Ming Dynasty porcelain

The Ming Dynasty in China was renowned for its high culture, and an important part of this was the production of fine porcelain which is highly prized today.

The Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty refers to the period of Chinese history between 1368 and 1644, from the fall of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty to the eventual conquest of China by the Manchu and the ensuing Qing Dynasty.

This long period of relative stability was marked by the growth of trade with other countries, including those of Europe, which in turn brought great wealth to the ruling class. The development of high-quality porcelain, both for domestic use and export, was an important element of Ming culture.

Early Ming porcelain

Pottery manufacture had already been established in China before the first Ming Emperor (Hongwu) came to power, but it was during his reign that potters mastered the art of producing high-fired translucent and resonant porcelain. As well as delicate drinking vessels they also produced large storage jars that were made in separate sections and then fixed together with a watered-down clay (called “slip”) that was then dried before being decorated and glazed.

Ming Dynasty porcelain is often characterised by its blue coloured decoration, originally using cobalt imported from Burma. The glaze was usually applied thickly, which caused a slight smudging or “bleeding” during firing, which created a depth and richness that later forgers (in Western countries) found very difficult to copy.

Celadon ware

The Ming potters also continued and developed the earlier production of celadon ware. This term refers to the (usually) pale-green glaze that typified these pieces, although the Ming potters tended to use it for larger-scale pieces than their predecessors, and to apply the glaze more thickly on items such as deep bowls and large plates.

Celadon wares were widely exported and examples are known from all along the main trade routes to India and further west, aided by the belief that such goods could detect poison in food, which would boil if it touched a celadon-glazed dish. Needless to say, this made such items popular in the suspicious and dangerous courts of monarchs across the known world, and the Chinese traders were unlikely to try very hard to dispel the myth!

Later Ming porcelain

During the late 15^th century the potters at Ching-te-chen (the imperial kilns of Emperor Chenghua) mastered the art of enamel painting on porcelain in colours that could survive firing. The paint was applied on to a clear glazed vessel that was then re-fired in a “muffle kiln” at a lower temperature.

Dating pieces from this period is made more complicated by the practice adopted by Ming potters of celebrating the successful production of a pot made in an earlier style by marking it with the Emperor’s mark that would have been appropriate at the time of the original manufacture. This was done as a form of tribute to the earlier Emperor, and was not intended to deceive.

The export of Ming porcelain reached its peak later in the 16th and 17^th centuries, and the markets extended beyond Asia and the Arab lands to Europe, with pieces being designed to appeal to Western tastes. Dutch traders established a base at Canton from which vast amounts of mass-produced Ming tableware were eventually sent to Europe. This was typically in traditional blue-and-white, decorated with dragons and flower designs. These export pieces were normally in a lighter shade of blue than is typical of early Ming, as it was intended for the tables of the middle classes rather than royalty.

The European craze for blue-and-white, as in Dutch delftware, derived from the Ming examples, and was indeed developed as a means of countering the flood of Chinese imports.

In contrast to the cheaply-produced export ware, some Ming pieces were extraordinarily well made and decorated to imperial order. These include huge bowls, some 30 inches in diameter and an inch thick in places, designed as fishbowls. The painting on these is of the very highest quality. There is a legend that one potter, despairing of ever being able to get one of these bowls to emerge from the kiln in one piece, threw himself into the kiln along with the bowl, which came out perfect in every way.

Ming porcelain commands very high prices when it comes on to the market. As might be expected, relatively few pieces of domestic tableware from the 17^th century and before have survived to the present day.

However, there are some excellent pieces on display at many top museums, including the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Harvard Art Museums in Cambridge MA and the Freer Gallery of Art in Washington DC.

© John Welford