page_title: Swatow ware
section_title: European
hierarchical_section_title: Swatow ware / Markets / European
caption_attribution_description: Nederlands: Zaal met Swatow-schalen en Martavanen Keramiekmuseum Princessehof
context_page_description: Swatow ware or Zhangzhou ware is a loose grouping of mainly late Ming dynasty Chinese export porcelain wares initially intended for the Southeast Asian market. The traditional name in the West arose because Swatow, or present-day Shantou, was the South Chinese port in Guangdong province from which the wares were thought to have been shipped. The many kilns were probably located all over the coastal region, but mostly near Zhangzhou, Pinghe County, Fujian, where several were excavated in the mid-1990s, which has clarified matters considerably.
  Many authorities now prefer to call the wares Zhangzhou ware, as it seems that Swatow did not become an important export port until the 19th century, and the wares were actually probably exported from Yuegang, now Longhai City, Zhangzhou. The precise dates for the beginning and ending of production remain uncertain, but the evidence from archaeology suggests production between about 1575–1650, though an earlier start has been proposed. The peak levels of production may have ended around 1620.
  Compared to contemporary Jingdezhen porcelain, Swatow ware is generally coarse, crudely potted and often under-fired.
context_section_description: European markets were probably much less significant, and the Kraak ware of the same period was probably always sent in greater quantity there.  This has many similarities but was all in underglaze blue and white. The Portuguese had traded at Yuegang until expelled in 1548, but were allowed to return from 1567, and in 1577 were allowed to establish a station at Macao.  The Santos Palace in Lisbon has a room decorated between 1664 and 1687 with a spectacular angled ceiling covered with Chinese blue and white porcelain dishes; three of these have been identified as Swatow ware.  
  The Spanish, who were settled at Manila in the Philippines, carried goods including Chinese luxuries between there and New World ports such as Acapulco in the Manila galleon trade.  Swatow ware has been recovered from several Spanish sites and wrecks, including Sebastião Rodrigues Soromenho's San Agustin, wrecked in 1595 at Drakes Bay, just north of San Francisco.     
  The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, traded with Indonesia, a major market for the wares.  They were not allowed to trade directly with China, and contented themselves with capturing any Portuguese, Spanish and Chinese vessels they could, and probably arranging deliveries to their bases by Chinese ships.  From 1624 they had a base on Formosa (modern Taiwan).  The rather similar export Kraak porcelain was adapted to suit European tastes, which Swatow ware never seems to have been. Later Swatow wares may have been exported directly to Europe by the Dutch.  These European trades have left fragments of Swatow ware at various land sites and wrecks around the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa.
caption: Detail of wall of dishes: at lower right Mount Penglai, at lower left both under- and overglaze decoration.[35]
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