Porcelain
In the Shanghai dynasty, China became the first country to produce white
stonewares similar in composition and properties to what we call porcelain. At this
time, ceramics played a secondary role to bronze and jade. Occasionally used for
ritual, they performed a largely utilitarian function in everyday life. During the Tang
Dynasty, manufacturing techniques and skill reached the refinement necessary to
produce the fine quality porcelain so prized in the West. The dense, white, hard and
translucent properties of the material were attractive, hard-wearing and more suited
to eating and drinking vessels than lower fired pottery.
Porcelain proper is the product of south China’s abundant porcelain stone deposits.
With affordable, ample raw materials and adaptability to mass production, porcelain
was readily produced for the export market.
The widespread use of the word ‘China’, generally designating Chinese porcelain, is
indicative of the tremendous acclaim such works attracted in the West. The Chinese
appreciated the qualities of this material in the home market too, where porcelain
was collected by emperors, scholars and officials.
Since the earliest discovery of porcelain, a vast range of styles and techniques of
decoration have been employed to manufacture objects, from the everyday rice
bowl to Imperial ritual vessels. With the expansion of foreign trade, porcelain also
represented one of China’s most lucrative export products.
For centuries, China was the only country able to produce fine quality porcelain so
prized abroad. And it was not until the early eighteenth century that Europeans
began to master the art of porcelain manufacture for themselves.