in Europe and America and sometimes enhanced by fine silver and gold mounts, it was collected by kings and princes.

The European manufacture of porcelain started at Meissen in Germany in 1707. The detailed secrets of Chinese hard-paste porcelain technique were transmitted to Europe through the efforts of the Jesuit Father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles between 1712 and 1722.

The early wares were strongly influenced by Chinese and other Oriental porcelains and an early pattern was blue onion, which is still in production at the Meissen factory today. The first phase of the French porcelain was also strongly influenced by Chinese designs.

Early English porcelain wares were also influenced by Chinese wares and when, for example, the production of porcelain started at Worcester, nearly forty years after Meissen, Oriental blue and white wares provided the inspiration for much of the decoration used. Hand-painted and transfer-printed wares were made at Worcester and at other early English factories in a style known as Chinoiserie. Chelsea porcelain and Bow porcelain in London and Lowestoft porcelain in East Anglia made especially heavy use of blue and white. By the 1770s Wedgwood's jasperware, and still using cobalt oxide, found a new approach to blue and white ceramics, and remains popular today.

Many other European factories followed this trend. In Delft, Netherlands blue and white ceramics taking their designs from Chinese export porcelains made for the Dutch market were made in large numbers throughout the 17th Century. Blue and white Delftware was itself extensively copied by factories in other European countries, including England, where it is known as English Delftware.

File:Kangxi porcelain with French silver decoration 1717-1722.jpg|Kangxi era porcelain with French silver mount, 1717–1722

File:DelftChina18thCenturyCompanieDesIndes.jpg|Dutch Delftware depicting Chinese scenes, 18th century. Musée Ernest Cognacq.

File:Faience with Chinese scenes Nevers Manufactory 1680 1700.jpg|Blue and white faience with Chinese scene, Nevers faience, France, 1680–1700

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Patterns

The plate shown in the illustration (left) is decorated, using transfer printing, with the famous willow pattern and was made by Royal Stafford; a factory in the English county of Staffordshire. Such is the persistence of the willow pattern that it is difficult to date the piece shown with any precision; it is possibly quite recent but similar wares have been produced by English factories in huge numbers over long periods and are still being made today. The willow pattern, said to tell the sad story of a pair of star-crossed lovers, was an entirely European design, though one that was strongly influenced in style by design features borrowed from Chinese export porcelains of the 18th century. The willow pattern was, in turn, copied by Chinese potters, but with the decoration hand painted rather than transfer-printed.

Image:blueandwhite2.jpg|A blue and white Staffordshire Willow pattern plate

File:Faience with Chinese scenes Nevers Manufactory 1680 1700.jpg|Blue and white faience with Chinese scene, Nevers faience, France, 1680–1700

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thumb|Vase with Lid, 1780–1783. Wolff and Bernardi Manufactory, Bielino Jurydyka, Warsaw, Poland. [[National Museum in Kraków|National Museum in Krakow.]]

Due to Poland's extensive trade relations with the Netherlands, faience production began in Gdańsk in the 17th century. Polish Pomeranian faience also began to be produced in Elbląg, Tolkmicko, Frombork, and Malbork in the 18th century. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, faience factories were called "farfurnia". In 1770, King Stanisław August Poniatowski founded the Royal Farfur Factory in Belweder, Warsaw, where ceramics were made using local kaolin clay sourced from Mokotów. Annual production reached 45,000 items in 1778. Belweder faience, produced until 1780, was distinguished by its exceptionally high level of decoration. In 1778, the Wolff and Bernardi faience factory was established in the Bielino district of Warsaw and operated until around 1800.

Vietnam

A migration of Chinese potters to neighboring Vietnam during the Yuan dynasty is thought to be the beginnings of Vietnamese blue-and-white production. However, the 15th-century Chinese occupation of Vietnam (1407–27) is considered to be the main period of Chinese influence on Vietnamese ceramics. During this period, Vietnamese potters readily adopted cobalt underglaze, which had already gained popularity in export markets in the Muslim world. Vietnamese blue-and-white wares sometimes featured two types of cobalt pigment: Middle Eastern cobalt yielded a vivid blue but was more expensive than the darker cobalt from Yunnan, China. From 1436 to 1465, China’s Ming dynasty abruptly ceased trade with the outside world, creating a commercial vacuum that allowed Vietnamese blue-and-white ceramics to monopolize the markets for sometimes, especially in Maritime Southeast Asia. This shift was intensified by a domestic shortage supply of cobalt, the main pigment used in blue and white porcelain, limiting China's production value during this period. Vietnamese wares of this era have been found all over Asia, from Japan, throughout Southeast Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines), to the Middle East (the Arabian port of Julfar, Persia, Syria, Turkey, Egypt), and Eastern Africa (Tanzania).

File:Vietnam (Annam), 14th century - Stem Cup with Dragon Decoration - 1989.360 - Cleveland Museum of Art.tif|Vietnamese blue and white stem cup, Trần dynasty period, 14th century. Cleveland Museum of Art

File:MET 1989 256 O1.jpg|Blue and white bowl with dragon texture, during Hồng Đức's years (1469–1497) of Later Lê dynasty. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

File:Ceramic Plate (15242020849).jpg|Plate with blue and white patterns, Mạc dynasty period, 16th century

File:MET DT5077.jpg|Ewer in shape of a Vietnamese phoenix, a local folk animal, 15th century. Metropolitan Museum of Art.

File:SC173509.jpg|Dish with peacock and grapes decoration, Later Lê dynasty period, 15th century. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

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India

Blue pottery of Jaipur is a traditional craft of Jaipur, in the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan, and is widely recognized as being of Central Asian and Persian inspiration. Unlike most other pottery traditions in India, Jaipur blue pottery is made not from clay but from a frit body, typically prepared from quartz stone powder, powdered glass, fuller's earth, borax, gum, and water. It is glazed and low-fired, and is known for its use of cobalt blue, turquoise, green, yellow, brown, and white colours. The ware is decorated with floral arabesques, geometric designs, and motifs drawn from birds, animals, and Mughal ornamental traditions.

The technique is thought to have travelled east from West and Central Asian blue-glazed ceramic traditions, passing through Delhi before becoming established in Jaipur. Other accounts state that blue pottery reached Jaipur in the 19th century under Sawai Ram Singh II, who encouraged local artisans to learn the craft from Delhi potters. By the early 20th century, Jaipur ware was regarded as an improvement on Delhi pottery, and the Jaipur School had indigenised the tradition through designs drawn from Indian life, including human figures, Hindu deities, palace forms, and local animal motifs.

By the 1950s the craft had nearly disappeared from Jaipur, but it was revived through the efforts of Kripal Singh Shekhawat, with the support of patrons including Gayatri Devi and Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay. Jaipur blue pottery continues to be produced today in both decorative and utilitarian forms, including tiles, bowls, vases, trays, coasters, knobs, and other glazed wares.

Notes

References

Finlay, Robert, 2010, The Pilgrim Art. Cultures of Porcelain in World History. University of California Press
Ford, Barbara Brennan, and Oliver R. Impey, Japanese Art from the Gerry Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989, Metropolitan Museum of Art, fully online
Medley, Margaret, The Chinese Potter: A Practical History of Chinese Ceramics, 3rd edition, 1989, Phaidon,

External links

Chinese Blue and White Porcelain at China Online Museum
underglazedblue - Unique content and discussion on porcelain and collecting.
A Handbook of Chinese Ceramics from The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Origin and development

Tang and Song blue-and-white

17th century

18th century

Outside China

Islamic pottery

Direct Chinese imitations

Patterns

Vietnam

India

See also

Notes

References

External links