Giftware & blue and white porcelain
Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. is a Swedish owned company contracted by the Malaysia government to excavate and research historical shipwrecks in the South China Sea. After 24 years of work, archeology has provided antique porcelain, antique China, Chinese ceramics, antique Chinese porcelain wares and other artifacts from ten shipwrecks dating between the 11th and the 19th century

After sharing artefacts from these shipwrecks with the Malaysian National Museum, we are entitled to sell our portion of the antique porcelain, antique China, Chinese ceramics, antique Chinese porcelain wares and other artefacts
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Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. 25 Jalan Wawasan jaya. 26 820 Kuala Rompin. Malaysia
Phone: 609-4131002  Fax: 609-4132996 Email: sten@tm.net.my
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23.01.2005
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Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd.
Kuala Rompin. Malaysia.
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Nanhai Marine Archaeology Sdn. Bhd. was incorporated on the recommendation of the Malaysian authorities. This was done in order to formalize and to expand on the founder’s extensive knowledge of Asia’s ceramic developments and maritime trade.

The company’s researchers have been engaged in the search for historical shipwrecks for more than two decades with another decade researching maritime trade. Most of this work is concentrated to the South China Sea, a virtual highway for ancient shipping linking China to India, the Middle East and Southeast Asia in an extensive maritime trade system. This ancient trade started sometime around the 4th century and lasted well into the 19th century.

Following a successful shipwreck discovery, the company obtain a government permit to excavate the wreckage, and then carry out detailed marine archaeological procedures in recovering the artifacts, mapping the ship's remains and securing other data for future research. After each concluded project and following conservation of recovered artifacts, we search for and pinpoint ruined kiln sites and compare its wasters with the recovered ceramics until we are satisfied we located the place in which the shipwreck pottery was made centuries earlier. 

As such we have precisely located a kiln sites in Sisatchanalai, northern Thailand in which our Royal Nanhai and the Nanyang shipwreck celadon ware was made around AD. 1380-1460. (See videos on: http://www.ming-wrecks.com/photopage.html ) Other kilns was located in Sukhothai where production wasters matched the fish and flower plates found on the Turiang and the  Longquan shipwreck. These unique underglaze decorated wares was made at those exact kilns 600 years before we found them on the shipwrecks in Malaysia! Our latest shipwreck cargo; The Wanli Shipwreck, of Chinese blue and white porcelain, was likewise pinpointed to the Guangyinge kiln site in Jingdezhen, China. (See video on: http://www.ming-wrecks.com/photopage.html )

Our arrangement with the Malaysian authorities is such that we finance all operations and train young Malaysian nationals (on our initiative) in maritime archaeology and related research. After giving all unique and single artifacts and thirty percent of all recovered items to the National Museum (and assisting with exhibitions of artifacts from each project) we are allowed to sell our portion of the recovery to finance future projects. The findings from ongoing research and the compilation of reports, books and catalogues are available on these pages as well as on a separate Internet site.

Due to the unquestionable authenticity and precisely dated shipwreck pottery, many International Museums now display our shipwreck pieces as reference material. (See: http://www.mingwrecks.com/collections.html for a list of these musems)

The artifacts sold on this website are therefore legally and properly excavated and can be supplied with an export permit from the Department of Museum in Malaysia should this be required. This unique working arrangement makes us one of the few Internet sellers that sell from own excavation and issues a meaningful Certificate of Authenticity for every (numbered) piece sold.

So, if you are interested to purchase some of our Chinese porcelain and other shipwreck artifacts from the Song dynasty, Ming pottery, or 19th century Qing porcelain or the famous Yixing teapots, you can rest assured that every piece is excavated through proper archaeology by our own staff. We do not sell anything that is not excavated by ourselves or properly recorded and researched before offered for sale so every piece comes with the “Best possible provenance”

WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO EMAIL OUR PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER; Sten Sjostrand SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR POSSIBLE PURCHASE

OTHER INTERESTING SITES FOR OLD TIME POTTERY, MARINE ARCHAEOLOGY, MING POTTERY, ANTIQUE PORCELAIN AND ANTIQUE BOWLS
This is not another site where antique dealers sell their wares for profit. Here you will buy directly from the archaeologists, that excavate the artifacts. By purchasing such artefacts, you assist with continued research and mapping of our ancient trade and trade goods.
One thing in common for all these artefacts is an unquestionable provenance. All artefacts sold are delivered with a CERTIFICATE OF AUTHENTICITY  Please read what others say about our artifacts and deliveries: Testimonies/news clippings.
To see PICTURES & VIDEO CLIPS, click here.
To read more about our shipwrecks, click here.
To preview our wreck-reports and books, click here.
To see our International museum displays, click here.
To chat  with our main researcher; Sten Sjostrand click here.
OUR GUARANTEE:
When buying anything from our web pages you are NOT dealing with antique dealers or other middle men. You will be buying directly from a team of dedicated researchers that excavated, recovered and researched every single piece offered for sale. We encourage you to contact us by email with questions regarding your possible purchase. Write to: Sten Sjostrand

If you are not satisfied with our artifacts, delivery service or; if you obtain an expert opinion that our artifacts are not as old as stated by us, just return the item and we will give you full refund. Who guarantee refund?.

SHIPPING ARTEFACTS:
All our artifacts and publications will be shipped from our store in Malaysia. The default shipping metod is "Registered Air Parcel" which is managed by Malaysia’s national post office.  Once your package is delivered to the post office, you can track its routing INSIDE Malaysia by clicking here.

If you reside in the US, you can track the package's routing WHEN in the USA by clicking here. All other customers can find their national post office and their respective online tracking systems by clicking here.

When at these tracking sites, you should enter the 13 digit tracking number -which we will provide you in a separate emai after sending your order. Once this is done, we would expect to be notified about the safe arrival of the artifact(s). Should we not receive such arrival notice inside three weeks from the date when the items were delivered to the Malaysian post office, we will consider it delivered and close the account without any possibility to trace its loss or delivery thereafter.

LOSS OR DAMAGE:
We do not insure our shipments due to costly premiums and difficulties with claiming compensation in case of damage or loss. Instead, we provide safe packing boxes where each artifact is embedded and separated by foam padding. Should you despite this care receive your piece(s) damaged, we ask you to return it to us after sending us pictures of its condition on arrival. We shall then send you replacement piece(s) -free of charge. If the tracking system confirms that your package has been lost, we shall replace the artifact(s) without cost to you.

To read our customer's comments on shipping & packing, please visit our testimonies page  Here you can email the buyer directly for  verification of their statements. Please note that each of these customers has agreed to us publishing their email addresses such that anyone can write to them for confirmation of their various comments.


WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO EMAIL OUR PRINCIPAL RESEARCHER; Sten Sjostrand SHOULD YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR POSSIBLE PURCHASE.
EXTRACT FROM ARTICLE ABOUT ANTIQUE JINGDEZHEN PORCELAIN


Jingdezhen, "The porcelain centre of the world."
A short description of the developments, transport and production
of antique Chinese porcelain
(Sten Sjostrand)

ENDNOTES:
BILIOGRAPHY:

Early Production:

Jingdezhen, the ‘city of all day thunder and lightning,’ is located in the northeastern part of Jiangxi province and is known as the porcelain centre of the world.  Some historians believe that ceramics production may have started there in the Han dynasty (206 BC.–AD. 220) with kilns spread along the Chang River, south and southeast of the town.(1)   The town  .......................................d

Another important material was fuel for the kilns. Pine wood was found in abundance around the town.  The Chang River provided transport for raw material to the kilns as well as for later shipping of the finished products.  In summary, the ample clay resources, fuel supply, convenient transportation and eventual imperial favors provided the necessary catalyst for potters from other places in China to join in the commercial pottery production in the town.

Other texts say that pottery was being made at Jingdezhen by A.D. 557 and that it had grown into an industry by Tang dynasty (A.D. 618-906).  Old texts mention the Tao kilns, which are said to be named after the Tao family who founded the kilns and who made high-fired pottery already then known to be translucent and often referred to as ‘artificial jade’.(2) .....................

By the reign of emperor Jingde (1004-1007) of the Song dynasty (960-1280), the court decreed that existing private kilns fire quality wares for imperial use and that the pieces should be marked with ‘Made in the Jingde period’ on the base.  /........................................

Tributary pottery for the court, like the thin-walled ‘thin as paper’ or qingbai wares, were made at the Hutian kilns in the northern Song dynasty.  By 1278 production at the Hutian kilns was overseen by a government official from the ‘Porcelain Office’ who also overlooked the imperial production at the Luomaqiao kilns and those on the Zhushan hill.  Hutian had a great impact on other Jingdezhen kilns which began producing similar quality wares.  At this time, it appears certain that imperial wares were not fired in a kiln specially created for that purpose.  Instead, after receiving production requirements from the court, Jingdezhen would summon all the best ceramists together to design, choose and fire the best ware possible. (4)  (It is likely that this communal corroboration between the different potteries and kilns lasted until at least the 15th century and beyond, when private kilns are known to have assisted official kilns with imperial orders.)

During the 13th century many other kilns were spread out over a large area southeast of the town.  The author visited the excavation of an early Song dynasty kiln 40 kilometers west of the Chang River in August 2005...........................

During the Song dynasty high-fired ceramics were immensely popular and developed to perfection.  .....................

By the time the Mongols had established the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368), trade flourished. The seaports established by the Song court became even more successful under Mongol rule.   Marco Polo (1275-1292) wrote that Quanzhou harbor was the greatest port in the world and also mentioned the ceramics trade:

"The most beautiful vessels and plates of porcelain, large and small, that one can describe are made in  great quantity…more beautiful than can be found in any other city.  And on all sides they are much valued, for none of th........................
This situation was also witnessed by the Arab traveler Ebn-e-Batuteh (1304-1378) who reportedly saw over a hundred big ships and innumerable smaller ships in Quangzhou harbor.

Although large quantities of Chinese pottery were exported to Southeast Asia, India and the Middle East from the 9th century, it was the Yuan dynasty (1280-1368) under the rule of Kublai Khan that significantly expanded maritime trade.  During the Mongol invasion of northern China it would appear that Cizhou potters from present-day Cixian of Handan municipally, Hebei province migrated to the south and assisted in the technical and decorative achievements of porcelain making in Jingdezhen. (7)  The technique of painting with iron black oxides before glazing, so long practiced elsewhere in China, may have given birth to the first cobalt decorated wares of Jingdezhen, although undergla......................

During the Yuan dynasty the Chinese potters introduced new forms and painted the earliest known untraditional Chinese motifs on high quality porcelain for foreign dignitaries.  Porcelain that was customized to suit the needs of the Middle East included large plates with Islamic motifs.  Shards from such plates, excavated from the original Yuan dynast.....................

Large volumes of blue and white porcelain were exported to Southeast Asia during 1328-1......................

When the Hongwu emperor, first ruler of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644),  prohibited the building of ocean going vessels and private overseas trade in 1371, it had a detrimental effect on export production at Jingdezhen.  ...........................

The official kilns did however seem to have flourished during these times.  In the early Ming dynasty another 20 kilns in Jingdezhen were recognized for their quality wares and commissioned to produce ‘imperial porcelain’ exclusively for the court.  These kilns were set up next to an ‘imperial depot’ in 1425 which was to assemble, store and arrange transport to Beijing and the imperial palace.

While production for overseas markets was reduced, private kilns in Jingdezhen made blue and white porcelain for the huge domestic market.  Work for the official kilns was increased in 1433 when the Ming court ordered 443,500 p..............................


Jingdezhen porcelain manufacturing:

The ‘flesh and bones’ of porcelain were two components mixed in different proportions depending of the type of ware desired.  The first of the ingredients is kaolin, a pure white clay formed by the decomposition of aluminum silicates, in particular decomposed feldspar.  Kaolin remains white when fired, but its low plasticity makes it difficult to pot. The clay is quarried in open ................................e on porcelain of 1815 indicates that there were 28 rapids, each of them with water-driven pestles, east of Jingdezhen.  

At the potteries the two different clay bricks were mixed with water and stirred to a homogeneous texture before storage in earthenware jars.  The proportions of the two substances depended on the type of ware to be made.  For finer wares, more kaolin was required; this allowed the shape to remain secure during firing.  On the other hand, petuntse was required for translucency, ..............................
Shapes like cups and bowls were first thrown on the wheel. After drying, back on the wheel, the leather hard pot was trimmed while careful measurements were taken to check overall diameter, height, thickness and foot-ring details.  Upright forms were made in different ......................

After the pots were trimmed and allowed to dry, skilled artisans would decorate them. Outlines, for instance, could be drawn in darker cobalt mixture before other decorators used different shades of blue to fill in the design. (17)  After the painted decoration was applied, the foot-ring was carved and circular rings were painted onto the base while the pot was still on the wheel.  Other craftsmen would then apply reign marks or an inscription within the rings.  Some pieces of porcelain from The Wanli Shipwreck included the circular outlines on the base but no markings within them. These must have by-passed the decorator who was supposedly meant to fill them. Yet other kraak plates by-passed the artisans supposed to paint the fill in the main decorations......................
After their decoration, the pots were glazed with a thin layer of specially prepared slurry containing fern ash.  This glaze mixture was delivered to the kilns in Jingdezhen as a liquid by specially lined river boats.  When the pots were glazed and dried, the painted decoration disappeared under t...............

Chinese tradition claims that the earliest cobalt at Jingdezhen was imported from Persia. This ore was rich in iron.  Later cobalt oxide, high in manganese, mined in China was utilized, sometimes in varying mixtures with imported cobalt.

Once the pots were decorated and glazed, most private workshops sent them to kilns that specialized in firing ceramics.  The pots were carried on wooden planks added in layers to a ladder-like structure.  T..................

At the kiln, the pieces of pottery were placed in saggars, specially-made circular boxes, to ensure they received uniform temperature and to protect them from air currents and debris that might fall from the kiln ceiling. ..............................
“……the whole oven-full is hardly ever successful.  Sometimes it is quite lost, and when they open the furnace they find the porcelain pieces and the                 cases (saggars) are reduced to a mass as hard as rock…. For one workman who gets rich  there are hundred others who ruin themselves, they still try their fortunes further in the hope that they may save enough to become shopkeepers”. (18)

A word of caution is in place here.  When referring to ‘kilns’ it is perhaps common to assume a place where the pots were made, decorated, glazed and fired.  This may not be true for the export production as there were relatively few ‘kilns’ but many small potteries scattered all over the town.  It is therefore possible that future archaeology will discover actual kilns, specialized in firing the ware, while other places may yield evidences of porcelain production.  

These separate production segments are probably confirmed by Tang Ying, alias Jun Gong, who was decreed to supervise porcelain production in Jingdezhen during the early 18th century. His detailed description of all phases of production includes a statement about making the saggars:

"...In the whole district of Jingdezhen there are only three or four workmen reputed clever at this special handiwork." (19)

Individual owners separated the fired wares into different quality groups and priced the export ware accordingly.  First class wares had the brightest color and no kiln defects such as wa.......................
When the volume of porcelain for export increased during the 17th century, many additional kilns appeared in and around Jingdezhen.  There is estimated to have been no less than a thousand kilns at the peak of this period.  Most of the kilns were distributed along the eastern side of the Chang River, only a few were located on its western bank. Most private kilns were located along the Taoyang Shisan Li (‘thirteen mile’) road that ran north to south through the old city zone.  The official kilns were located at or near Zhushan hill in the old city center.

Continued developments at Jingdezhen during the early Qing dynasty resulted in the finest porcelains ever made – those from the Kangxi (1662-1722) reign. Blue and white porcelains of that time were perfectly potted, fired to perfection, and decorated in sapphire blue against a bright white ground.

Thus, from the Ming dynasty we see superior quality porcelain wares made by specially appointed workshops for the exclusive use of the court.  At the same time private kilns produce porcelain for the huge domestic and an ever increasing export market.  We see private kilns assisting official workshops with large orders, and official potters and decorators joining the export industry when court orders diminished.  This degree of adaptability and outsourcing is unparalleled at any other production place at the time.

The quality of the Jingdezhen porcelain does however fall into two distinct basic groups. One was made strictly for the imperial court and the other for the domestic and export markets. .......................................
It is unfortunate that export wares have been described as ‘provincial’ or even ‘unrefined,’ which suggest the pots were made in a different area than Jingdezhen and that private potteries were unable to produce quality ware.  The truth is that the two categories of ware satisfied specific markets.  The private potters and decorators, as enterprising then as now, simply adapted a flexible market strategy for niche markets.  If freely sketched motifs and thick bodied ceramics mean they are ‘unrefined’, they certainly are not ‘provincial’ in any way.


The Portuguese buyers:

In time, yet another political situation benefited Jingdezhen.  In Europe the Portuguese made technical advances that led to the development of a merchant fleet.  And their goal was to purchase spices directly from Southeast Asia rather than via Muslim middlemen in the Middle East and other agents in Italy.  As a result of this desire for spices, they found Chinese porcelai............................mers.

The taste for Chinese porcelain in Portugal and elsewhere in Europe slowly gained popularity during the later part of the 16th century when the Portuguese royalty gifted other European nobilities with this exclusive commodity which they alone could acquire at source.  Here it is important to note that Chinese celadon, an important export in earlier times, rarely entered the trade with Europeans.  Blue and white porcelain had already become more fashionable than celadon in the 15th century, and the Portuguese arrived at the beginning of the 16th century.

Portuguese praise for Chinese blue and white porcelain can be seen in a letter by Frei Bartolomeu dos Martires who, during a dinner with Pope Pius lV in 1563, compared porcelain to silver tableware:

"In Portugal we have a k.............................
Centuries after Marco Polo praised Chinese ‘porcelain’ and remarked on the large volume of export, Father Matteo Ricci, writing about China in the period of his residency there (1582-1610), noted:

"The finest specimens of porcelain are made from clay found in the province of Jiangxi, and these are shipped not only to every part of China but even to the remotest corners of Europe where they are highly prized by those who appreciate elegance at their banquets rather than pompous display. This porcelain too, will bear the heat of hot foods without cracking and, what is more to be wondered at; if it is broken and sewed with brass wire it will hold liquids without any leakage." (22)

It is difficult to ascertain the volume of Jingdezhen porcelain intended for the European market in the later part of the 16th century due to lack of records.  However, in the early 17th century when the Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina was captured by the Dutch there were more than thirty last (sixty tones) or about 100.000 pieces of porcelain in her holds. (23)  When later auctioned in Holland it started a Dutch craze for Chinese porcelain.  Its fame spread to the rest of Europe by the second half of the century.


The Dutch buyers:

Export production at Jingdezhen witnessed yet another boost when the Dutch arrived in China in the early 17th century.  With the Portuguese well established in Macao, the door.................................ee million porcelain pieces were shipped to Europe by the Dutch alone. (26)  Adding the even higher volume of porcelain for Southeast Asian markets, the total production at Jingdezhen was staggering.

The Dutch, as the Portuguese before them, relied on standard types of ware with standard decorations but often complained about the quality.  In 1618 the Dutch officers of the VOC company in Surat complained about a Portuguese advantage:

"Your Honour forwards to us of the other kinds should be just right and good, because it will be judged for these qualities, as the Portuguese carry hither extra-ordinary fine and exquisite wares, so much so that our fine is coarse when compared with theirs." (27)

It was not only better quality the Portuguese managed to secure for themselves.  Marked porcelain pieces were not only popular in Europe but also in Southeast Asia and India.  Another letter from a VOC official on the Coromandel Coast, dated 1610, complains about the lack of marked pieces delivered by the Chinese:

"It should be seen to that all these afore-noted kinds of porcelain have under the bottom a blue seal, for about this they are very particular." (28) 

In the late Wanli (1573-1620) period imperial orders for Jingdezhen had dwindled and normal deliveries to Beijing become risky.  At the same time some of the official kilns, were razed during peasant revolts and eventually closed in 1608. (29)  With continued economic troubles and lack of imperial orders worsened by the approaching M..............................

From about 1634 onwards, Chinese junk captains took orders from the Dutch for porcelain in special shapes for which models of European objects were provided. (30)  There were also special patterns including ‘Dutch flower-and-leaf work’.  Some designs were initially incorporated into typical kraak panels, a practice that shows how the Jingdezhen decorators adopted new motifs to please their buyers.

Until late 1630s the supply of porcelain from Jingdezhen was relatively steady, but in the early 1640s there were reports of war in Jingdezhen and high mortality rates among the potters.  Production did however continue, and in large quantities, but supply remained uncertain until about 1657 when the Dutch ordered much of their porcelain in Japan.


Transportation:

The relative ease of transportation on the Chang River and its tributaries was a key circumstance in the successful development of the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen.  One Ming official, Miu Zongzhou, wrote that “Kilns are arranged along the rivers and boats and ships which carry porcelain come and go everyday”. (31)   Despite Jingdezhe............................... route began in Lake Poyang and proceeded up the Gan River to Nanchang.  Re-loaded onto smaller river boats, the porcelain cargo would then continue upstream to Ganzhou (122 meters above sea level).  Continuing on smaller rivers, the cargo boats eventually reached the southern border of Jiangxi province.  Here the porcelain had to be hand carried over the Meiling Pass, a stretch of some 30 kilometers that reached about 275 meters above sea level.  After the Meiling Pass, the goods was again re-loaded onto small boats that navigated the winding narrow upper reaches of the Bei Jiang River before reaching Guangzhou after a cumbersome, time-consuming journey of about 1,400 kilometers.

River transport was without doubt long and cumbersome.  Crews rowed long distances against the current and often used poles to push the heavily loaded boats though shallows and rocky streams.  In addition to this work and responsibility, whether they started upstream or downstream, they had to return to their original place of loading before repeating the journey.

With hundreds of thousands of pieces of porcelain transported during most years of the 17th century and many more in the 18th century, the transport of porcelain was another large industry in itself.  With large numbers of small boats navigating sometimes small and winding rivers, coming and going, the rivers were both crowded and dangerous, not least for the fragile cargo. 

From coastal ports in Zhejiang, Fujian and Guangdong, Ming and Qing dynasty porcelain reached Chinese merchants and shippers who supplied the Spanish in the Philippines, the Portuguese in Guangzhou and Macao, and the Dutch in Taiwan and later Japan. (32)  In the early 17th century, when the Fujian people depended in fishing and cargo................................. saw more ships departing, the Fujian ships were larger. (33)    This changed again in the 18th century when almost all porcelain cargo was handled by Hong merchants in Guangzhou, who supplied European ‘factories’ established on the shores of Guangzhou.


Newly discovered private kilns

While many kiln wasters has been found from the earlier production outside Jingdezhen town, increasingly more kilns from the Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties are now being discovered in Jingdezhen.  Most of these are private kilns from the Ming and Qing dynasties.

A number of such export kilns has been investigated by Professor Cao Jianwen and Ms. Luo Yifei from the Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute. (34)   These investigations include the Liujia Xiano................................re also collected.

As pointed out earlier, kiln wasters show that a certain ware was fired at the respective site, but they do not prove that it was potted at that location.  As the kilns were likely to have been operated by specialists in the firing process only, each kiln site can yield a wide variety of wares from many different workshops spread over a large area of Jingdezhen.  The author, who visited the above sites personally, can confirm that matching shards of the different types of ware were indeed found at the mentioned kiln sites.

In March 2005 the author was also privileged to discover other production sites being ...................................
During the visit and cursory inspections of kiln sites in Jingdezhen, it became evident that wasters from the same site could include a wide array of porcelain. The finest export ware was often mixed with rather crudely potted bowls with an unglazed biscuit ring in the well.  These bowls have often been called ‘Guangdong wares’ or more broadly attributed to ‘southern China.’  The array of forms, quality and decorative styles seen at the sites supports the idea of communal kilns that fired many different types of............................

There is little doubt that further investigation of these private kilns, and others, would be fruitful and much appreciated.  With the continuing demolition of late Qing dynasty buildings, which were constructed on top of old kilns, many more discoveries are due in the near future.  However, it is sad, to hear that China’s new economic boom does not provide for the resources for a long-term archaeological program despite the fact that much information about Jingdezhen’s most important industry would be better understood.  Simply to be able to document the varying decorative styles on export wares at different times in history is an important art-historical objective.

If we thought that making 'fake' pottery was a new phenomena, it is interesting to see that Perez’ d’ Entrecolle already in his famous letter of 1712 confirmed that the Jingdezhen potters had perfected the “art of imitating old porcelain being passed for being three or four centuries old or at least of the preceding dynasty of Ming”. 

As enterprising now as then, Jingdezhen potters are still mining kaolin in the same quarries and pulverizing China stone in the same traditional manner.  The potting process, including the application of painted decoration, glazing, and firing in wood-fueled kilns is often identical to old techniques.  Porcelain made in this way today is sometimes also being passed as being centuries old.

Sten Sjostrand                                                                    

Copyright (c) Sten Sjostrand 2008



ENDNOTES:
             
(1) It is recorded in the History of Fuliang County that “Xinping began to fire pottery in the Han dynasty” and from Notes on South Kilns in the Qing dynasty that “Jingdezhen Town in Xinping is located to the south of the Chang River and pottery wares were made there from the Han times.”  See Liu Xinxin, The Prosperity and Characteristics of Qingbai Porcelain in the Song Dynasty, in Chai Kiln & Hutian Kiln, 2004, p. 45.  (Publisher etc. in Chinese only. ISBN 7-80674-591-2.)

(2)  Liu Xinxin,  ibid., p. 45.

(3)  Liu Xinxin,  ibid., p. 21.

(4)  Liu Xinxin,  ibid., p. 21.

(5)  Liu Xinxin, ibid.,  p. 45.

(6)  A.C. Moule and Paul Pelliot, Marco Polo: The Description of the World. London,1938, p. 352.

(7)  Liu Xinxin, op. cit.,  p. 45. Also see S. T. Yeo and Jean Martin, Chinese Blue and White Ceramics –a brief Introduction.  Singapore. Art Orientalis, 1978. p. 16.

(8)  Nigel Wood, Chinese Glazes. London: A&C Black Limited, 1999, p. 97.

(9)  Professor Liu Xinyuan, personal discussions, August 2005.

(10) Liu Xinyuan, Imperial Export Porcelain from late Yuan to Early Ming, Oriental Art Magazine, Volume XLV/I (1999) pp. 98-100. Personal discussions, August 2005.

(11) S. T. Yeo and Jean Martin, op. cit.,  p. 20.

(12) See Roxanna M. Brown, The Ming Gap and Shipwreck Ceramics in Southeast Asia, PhD dissertation, University of California at Los Angeles, 2004.

(13) Wu Zhenglian, The Verification of Merchant Ships types in the Sino-Japanese Trade from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the Beginning of the Qing dynasty, Proceedings of the International Sailing Ships History Conference. Shanghai, 1991, p.143.

(14) Kee Ming-Yuet. Straits Chinese Porcelain. Kuala Lumpur: Kee Ming-Yuet Sdn. Bhd. and Cross Time Matrix Sdn Bhd, 2004, p.189.

(15) Colin Sheaf and Richard Kilburn, The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes, The Complete record. Oxford: Phaidon Christie’s Limited, 1988, p. 21.

(16) Sheaf and Kilburn, ibid., p. 22.

(17) It is interesting to see how Pere’ d’ Entrecolles in his letters of 1712, rate these decorators: “ In Europe they would only pass for apprentices of a few month’s standing….They know nothing of the beautiful
rules of this art; though it must be acknowledged that they paint flowers, animals, and landscapes which are much admired, on porcelain as well as on fans and lanterns of the finest gauze” See; William Burton, Porcelain, It’s Art and Manufacture, B.T. Batsford, London, 1906.

(18) B.T. Batsford, ibid., p.43.

(19) Tang Yings alias Jun Gong, a native from Han Jun Qi was serving as Deputy Officer of the Internal Affairs Office in the Hall of mental Cultivation of the Royal Palace.  In the 6th year of Yongzhen reign  (1729) he was decreed to supervise the Imperial porcelain production at Jingdezhen.  In 1735, he submitted his famous: Twenty Illustrations of Porcelain Manufacturing to the emperor together with detailed description of porcelain production. Although the report is widely reprinted, the most authentic version can be found in the official annals of the province of Jiangxi; Book XCIII, Folio 19-23.  Private translation is made by Dr. Tan Pek Hong. Kuala Lumpur, 2006.

(20) Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos, The Portuguese Trade, Oriental Art Magazine, XLV/1 (1999) p. 22.

(21) Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos, ibid.,  p. 22.

(23) Peter Borschberg, The seizure of the Sta. Catarina revisited: The Portuguese Empire in Asia, VOC politics and the origins of the Dutch-Johor alliance (1602-c.1616). Journal of Southeast Asian Studies; 2/1/2002. p. 5.

(24) T. Volker, Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company. Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1954.

(25) Sheaf and Kilburn, op. cit.,  p. 21.

(26) T. Volker, op. cit., p. 42

(27) T. Volker, op. cit., p. 69.

(28) T. Volker,  op. cit., p. 67.

(29) Professor Liu Xinyuan, personal discussions, August 2005.

(30) C. Vialle’, The records of the VOC concerning the trade in Chinese and Japanese porcelain between 1634 and 1661, Aziatische Kunst, XXXll/3, Amsterdam (1992) pp.7-34.

(31) Cao Jianwen, Jingdezhen Ceramic Institute, The Relation between Ceramics Production in Jingdezhen during Late Ming Dynasty Ceramics found on ‘Wanli Shipwreck’ in Nanhai. A report on The Wanli Shipwreck at the ‘Treasures of the Nanhai” Exhibition. Kuala Lumpur Sept. 2005.

(32) Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/entry/586, accessed October 14, 2005.Geoff Wade, translator, Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource, Singapore: Asia Research Institute and the Singapore E-Press, National University of Singapore, http://epress.nus.edu.sg/msl/entry/586, accessed October 14, 2005.

(33) Based on studies of the Dutch Daghregister, Bennet Bronson ascertains that seaports in Fujian exported more ceramics than Guangdong in the years between 1673 and 1683.  See Bennet Bronson, Export Porcelain in Economic Perspective: The Asian Ceramic Trade in the 17th century, in Chuimei Ho, editor, Ancient Ceramic Kiln Technology in Asia.  Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong Centre of Asian Studies (1990) pp. 126-151.  In his paper Quantifying the Role of Fujian Ceramics in China’s Southeast Asian Trade (1998) p. 3. Bronson adds that more ships departed from Macao and Guangdong but the size of the ships from Fujian ports was larger.

(34) Cao Jianwen and Luo Yifei, Kraak Porcelain Discovered at Some Kiln Sites in Jingdezhen City Recently years. Unpublished report, February 2005.




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