page_title: Jingdezhen porcelain
section_title: Exports to Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Jingdezhen porcelain / Exports to Europe
caption_attribution_description: Teller mit holländischen Schiffen vor Kapstadt, dem Urteil des Paris; Schmelzfarbenmalerei und Goldspitzendekor im Stil J. G. Höroldts (Meißen); Porzellan aus Jingdezhen, für den Export nach Europa gefertigt, bemalt in Kanton bzw. Honan (18. Jahrhundert) Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Inv. Nr. 88,571
context_page_description: Jingdezhen porcelain is Chinese porcelain produced in or near Jingdezhen in southern China. Jingdezhen may have produced pottery as early as the sixth century CE, though it is named after the reign name of Emperor Zhenzong, in whose reign it became a major kiln site, around 1004. By the 14th century it had become the largest centre of production of Chinese porcelain, which it has remained, increasing its dominance in subsequent centuries. From the Ming period onwards, official kilns in Jingdezhen were controlled by the emperor, making imperial porcelain in large quantity for the court and the emperor to give as gifts.
  Although apparently an unpromising location for potteries, being a remote town in a hilly region, Jingdezhen is close to the best quality deposits of petuntse, or porcelain stone, in China, as well as being surrounded by forests, mostly of pine, providing wood for the kilns. It also has a river leading to river systems flowing north and south, facilitating transport of fragile wares. The imperial kilns were in the centre of the city at Zhushan, with many other kilns four kilometres away at Hutian.
context_section_description: European visitors to Istanbul in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries are recorded as having purchased Chinese porcelain there. Some other pieces came via the Portuguese settlement of Malacca; King Manuel I had several acquired from Vasco de Gama. The Chamber of Art and Curiosities at Ambras Castle contains the collection of  Archduke Ferdinand II of Austria, assembled during the mid-15th century. These early collections, typically of blue-and-white ware, were regarded as rare curios and art objects, and were often mounted in precious metals.
  During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries a number of European companies were established to import various commodities including tea, silk, spices, lacquerwork and porcelain from East Asia. Research by Volker has given figures for the trade in Chinese and Japanese porcelain carried out by the Dutch East India Company; between 1602 and 1682 the company exported between 30 and 35 million pieces. The English East India Company also imported around 30 million pieces, the French East India Company 12 million, the Portuguese East India Company 10 million and the Swedish East India Company some 20 million pieces between 1766 and 1786.
  The massive increase in imports allowed purchasers to amass large collections, which were often displayed in dedicated rooms or purpose-built structures. The Trianon de Porcellaine built between 1670 and 1672 was a Baroque pavilion constructed to display Louis XIV's collection of blue-and-white porcelain, set against French blue-and-white faience tiles both on the interior and exterior of the building. It was demolished in 1687.
caption: Late 18th-century plate in European style, with Dutch ships, Canton porcelain, painted there on a "blank" from Jingdezhen.
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