Tracing the timeline of Chinese export porcelain with the help of shipwrecks

Edgar Vigário
April 2020

Abstract
To trace the Chinese export porcelain's production through time were revised some shipwrecks dated from the Tang dynasty until the first
decades of the 19th century.

Figure 1: A Macao oil on canvas representing the Canton port; unknown artist; circa 1820; width: 59 cm, height: 46 cm; © Galerie Lamy
Oriental Fine-Arts.

Index Introduction
Introduction 1 From more than a millennium that Chinese export
The Belitung shipwreck (ca. 826 - 850) 1 porcelain into the west. This trade had much relayed on
The Nanhai One shipwreck (ca. 1216) 3 the sea, firstly into the Middle East and after the
The Sinan shipwreck (1323) 4 Portuguese arrival in the Indian Ocean directly into
western Europe.
The Bakau shipwreck (1 half of the 15 century)
st th 6
The Nossa Senhora dos Mártires shipwreck (1606) 7 Sea voyages aren't free of misfortunes and along history
The Binh Thuan shipwreck (1608) 9 many shipwrecks had occurred. The text pinpoints some
The Chinese junk of the Hatcher Cargo shipwreck (1643 - 1646)
of them with the goal of tracing the Chinese export
10 production through time, the markets of its destiny and
The Vung Tau shipwreck (ca. 1690) 12
how those markets had influenced it.

The Ca Mau shipwreck (ca. 1725) 14 The Belitung shipwreck (ca. 826 - 850)
The Geldermalsen shipwreck (1752) 15
Due to a date displayed in a bowl, it's estimate that in 826
The Diana Shipwreck (1817) 17 or a little bit late an Arab merchant ship sank at the coast
of Belitung in the Java Sea. The shatter discover by a
fisherman in 1998 permitted to clarify the knowledge we
had concerning the 9th century Tang exportation of
porcelain via the Maritime Silk Route, shacking the idea of
a more regional market that had only developed during
the Southern Song dynasty after the loss of control on
Xian's area.
Figure 2: Maritime trade routes during the 9th century with the
Belitung shipwreck site; © Roots.
Figure 3: Examples of decorations on mass-produced under glaze
polychrome bowls from the Changsha kilns at the Asian
Civilizations Museum (ACM), Singapore; Belitung shipwreck; a)
Makara, fabled sea-monster; b) swastikas and stupa motif; c)
pseudo-Arabic calligraphy; d) bird; e) landscape; f) foreign face; ©
Geraldine Heng.
The wreck contained approximately 60,000 ceramic
objects, most of them from the Changsha kiln in Hunan,
but, in much lesser number, white Xing and Ding wares,
some Yue celadon, Gongxian wares and pieces from the
Chaozhou and the Meixian kilns that produced Guangdong
green wares. These different wares had different quality
and values, being the Xing, Ding and Yue costly and clearly
of Chinese taste and the ones produced by Changsa and
Gongxian more inexpensive and exported oriented as the
incorporation of decorative motifs frequent in the Abbasid
wares seems to indicate [see figures 4 and 7].
The cargo's core supplier, started its production in the late
Tang period possibly due to the incoming of Hebei's
refugees during the An Shi Rebellion, though, its painting
technique was already sufficiently mature at the time of 2
the shipwreck showing some decorations that seems to
had developed by the commerce with the large community
of Arabs that lived in Canton [see figures 3e and 3f].
Figure 4: A monumental ewer with incised West Asian floral
lozenges and clouds; glazed stoneware with copper-green
splashes over a white slip; height: 104 cm; © ACM, Singapore.
By is turn, the Gongxian kilns in Henan were one of China's
foremost manufactures of colorful funerary pottery during
the early Tang and when the demand dropped they started
to make stoneware for daily use replicating the Xing and
Yue kilns, although, with marked differences in the
material and craftsmanship. In fact, the Yue kilns made the
era's most desirable celadon and the Xing kilns a white
ware that precedes porcelain while the Gongxian's
production was a slip covered coarse-grained stoneware
more loosely finished with a more turbid glaze.
Figure 5: White cup and cup stand from the Xing kilns at the ACM,
Singapore; Belitung shipwreck; © Geraldine Heng.
Figure 6: Celadon-green bowls from the Yue kilns at the ACM,
Singapore; Belitung shipwreck; © Geraldine Heng.
Figure 7: Blue-on-white ceramic dishes from the Gongxian kilns at
the ACM, Singapore; Belitung shipwreck; © Geraldine Heng.
Anyhow, it was the place where under glaze blue on white
painting using cobalt initiated, being the first intact
examples of this kind found in the Belitung shipwreck.
Again, similarities with the ceramic production of Basra in
Iraq suggest they were produced for the Middle East
market, however, the interest was temporary and the
exportation of this kind of ware only restart during the
Yuan Dynasty.
The Nanhai One shipwreck (ca. 1216)
Discovered in 1987 between the islands of Shangchuan
and Xiachuan, 36 km away from the port of Dongping at
the coast of Yangjiang in the Guangdong province, the
Nanhai One was a Chinese merchant ship which sank in
the 13th century during the Southern Song dynasty. Built 3
around 1216 and designed for ocean trade with a load of
nearly 200 tons, it was most likely engaged on a trip of the
Maritime Silk Road when it sank as the its cargo seems to
point.
Figure 8: Map of China with Major Kiln Sites; © Alberto Manuel
Cheung, Chinese Antiquities.
Until date more than 13,000 pieces of porcelain were
recovered from its remains, being most of them white
glazed ceramics from the Dehua kilns, but, also, black glaze
artifacts from the Cizao kiln and celadon wares from the
Yi, Jingdezhen and Longquan kilns, a set of production
sites that with the exception of Jingdezhen in Jiangxi
province and Longquan in Zhejiang province were all
located in the Fujian province.
From them, the Dehua kilns started production during the
Northern Song dynasty and greatly expanded during the
Southern Song. The earliest wares were of Qingbai type
replicating the more valuable Jingdezhen products, but
they also produced and exported black, brown, and
celadon wares.
Figure 9: Photo taken on 28 January 2015 shows artifacts
discovered (Dehua and Cizao kilns) on the Nanhai One shipwreck;
© Xinhua.
Figure 10: A porcelain pot from the Dehua kiln recovered from
Nanhai One shipwreck; © Guangdong Maritime Silk Road
Museum, Guangdong Province.
Figure 11: a) A brown glaze flat jar from the Cizao kiln from
Nanhai One shipwreck in 2002 b) A Mingqing Yi kiln greyish
straw color bowl with carved motif from the Nanhai One wreck;
© Koh-Antique.
Active during the Song and Yuan dynasties the Yi kiln
located in the nowadays Minqing County usually produced
objects thin with a light gray glaze. The Cizao kilns were
also active during these dynasties being sited at Jinjiaoyi
Hill of Cizao city, along the Meixi River, a tributary of
Jinjiang River. At the time, possibly due to the favorable
conditions of transportation, the city was a export-
oriented base producing diverse types and designs,
including daily utensils, furnishings and building
materials.
By is turn, Longquan ware was produced from around 950
to 1550 in kilns mostly located in the Lishui prefecture 4
southwestern of Zhejiang. The production was centered on
celadon with a olive green tone and became an important
part of China economy for over 500 years, until its
overtake by the blue and white production of Jingdezhen.
Figure 12: Porcelain bowl produced in Longquan kiln, Zhejiang
province; Southern Song Dynasty; Nanhai One shipwreck; ©
China Daily.
According to records Jingdezhen kilns begin their
production in the Tang dynasty and mainly produce blue
and white porcelain during the Song and Yuan dynasties.
With the advent of the Ming dynasty they turn out to be
the Imperial supplier.
The Sinan shipwreck (1323)
In 1976 was discovered at the southern coast of South
Korea the lasting of a 260-ton Chinese trade ship that had
left Ningbo in the summer of 1323 east bounding for the
Japan’s Hakata port in Fukuoka.
From its cargo were recovered 20,000 ceramics, 60 per
cent of them were blue-grey and white celadon belonging
to the Longquan kilns. There were also 800 pieces of
black-glazed ceramics, closely associated with tea
consumption, with different provenances although mainly
from the Jiangxi province and 60 tea bowls from the
Fujian's Jian kilns, dated from the Southern Song, that
were already traded as antiques at that time.
 5

Figure 13: Celadon vase from the Yuan Dynasty manufactured at

Longquan during the beginnings of the 14th century; Sinan
shipwreck ; height: 15.8 cm; © The National Museum of Korea.

Figure 16: Poster for the Discoveries from the Sinan shipwreck
exhibit in the National Museum of Korea; © Korea.net.

Figure 14: Women and Taoist figures from the Yuan Dynasty in
the late 13th to early 14th century; Sinan shipwreck; © Korea.net.

Figure 17: A white porcelain dish with a poem (Why is the stream
running so hastily/ whilst in the deep palace I'm passing my idle
days?) of a court lady from the Tang Dynasty written on it; Sinan
shipwreck; © Breezy Gangwon.

Many pieces had wooden tags attached serving as shipping

invoices, containing the date of boarding, departure port
and the customers who ordered them as the Tofuku-ji
Temple in Kyoto and Hakozaki Shrine in Fukuoka. Tea
consumption in Japan was enthusiastic and high rank
officials, upper class samurai and temples of the Kamakura
shogunate ordered Chinese ceramics as other luxury items
Figure 15: Black glazed bowls from the Yuan Dynasty; Sinan
shipwreck; © The Korea Herald.
for religious purposes, pastimes or simply to demonstrate and after 1433 China cut itself from foreign contact, a
their prosperity. trend that was only reversed more than 50 years later
during the Hongzhi reign when the exportation of
ceramics began to expand.

Figure 18: Wooden tags that served as shipping invoices; Sinan

shipwreck; © Korea.net.
Figure 20: Ming dynasty in Yongle's reign (circa 1409); ©
The Bakau shipwreck (1st half of the 15th century) Wikipedia.

In 1371 the first Ming emperor Hongwu severely punished

Fujian officials who sent traders overseas with sentences
that ranged from hard labor at the frontier to execution. A
edict stressing the need of eradicate the illicit sea trade
appeared in 1394 and a law threatening to kill all Chinese
that refused to return to China was passed in 1402.

Figure 21: The Voyages of Zheng He; © Wikipedia.

Figure 22: Chinese celadons, mainly bowls; Bakau shipwreck; ©

Seabed Exploration Gmbh, John N. Miksic.
Figure 19: Ceramics from the Bakau shipwreck donated to the
Hunan Museum; © Hunan Museum. So, the Bakau ship was on a smuggling voyage when it
sank consisting its cargo on large quantities of ceramics
Between 1403 and 1432 the Ming foreign policy was to
from at least three areas of Southeast Asia as well as China.
dispatch large fleets on voyages across the Indian Ocean
Found in the Karimata Strait between Belitung and Borneo
in 1998, the ship was probably bound for Java where
existed at least four towns with around 5,000 Chinese
inhabitants each.
Figure 23: Chinese stem cup with black glaze; Bakau shipwreck; ©
Seabed Exploration Gmbh., John N. Miksic.
Artifacts on the wreck, specially the Yongle coins,
suggested that the ship had sailed from China in the first
Figure 24: A view of Macau by Theodor de Bry, circa 1598; © Wikipedia.
In 1557, the Portuguese rented Macau which enabled a
period of commercial growth that last until the 1580s
when Portugal lose its independence and was
half of the 15th century during Yongle’s reign with stops in
Vietnam and Thailand. Some 1156 Chinese ceramics were
recovered, being most of them brown or black-glazed
items from the Guangdong area, although there're also,
celadon bowls, stem cups, small dishes and incense
burners from Longquan and bowls, white cups and dishes
from Jingdezhen.
The Nossa Senhora dos Mártires shipwreck (1606)
The Portuguese importation of Chinese ceramics is
documented from the first voyage of Vasco da Gama, in
1498, most probably from the trade that was already
intense in the Asian Southeast. Malacca, an important 7
trade center in the region, was taken in 1511 and in 1517
begun the official contacts with China that ended in 1521
allegedly due to Portuguese misbehavior, however, the
complicity of local authorities in the southern harbors
permitted a two-part profitable clandestine business that
last until 1552 when the prohibition was dropped.
incorporated into the Halsburg Empire, becoming evolved
in the Dutch Independence War. Despite the slowing
down, the trade continued with even a increase of the
number of ships that departed from Lisboa, however, in 1602 fired the decline of the Portuguese hegemony at the
1596 the Dutch establish its principal trading center at Indian Sea that suffered another rude blow with the Dutch
Bantam, nowadays Jakarta, and the creation of the VOC in conquest of Malacca in 1641.

Figure 25: A view of Macau by Johannes Vingboons, circa 1665; © Wikipedia.

pieces of a Chinese export frequently named as Kraak

porcelain.

Figure 26: Portuguese sea routes in 'Carreira da Índia'; © Castro.

The ship Nossa Senhora dos Mártires sank, in 14

September 1606, near the fort of São Julião da Barra at the
entrance of Lisboa in what was documented to be a bad
captain's decision. In the salvage operations, that begun in
1996, were found, along with large jars most likely of Thai
Figure 27: Two porcelain dishes from the The Nossa Senhora dos
origin used as spices' containers, several fragments and
Mártires shipwreck; 23 x 2.5 and 20.7 x 3 cm; © Inês Coelho.

Figure 28: Still life with a kraak porcelain dish depicted on it;
Willem Kalf; 1669; © Inês Coelho.
Figure 29: A Portuguese carraca in a Japanese Screen; attributed
to Kanō Naizen; late 16th - early 17th; Kobe City Museum; ©
Wikipedia.
This term, supposedly derived from the Portuguese ships
of the 15th and 16th century, carracas, it's employed to
describe one of the first Chinese export wares to arrive at
Europe in massive quantities. Typically done by
Jingdezhen's kilns during the Wanli reign but also
produced in the last reigns of the Ming dynasty the pieces,
often done in under glaze blue, were habitually thin and
quickly finished with a quality lying in a middle term
between the best productions to internal consumption and
Fujian's exportation wares.
However, its most distinguish feature was the
arrangement of the borders' ornament into separated
panels filled with figures of Buddhist and Taoist symbols
in a style not used on wares for the domestic Chinese
market. Frequently depicted in the Dutch still life
paintings of the 17th century [see figure 28], its forms were
mostly wide dishes and deep bowls that progressively
become plainer with the arrival of the production's end
circa 1645.
The Binh Thuan shipwreck (1608)
The Binh Thuan shipwreck was discovered in 2001, 41
meters below the surface at about 65 kilometers away 9
from the coast of Binh Thuan province in the Southern
Vietnam. The Chinese junk's destination was likely to be
Java or the Malay Peninsula when it sank in 1608 being
recovered nearly 20,000 pieces consisted mainly in blue
and white ceramics of Zhangzhou ware.
Figure 30: A typical Zhangzhou blue and white with grits adhering
to the outer base; Binh Thuan shipwreck; © Koh - Antique.
Located in the Fujian Province, the Zhangzhou prefecture
originally produced ceramics commonly termed Swatow
that were regularly heavy and crudely potted lacking the
finer finishing of Jingdezhen with the common feature of
having sand adhesion on the outer base of plates. Although
the lack of quality the ware posed as a serious competitor
of Jingdezhen during the second half of 16th century
especially to the lower end markets in Southeast Asia and
Japan.

Figure 31: Map with the location of Swatow kiln sites; © Koh -
antique.
Its first productions were characterized by a vigorous and
spontaneous style of decoration termed calligraphic,
however, with the advent of Jingdezhen's kraak style
porcelain in the 1570s, Zhangzhou potters also adopted
the outline and wash method for decoration, being this the
usual style found in the wreck.
Figure 32: Zhangzhou bowl in the calligraphic style; Binh Thuan
shipwreck; circa 1600; © eBay.
Figure 33: Swatow wares in the remains of the Binh Thuan
shipwreck; © UNESCO.
When the Dutch replaced the Portuguese as the dominant
player in the Indian Ocean besides collecting goods to the
European market they became also actively involved in
the Southeast Asia and Japan ceramics' trade. In this way,
it's believed the Binh Thuan wreck was the lost ship of a
joint venture between the Chinese merchant, I Sin Ho, and
a representative of VOC in the Johor Sultanate, Abraham
van den Broecke, due to a annotation dated from 21 July
1608 where he refers the junk's lost on the return journey.
Zhangzhou fortune took a downward turn after the fall of
the Ming Dynasty having its final drive when the Emperor
Kangxi ordered the evacuation of all residents from the
coastal region of Fujian and Guangdong in 1662. The
strategy was to cut off any coastal support for the resistant 10
force of Ming supporters in Taiwan and when the ban was
lifted in 1682, Dehua and the kilns in its vicinity replaced
Zhangzhou as the major production centre.
The Chinese junk of the Hatcher Cargo shipwreck (1643 -
1646)
The Hatcher Cargo was recovered from the wreck of a
Chinese junk at the South China Sea in 1983. The ship that
sank between 1643 and 1646 was sailing from China to
the Dutch base at Batavia where the cargoes were
purchased and transshipped to Dutch boats for their
journey to Europe.
Figure 34: Porcelain dish with kraak type decoration; Jingdezhen
kilns, Jiangxi province; circa 1643; height: 5.3 cm, diameter: 29.9
cm; Hatcher Cargo; © the British Museum.
The great majority of the 25,000 unbroken pieces
recovered were Jingdezhen blue and white, but there were
also celadon, blanc de Chine, colored and Swatow wares,
illustrating what a south Asian porcelain trading vessel of
the mid 17th century was expected to contain. These pieces
were produced when the Chinese central power was
decaying and scant historical evidence remains regarding
the ceramic production during this period that mediates,
from the last Ming emperors until the early years of the
Kangxi emperor, roughly between 1620 to 1670, and
Figure 35: The castle of Batavia, seen from Kali Besar West around 1656; Andries Beeckman; circa 1661; Rijks Museum; © Wikipedia.
Figure 36: Bowls with pierced lattice-work panels; Jingdezhen
kilns, Jiangxi province; circa 1643; height: 6 cm, diameter: 11.7
cm; Hatcher Cargo; © the British Museum.
Figure 37: Covered box with dark green glaze; Tiankeng kilns in
Nansheng, Pinghe county, Fujian province; circa 1643; diameter: 4
cm; Hatcher Cargo; © the British Museum.
customarily referred as the Transitional Period.
11
In fact, the time of the shipwreck was practically
established by the existence of two pieces dated from
1643, showing a considerable conservatism in the Dutch
trade during the first half of the 17th century being some
types of kraak porcelain that were present in a shipwreck
from 1606 continuing to appear almost 40 years later.
Figure 38: A 'Blanc de Chine' box with molded decoration and
traces of glaze; Dehua kilns, Fujian province; circa 1640;
diameter: 5.8 cm; Hatcher Cargo; © the British Museum.
Other production's type present was Blanc de Chine.
Characterized by an ivory-grey or creamy-white glaze on a
thick white body it was made since the late 16th century at
kilns located in and around the southern county of Dehua
where the potters became specialized in figures. Although
most pieces are hardly detailed due to their exoticness
they became fashion in Europe and were exported in large
quantities during the Qing dynasty, being known
representations of Europeans and of Christian themes.

12

Figure 39: A blanc de Chine water dropper, one of the three

recovered from the Hatcher Cargo; Dehua kilns, Fujian province;
circa 1640; height: 10 cm; Hatcher Cargo; © the British Museum.

The Vung Tau shipwreck (ca. 1690)

The Vung Tau wreck was discovered by a fisherman a few

miles away from the Vietnamese island of Con Dao that
was a refueling stop of freshwater for travelers ridding
into the north-western islands of Indonesia. The wreck's
timbers of the Chinese lorcha reveal that it had been
burned to the waterline, yet, more than 48,000 items of Figure 41: A recreation of a 17th century's Baroque display at
Chatsworth house; Chinese porcelain, fruit, flowers and silver gilt
Jingdezhen's porcelain and other artifacts were recovered,
plate; © Chloe Prince.
among them the pieces that date the wreck, a few coins
and a small rectangular Chinese ink stick with a cyclical
date matching 1690.

Figure 42: Oil painting showing British aristocrats taking tea; ©

Chloe Prince.

Figure 40: An assorted lot of Chinese blue and white Vung Tau It's assumed that the ship was in route to Batavia with
Cargo porcelain; Circa 1690; © Christie's Auctions. about 70% of its cargo to be transshipped to Holland,
however, many of those pieces for the European market
were different from the previous periods being made as
sets to be displayed as it or arranged on stands and
holders made for the purpose.
Figure 43: A Chinese Vung Tau Cargo five-piece Canal Houses
garniture; Circa 1690; height: 33.5 cm, 28.8 cm; © Christie's.
Figure 44: The Kangxi Emperor's Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Three: Ji'nan to Mount Tai; Wang Hui (1632–1717) and assistants; Kangxi
Period (datable to 1698); dimensions: 67.9 x 139.38 cm; © Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Figure 45: A carved bamboo 'Seven Sages' brush pot; signed Liu
Yuan; Kangxi Period (1662-1722); height: 15.3 cm; © Christie's
Auctions.
Many different shapes of blue and white porcelain and
even rare items like vases decorated with views of what
are clearly Dutch houses as less merely luxurious and
more functional items, services for tea, coffee and
chocolate the new fashionable beverages used for a
flourishing Dutch middle- and upper-class clientele, were
also present.
In this way, the cargo provides an insight into a transition
moment that occur in the manufacture of Chinese export
porcelain during the Kangxi reign, with several features
suggesting the catering for the specific tastes and needs of
the European market. In fact, only around 1680 the 13
Emperor after a long period of civil fight established his
authority all over China and the factories in Jingdezhen
resume production in 1675, anyhow, the multivariate
types and forms with amazing details and craftsmanship
in some pieces shows the vigor Jingdezhen's resumption
had.
Most of this resumption could be attributed to the
Emperor which reestablished the kilns in Jingdezhen and
engaged of painter Liu Yuan to create porcelain designs
between 1678 and 1688. An unusual approach for the time
that resulted in a new departure to porcelain decoration
due to the impact the Liu Yuan's designs for the imperial
kilns had on commercially wares.
Experimentation, technical innovations and recovering of
traditional techniques under new decorations were
frequent during this period like the powder blue, a cobalt-
blue glaze which delicate application through a gauze-
covered tube gives a more subtle appearance than the
habitual covering with a thick and opaque intense blue
coating. These pieces are generally unmarked and often
over-decorated with gold or with polychrome enamels
inserted on reserved panels.
Various items in Blanc de Chine from the Dehua kilns were
also present. They were mainly functional ware as wine
cups, tea bowls, saucers, bowls and dishes but there were
also thirty porcelain Guanyin's figures with a small boy in
its arms, a possible reference to the catholic Virgin Mary.

The Ca Mau shipwreck (ca. 1725)

Discovered in 1998, it was a Chinese junk bound for

Batavia that sank, circa 1725, near the Vietnamese coast of
Ca Mau, after a fire. In its cargo, were recovered coins
dated from the Kangxi Period and a group of wine cups
with a four-character Yongzheng mark.
14

Figure 46: Lucky Boy statuette; circa 1690; Vung Tau shipwreck;
© GWS Auctions, Invaluable.

Other style identifiable is what the 19th century's French

collector Albert Jacquemart classified as famille-verte, also
known in China as wucai that means five colors. Inspired
in the late Ming polychrome wares although with an
harder colors' identification than the Ming's blue, red,
green, yellow and aubergine, the new version had a
technical simplification that dismisses the application of
Figure 48: Porcelain Brush Rest with Sancai type decoration from
the cobalt under glaze blue making possible to create more
the Ca Mau Cargo shipwreck; Yongzheng period, circa 1725; ©
detailed designs by painting them fully in the glazed
Robert McPherson Antiques.
surface.

Biscuit wares with figures of Buddhist and Daoist deities

and other household gods were also revived, but, often
decorated with the sancai type(amber, green and brown)
or with cobalt-blue, instead of the vulgarly named fahua
coloration (mainly turquoise and purple), trendy in the
Ming [see figure 48].

Figure 49: Tea service, comprising: a bullet-shaped teapot, cover

and two tea cadies; circa 1725; height: 12 cm, 12 cm, 3.2 cm; Ca
Mau shipwreck; © Pater Gratia Oriental Art.

The decoration during this period didn't change much

Figure 47: Shard (part of a Guanyin figurine); Dehua kilns, Fujian from the previous, especially during the first years,
province; circa 1690; height: 9 cm; Vung Tau shipwreck; © Roots. however, the kingdom's switch brought some stylistic
changes as the use of penciled decoration with the
painting only outlined without tonal washes [see figure 49].
In some cases the tea bowls' profile became less rounded
and the painting of faces and hair also changed, anyhow,
the patterns commercial viable were maintained as long as
the demand continued.
Figure 50: Gathering of Auspicious Signs; Giuseppe Castiglione;
hanging scroll, ink and colors on silk; dimensions: 173 × 86.1 cm;
Yongzheng period, 1723; © National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Exportation of the Batavian brown type, that was
produced all along the 18th century, increased and
considerable quantities arrived into the Western and
Inter-Asian markets where they're viewed as articles for
everyday use, appreciated by the middle-classes. Named
after the city of Jakarta, this decorative style had the
piece's surface covered by brown glaze or in several
shades of it, with some being distinct enough to had its
proper name like Café au Lait.
However, the most important development resulting from
a great European demand allied with the fierce
competition between private merchants was the
appearance of famille-rose. Characterized by a decoration
with the predominance of tonalities ranging from pink to
red, it was only possible due to the integration of the
pigment Cassius purple brought to China by the Jesuit
missionaries in 1685.
15
Figure 51: Cafe-au-Lait bowl from Ca Mau shipwreck; glazed
porcelain; Yongzheng period, circa 1725; © Antiques and Art.
Figure 52: A famille-rose pink-ground painted enamel cup and
cover; Yongzheng period; height: 7 cm; © Christie's Auctions.
The enamel was first developed in the Imperial workshops
where it was applied on copper and bronze objects, but,
around 1725, after its use in Jingdezhen’s porcelain it
became the popular choice for export ware.
The Geldermalsen shipwreck (1752)
Referred as the Nanking Cargo due to the blue and white
Chinese porcelain be advertised as Nanking or Nankeen
China in the 1760s, the Geldermalsen had in its cargo
manifest notes: 239,200 pieces of porcelain; a chest
containing gold; textiles, tea and lacquer ware. The ship
left Canton in December 1751 and sank on 3 January 1752
at a reef on the South China Sea having only 32 men
survived from a crew of 112.
Although blue and white formed the major part of the
porcelain's cargo, ceramics only represented five per cent
of the total value, being tea the trip's leitmotif. Anyhow,
were saved over 150,000 pieces of porcelain decorated
with landscapes either in blue and white or in the Imari
style, characterized by a combination of under glaze blue
with over glaze red and gold having sometimes details in
black and green enamels.

Figure 53: A contemporary sketch of the Geldermalsen's load
where H indicates ballast, G and I porcelain chests, F six layers of
tea chests, C chests of fine tea; © Oriental Porcelain.
16
Figure 55: An assorted lot of Nanking cargo porcelain comprising:
a deep dish decorated with the lattice fence pattern, 38 cm. d.; a
bowl-shaped jug painted with a scholar in a river landscape, 21
cm. d.; four plates, 21.7 cm. d.; a saucer dish, 17.5 cm. d.; a large
and a small bowl, 11.5 and 19 cm. d.; a Batavian floral bowl, 16.5
cm. d.; four cups and saucers; Circa 1750; © Christie's Auctions.

Figure 56: Dish decorated with pavilions on a river landscape;

Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province; 1750-1752; the Geldermalsen,
shipwreck; diam.: 32.5 cm; © the British Museum.

Figure 54: Part of a blue and white porcelain dinner service

comprising 157 pieces: a pair of round tureens and covers, 25.9
cm wide; a pair of large chargers, 42 cm diam.; four large
chargers, 38cm diam.; four large chargers, 36 cm diam.; a basin,
38.5 cm diam.; two condiment jars and covers, 8 cm diam.; four
salt cellars, 8.5 cm wide; 8 large dishes, 29 cm diam.; ten large
serving plates, 32 cm diam.; 60 soup plates, 23 cm diam.; 60
dinner plates, 23 cm diam.; circa 1750; © Christie's Auctions.

At this time, a new group of middle-class consumers

arrived, which drastically increase production and lead to
the appearance of more standardized shapes and patterns Figure 57: Teacup and saucer; the Nanking Cargo; 1752; height of
that appeal to the European taste, dismissing the porcelain teacup: 4 cm, diam.: 7.5 cm, weight 49 grams; height of saucer: 2.3
with only decorative purposes. The drinking of tea and cm diam.: 11.6 cm, weight 64 grams; © Pater Gratia Oriental Art.
coffee was also very popular with the expanding middle-
Concerning Imari, it arrived as a reaction to the success of
class and huge services, contained between 150 and 300
the Japanese porcelain produced in the Arita district and
pieces, were ordered for the new fashion of formal dinners
exported from the Imari harbor, that reached the peak
being included 171 services in the cargo [see figure 54].
during the Chinese civil war. Like Batavia brown it was
developed in the early 18th century and produced along it,
showing the VOC's records that was one of the standard
types bought in Canton until the end of the century.
Figure 58: Six Nanking Cargo cylindrical mugs; Qianlong period
(1752); height: 10.3 cm; © Christie's Auctions.
Figure 59: Coming ashore at Madras; Circle of William John Huggins (1781 - 1845); oil on canvas; 72.4 x 92.1cm; inscription 'Wm John
Huggins/East India Officials, in a rough sea, going ashore/30/5/32/Marine painter 1781-1845. Served in E. India Co. Marine' © Bohmans;
The wreck was recovered during 1994, 8 km off Tanjung
Bidara beach, being savaged 24,000 individual pieces
which were mainly found to be of low quality. By this time
In fact, during the commotion created by the end of the
Ming and the beginning of the Qing dynasty, the Chinese
lost most of the porcelain trade to the Japanese that had
developed a simplified Ming five color palette. When the
political conditions got stabilized they hurriedly copied
the style and despite the existence of direct copies from
the Japanese models, the type was often decorated with
motifs related to the blue and white patterns of the period
such as landscapes, flowering plants, birds and mythical
creatures.
The Diana Shipwreck (1817)
The Diana returned to Madras charged with silks, tea, 17
preserved ginger and porcelain after a delivering trip of
cotton and opium to Canton when it sank in the Malacca
Strait at the night of 4 March 1817. The ship was owned by
Palmer and Co, a Calcutta agency house, licensed by the
East India Company to transport goods between Calcutta,
Madras and China.
the European and especially the English factories were
using modern methods to produce ceramics being able to
undercut in Chinese consumption.
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