FAQ pertaining to fine china, ceramics,porcelain and pottery

What is the difference between pottery, ceramics, porcelain and china?

Bone china
------------
A paste intermediate between hard porcelain and soft paste porcelain; a combination of clay and china stone made white and strong by the addition of calcified bone. Josiah Spode first marketed this product in 1794. Of fine texture and color, it gave enduring service at a cost far lower than that of fragile soft paste porcelain, and quickly replaced it in the English market. It is a type of porcelain body first developed in Britain in which calcified ox bone (bone ash) is a major constituent. It is characterized by high whiteness, translucency and strength. Production usually involves a two stage firing where the first, bisque, is without a glaze at 1280 °C (2336 °F), which gives a translucent product and then glaze, or glost, fired at a lower temperature below 1080 °C (1976 °F).

The use of bone ash had been known from the middle ages, when it was first used in cupels for the assaying of metals. Interest in it as a tableware ingredient emerged about 1750 and in the succeeding fifty years several experimental formulations were tried. However, these were 'soft-paste' porcelains with the inclusion of bone ash. Whereas what we now know as bone china is a true porcelain of china clay and Cornish stone with 45%-50% calcined bone.
It is actually a hybrid hard-paste porcelain containing bone ash. The initial development of bone china is attributed to Josiah Spode the Second, who introduced it around 1800. His basic formula of six parts bone ash, four parts china stone, and three and a half parts china clay remains the standard English body.
English manufacturers were keen to produce porcelain of the quality to be found in Chinese imports, but they had to go down a different route, since the clays, specifically kaolin was not available in the country then. The first use of bone ash in ceramics is attributed to Thomas Frye in 1748 to make a type of soft-paste porcelain, at his Bow China Works. In the late 18th century, Josiah Spode undertook further developments, and subsequently popularized it, by mixing it with kaolin and China stone to compete with the imported Oriental porcelain.
Spode was born in 1733 in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. The county of Staffordshire is world-renowned for its ceramics and porcelain. When he was 16 or 17, young Josiah apprenticed with Thomas Whieldon, one of the area’s finest potters. Spode worked for other potters and also co-owned factories with other potters until 1767 when he formed the Spode factory. This factory was wholly owned by him by 1776 and that factory remains in operation in the same spot today. It is the oldest porcelain factory to remain in business at the same site.
Josiah passed his factory on to his son, Josiah Spode II (1754-1827). Josiah II apprenticed in his father’s factory and opened a London gallery to showcase his father’s porcelain.

Bone china is the toughest of porcelains and does indeed contain bones. Bone ash makes up the greatest part of the formula for bone china, with the balance of the formula containing kaolin and petuntse. The resulting material is hard, resilient and an ivory white in color. It remains the standard for porcelain manufactured in England. Bone ash comes from the pulverized and burned bones of animals. All tissue is removed from the bones and they are fired at temperatures of up to 1000 degrees. The resulting ash is crushed to a powder and mixed with water before being added to the other porcelain material. Without this ash component, china is not really 'bone' china. It is also usually more expensive than other china, and this is justified by the processes and labour involved in its making. A piece of bone china contains at least 25% of bone ash, and this compound not only adds strength and white color to the china, but also makes it translucent. Not totally transparent, but enough for the light to pass through it.

Generally, bone china is registered and its trademark and pattern can be found under each piece. However, over time these can become difficult to read, and it's always good to know you can quickly verify its authenticity. Bone china is stronger than it appears, but care should still be taken when handling these dishes. Some newer pieces may be marked 'dishwasher safe', but I recommend always hand washing with a mild soap.

Dishwasher detergents are very harsh and over time will fade the pattern on your good dishes. There is also a possibility of these becoming chipped from rattling against other dishes during the dishwashing process.

Many bone china patterns have gold or metallic trims and bands, and these should never be placed in a microwave.

Bone china has lasted through generations and is beautiful heirloom pieces to hand down to the next one. But don't be afraid to use it, it is made to be enjoyed. In fact, tea and coffee tastes the best in bone china cups. I can attest to that - try it!

What is soft paste porcelain or china?

Porcelain, soft paste
-----------------------
The history of soft-paste porcelain dates back to early attempts by European potters to replicate Chinese porcelain at a time when its composition was little understood and its constituent materials were not widely available in the West. The earliest formulations were mixtures of clay and ground-up glass or frit. Soapstone and lime were also known to have been included in some compositions. As these early formulations suffered from high pyroplastic deformation, or slumping in the kiln at raised temperatures, they were difficult and uneconomic to use in mass. Formulations were later developed based on kaolin (china clay), quartz, feldspars, nepheline syenite, and other feldspathic rocks. Soft-paste porcelain with these ingredients was technically superior to the traditional soft-paste and these formulations remain in production.
It was made from white china clay and a vitreous frit that produced translucence. Nearly all 18th century English porcelain is of this type. Firing is at a high temperature but not as great of that of hard paste porcelain, and the body is more liable to breakage. Soft-paste porcelain is a type of a ceramic material, but it lacks a more specific, universally agreed definition. Some writers have used the term for body formulations that combine clay and glass frit, mainly in the production of decorative figures and domestic wares in eighteenth century Europe,while others have used the term more widely to include other soft porcelains as well, such as bone china, Seger porcelain, vitreous porcelain, new Sèvres porcelain, Parian porcelain and soft feldspathic porcelain.

Soft-paste made with little clay is not very plastic and shaping it on the potter's wheel is difficult. Those pastes with more clay (now more commonly referred to as bodies), such as electrical porcelain, are extremely plastic and can be shaped by methods such as jolleying and turning. It was called "soft" because of its inability to hold rigid under high temperatures compared to hard-paste porcelain; the feldspathic formulations are however more resilient and experience less pyroplastic deformation. Soft-paste is fired at lower temperatures than hard-paste porcelain, typically around 1100oC, for the frit based compositions and 1200 to 1250 C for those using feldspars or nepheline syenites as the primary flux. The lower firing temperature gives artists and manufacturers some benefits, including a wider palette of colours for decoration and reduced fuel consumption. The body of soft-paste is more granular than hard-paste porcelain, less glass being formed in the firing process.

Experiments at Rouen produced the earliest soft-paste in France, when a 1673 patent was granted to Louis Poterat. It seems that not much of this was made. An application for the renewal of the patent in 1694 stated, "the secret was very little used, the petitioners devoting themselves rather to faience-making". Rouen porcelain, which is blue painted, is rare and difficult to identify.

The first important French porcelain was made at the Saint-Cloud factory, which was an established maker of faience (see FAQ on 'faience') . In 1702, letters-patent were granted to the family of Pierre Chicaneau, who were said to have improved upon the process discovered by him, and since 1693 to have made porcelain as "perfect as the Chinese". The typical blue-painted Saint-Cloud porcelain, says Honey, "is one of the most distinct and attractive of porcelains, and not the least part of its charm lies in the quality of the material itself. It is rarely of a pure white, but the warm yellowish or ivory tone of the best wares of the period is sympathetic and by no means a shortcoming; and while actually very soft and glassy, it has a firm texture unlike any other. The glaze often shows a fine satin-like pitting of the surface that helps to distinguish it from the brilliant shiny glaze of Mennecy, which is otherwise similar. The heavy build of the pieces is also characteristic and is saved from clumsiness by a finer sense of mass, revealed in the subtly graduated thickness of wall and a delicate shaping of edges."
Louis Henry, Duc de Bourbon established a soft-paste factory on the grounds of his château in Chantilly in 1730.
A soft-paste factory was opened at Mennecy by François Barbin in 1750. The Vincennes porcelain factory was established in 1740 under the supervision of Claude-Humbert Gérin, who had previously been employed at Chantilly. The factory moved to larger premises at Sèvres in 1756. A superior soft-paste was developed at Vincennes, whiter and freer of imperfections than any of its French rivals, which put Vincennes/Sèvres porcelain in the leading position in France and throughout the whole of Europe in the second half of the 18th century.The use of frit in this paste lent it the names "Frittenporzellan" in Germany and "frita" in Spain. In France it was known as "pâte tendre" and in England "soft-paste", perhaps because it does not easily retain its shape in the wet state, or because it tends to slump in the kiln under high temperature, or because the body and the glaze can be easily scratched.

(Scratching with a file is a crude way of finding out whether a piece is made of soft-paste or not.)

The first soft-paste in England was demonstrated by Thomas Briand to the Royal Society in 1742 and is believed to have been based on the Saint-Cloud formula. In 1749, Thomas Frye, a portrait painter, took out a patent on a porcelain containing bone ash. This was the first bone china, subsequently perfected by Josiah Spode.Recipes were closely guarded, as illustrated by the story of Robert Brown, a founding partner in the Lowestoft factory, who is said to have hidden in a barrel in Bow to observe the mixing of their porcelain. A partner in Longton Hall referred to "the Art, Secret or Mystery" of porcelain.In the fifteen years after Briand's demonstration, half a dozen factories were founded in England to made soft-paste table-wares and figures:

What is agate ware?

Agate ware (or agateware [sometimes agregate ware])
Agate is a type of quartz (silica), chiefly chalcedony, characterised by its fineness of grain and brightness of color. Although agates may be found in various kinds of rock, they are classically associated with volcanic rocks but can be common in certain metamorphic rocks.
The colorful agate and other chalcedonies were obtained over 3,000 years ago from the Achates River, now the Dirillo, in Sicily. The stone was given the name by a Greek by the name of Theophrastus, who discovered the stone along the shore line of the river Achates sometime between the 4th and 3rd centuries BC.

Agate ware consists of clays of various colours, natural or pigmented with colours which are mixed and mingled to produce a marbled effect. Agate ware can also be made by using different stains to achieve the colour variations mentioned above.Up to about the 1740s natural buffs and red clays were used together. Some clays turned white when fired and needed to be stained with metallic oxides in greens, greyish blues and browns ( first done by Thomas Whieldon).
The many different clays which abounded in Staffordshire no doubt first suggested a kind of combing and marbling, and led to the making of agate ware. In order to attain this effect layers of clay in various colors were laid one upon another, and “from this alternating strata thin slices were cut transversely by means of a wire. The slices were then pressed into moulds, and the irregular blending of the various clays produced a wavy pattern like marble. Sometimes the effect was improved by the use of a bluish glaze.”
By the 1750s many other Staffordshire potteries were making marbled clays and this process continued off and on until about 1820.
In the late 19th century agate ware was revived using different formulas, including a variation resembling horn, which continued to be made until about the 1920s.

To Further Confuse; (Note; I believe this NOT ceramic but enamelware!)

1850-1890
Lalance and Grosjean Mfg. Co. was one the first American companies to make porcelain enamelwares. These wares offered a cheaper, lighter alternative to cast-iron cookware. Most makers of porcelain enamelwares marked their products with a paper label that quickly washed off. Lalance & Grosjean marked their earlier wares with the blue, burned-in enamel brand. "Agate Ware," their brand name, became so widely used that it served as a generic name for all enamelware. This is called a "Turk's Head" cake mold because of its similarity to the shape of a turban. The spout in the middle helped to distribute the heat to the center of the cake as it baked

Make Your Own
Procedure:
1. Wedge 3 kg fine white earthenware clay.
2. Cut into three.
3. Add stains to desired colour to the three batches.
4. Roll slabs of the three colours 1/2" thick
5. Cut the slabs into 1/2" wide strips.
6. Align the strips into a pattern and roll, turning frequently to join.

This slab can be used as is, in a slump or hump mold, or can be further dissected into a patchwork design or made to order with colours purposfully positioned to form a decoration or drawing.

What is Castleford ware?

What is glaze?

What is Felspar porcelain?

What is crouch ware?

What is crazing?

What is Feldspar?

What is Felspathic ware?

What is porcelain?

What is earthenware?

The most ancient pottery was fired earthenware (terracotta), which is known to date back to the Mesolithic period in northern Europe and East Africa. Today, pots fired in the traditional method for local use in parts of South America, Indonesia, Africa, and the Indian subcontinent are sometimes burnished to a smooth finish, which strengthens them. They often have an attractively uneven distribution of shades due to different rates of oxidization in the low temperature of an open fire (about 600°C/1,000°F); kiln-fired pots (fired at 1,000–1,200°C/1,832–2,200°F) are more evenly coloured and matt.

Earthenware is a common ceramic material, which is used extensively for pottery tableware and decorative objects. Although body formulations vary tremendously between countries, and even between individual makers, a generic composition is 25% ball clay, 28% kaolin, 32% quartz, and 15% feldspar. Earthenware is one of the oldest materials used in pottery. While red earthenware made from red clays is very familiar and recognizable, white and buff colored earthenware clays are also commercially available and commonly used.

earthenware
Pottery made of porous clay and fired at relatively low temperatures of up to 1,200°C/2,200°F. It does not vitrify but remains porous, so will continue to absorb fluids. Earthenware may be unglazed (terracotta flowerpots, wine-coolers) or glazed to give a smooth, shiny, waterproof surface (most tableware); the glaze and body characteristically form quite separate layers.

Earthenware is commonly bisque, or biscuit, fired to temperatures in the range of 1000 and 1150 degrees Celsius (1800 and 2100 degrees Fahrenheit, and glost fired from 950 to 1050°C (1750 to 1925°F). However examples of the the reverse, low biscuit firing and high glost, can also be found: this can be popular with some studio potters where bisque temperatures may be 900 to 1050°C (1650 to 1920°F ) with glost temperatures in the range of 1040 to 1150°C (1900 to 2100°F). The exact temperature will be influenced by the raw materials used and the desired characteristics of the finished ware. The higher firing temperatures are likely to cause earthenware to bloat. After firing the body is porous and opaque with colours ranging from white to red depending on the raw materials used.

Earthenware may sometimes be as thin as bone china and other porcelains, though it is not translucent and is more easily chipped. Earthenware is also less strong, less tough, and more porous than stoneware - but its low cost and easier working compensate for these deficiencies. Due to its higher porosity, earthenware must usually be glazed in order to be watertight.

Although production of tin-glazed earthenware began in the Netherlands and England in the 16th century, it was not actually made in Delft until around 1600. By the late 17th century, Delft had become the most famous center of production. Variations on the name 'delftware' have since become common in Britain for both English and Dutch pottery of this type. Wares known to have been made in the town itself are now simply called 'Delft'.

What is basaltes or basalts stoneware or Egyptian black stoneware?

What is Delftware or Delft?

What is shivering?

What is ironstone?

What is ironstone china or porcelain?

ironstone china- A hard durable earthenware fired at a high heat. Variations are red and brown stoneware and Wedgwood's black basalt.
The Beginning of White Ironstone

Ironstone china as we know it was first patented in 1813 by Charles James Mason in Staffordshire, England. It was an improved china harder than earthenware and stronger than porcelain.
Mason's patent lasted only fourteen years, and by 1827 a number of other potters had already experimented with his formulas. All of these wares were decorated with transfer patterns or brush-stroke designs. Occasionally an undecorated piece would find its way out of the factory, possibly because it was flawed in some way.
In the 1840's, England began exporting the undecorated wares to the American and Canadian markets. The English potters discovered that the "Colonies" preferred the unfussy plain and durable china. Specifically, it was 1842 when James Edwards marketed the first white ironstone china in America.

Late in the 1850's and into the 1860's huge quantities of china were sold to the agricultural communities and called "thrashers' ware." These dinner, tea and chamber sets were embossed with wheat, prairie flowers and corn in order to appeal to the farmers, who had to feed all the people that helped with the harvest.
Little of this plain embossed white ironstone could be found in England until just recently, when a staff member of the City Museum and Art Gallery of Stoke-on-Trent visited the U.S. He purchased several pieces which now reside in the Museum.

"What the public will have the manufacturer must make," said a nineteenth-century British potter. In a century of technological advancement and restless change, potters had constantly to come up with something new.
At the beginning of the century, cream-coloured earthenware was still much in use. It was soon, however, to be superseded in popularity by newer types. One of these was a high-fired earthenware, stronger and more durable than anything that had gone before.
When it first came on the market, the new earthenware was given the blue-grey appearance of Chinese export porcelain. Its decoration, often hand-painted within printed outlines, was frequently adapted from the Oriental. Many potters made and exported it, but it was Staffordshire's Charles James Mason who took out a patent for it in 1813, calling it Ironstone China. "Ironstone" suggested strength; "China" suggested porcelain. But it was, in fact, an earthenware.

Other potters exported similar bodies, using names such as Stone China, Granite China, Pearl Stone and Dresden China.

What is biscuit, bisque or biscuit porcelain?

What are dry body stonewares?

dry body stonewares
Fine-grained, non-porous stoneware body requiring no glaze. Often decorated with die stamped reliefs, sprig designs, or engine turning. Tea and coffee pots are the most common forms, but other tablewares and decorative pieces also occur. Common English dry bodied varieties include the red stonewares (often called "Elers-type"), as well as black basalts and jasperwares (of Wedgwood fame).The English dry bodied stoneware paste is usually fine grained and non-porous, even semi-vitrified, although Dwight’s wares were often coarser and could have quartz and iron ore inclusions.
Dry bodied stonewares were produced from local clays, sometimes with the addition of colored oxides or ochreous earths. There are many variations of color due to the clay mixtures and the firing environment. Dwight’s pieces were generally dark red, but vessels ranging from greenish-brown to gray, or with a gray reduced core, have also been found. Some Elers vessels were chocolate brown, rather than red. Wedgwood and others made stonewares similar to black basalt, but in buff, light red, gray, and white, while rosso antico could range from dark red to chocolate. Jasperware could be tinted blue, green, lilac, black, and other colors.

Red Stoneware
Chinese red stoneware tea services were being exported to Europe by at least the 1660s. By the mid-1670s, English potter John Dwight was making imitations of the Chinese ware, as were various Dutch and German potters. Dwight patented his ceramic in 1684. The Elers brothers began making a superior red stoneware by 1693. Dwight appears to have stopped production of red stoneware around 1695, while the Elers were out of business by 1700, so these 17th century wares would be very rare on American sites. After this, red stoneware production did not resume until the 1740s at the earliest, but certainly by the mid-1750s. Engine turned decorations became common after 1760. Red stoneware tea and coffee wares were popular into the 1780s, and are often found on American sites dating to the third quarter of the 18th century. In 1776, Wedgwood produced his rosso antico variant, which continued into the 19th century
Black Basalt
Experimentation with black dry bodied stoneware began in the late 1750s, and was perfected by Wedgwood in the 1760s . This type of ware was widely imitated by other potters until the early 19th century, but remained in limited production through the 20th century .

Jasperware
Wedgwood began experimenting with this ceramic in the early 1770s, and had perfected it by 1780. It is still produced by Wedgwood today, but other potters were making it in the 18th century.

In the 17th century, Dwight’s dry bodied stonewares were wheel-thrown, while Elers vessels were mostly produced by slip casting. Both would turn their products on a lathe. In the 18th century, dry-bodied stonewares were generally thrown or molded.

Glaze
Dry bodied stonewares were not glazed, but some of Dwight’s vessels had a lustrous surface, possibly due to "heat polishing," while 18th century vessels were also occasionally polished.

Decoration
Dwight’s red stoneware vessels were generally undecorated, although he did apparently use sprig molds for a short time in the 1690s. The Elers commonly applied sprigs and die-stamped molds, often with floral designs, and occasionally painted their pieces. Eighteenth century red stoneware was often decorated with sprigs or die-stamped molded reliefs, typically in floral designs or animal and human figures. Rosso antico often had reliefs in other colors, especially black. Engine turned designs were common after 1760. Psuedo-Chinese seal marks appear on the bases of some vessels, and were also used by the Elers. Black basalt could be enamel painted, in addition to employing the decorative techniques found on red stoneware. The reliefs on jasperware were typically white.

Form
Dwight made red stoneware teapots and tea bowls, as well as jars and beakers. The Elers produced similar forms, along with cups, mugs, and tankards. Eighteenth century red stonewares were mostly tea and coffee services; flatwares and other forms were rare. Black basalt was produced as teawares, as well as vases and other decorative pieces. Jasperware occurred as teaware, vases and other decorative pieces, and medallions

What are pinholes?

What is flint ware?

What is creamware?

Creamware- A mixture similar to ironstone of refined clay and flint but fired at a less intense heat. When a clear glaze was evolved that could be applied as a liquid dip, the resulting cream colored earthenware became immediately popular. Wedgwood and Leeds are the names primarily associated with early creamware.

Creamware is a cream-coloured earthenware created about 1750 by the potters of Staffordshire, England, which proved ideal for domestic ware. It was popular until the 1820s. It was also known as tortoiseshellware or Prattware depending on the color of glaze used.

The most notable producer of creamware was Josiah Wedgwood. Around 1779, he was able to lighten the cream color to a bluish white and sold this more desirable product under the name pearl ware. Wedgwood supplied his creamware to Queen Charlotte and Catherine the Great and used the trade name Queen's ware.

Much that was imported was unmarked as to maker. It came from Scottish as well as English potters. Records exist, however, to show that Wedgwood was owned by such people as Sir James Monk, attorney-general of Quebec, and Sir Robert Shore Milnes, lieutenant-governor of the province. Early in the nineteenth century, a Quebec merchant was advertising "Wedgwood's finest cream-coloured Earthen Ware, in crates, each containing a complete dinner-service." Until the second half of the century, however, it was only occasionally that an importer mentioned any potter's name in advertisements.

Another known supplier of creamware to Canada was Liverpool's Herculaneum Pottery, and one of the rarities in the Museum's collection is a small Herculaneum plate with a lustre rim. It is a rarity because lustre was not often used at this pottery. Also, the overglaze printed decoration — of a sailor taking soundings — is usually found on unmarked specimens.

It was Herculaneum's practice to give ships' captains samples of its products to show to prospective customers abroad. In 1798 (two years after the founding of the pottery), the captain of the sailing ship Ephron arrived in the port of Quebec with a selection of Herculaneum earthenware. He showed it to George Pozer, a prominent merchant. Pozer liked what he saw and sent off an order for creamware. He also became an agent for the Liverpool pottery. Other agents, possibly recruited in the same way, were appointed in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

As the nineteenth century advanced, earthenware that was cream in colour ceased to be the ware most commonly found on Canadian tables. It was superseded by newer wares, but it never entirely disappeared.

If hand-painted, the decoration was now frequently applied within printed outlines. When the "Japanese mania" swept over the Western world, reaching its height of popularity in the last quarter of the century, creamware decoration often reflected the new craze.

What is black porcelain?

What is crawling?

What is Parian ware parian porcelain etc.

Parian ware is a porcelain introduced about 1840 by the English firm of Copeland & Garrett, in imitation of Sèvres biscuit (fired but unglazed porcelain). Its name is derived from its resemblance to Parian marble. Again it is another porcelain using feldspar as an ingredient.
(See What is feldspar?)

The official catalogue of the Great Exhibition of 1851 gives Thomas Battam credit for inventing Parian, saying that "he succeeded in producing a very perfect imitation of marble, both in surface and in tint." While Battam may have invented it, several English factories claimed credit for its development. But the Staffordshire firm operated by William Taylor Copeland and Thomas Garrett was the first to produce and sell it in 1842, and went on to become one of its major manufacturers.

Several potteries marketed it under different names. The Copeland firm called it "statuary porcelain" because of its resemblance to the fine white marble of neoclassical sculpture. Wedgwood named it "Carrara," after the Italian quarry patronized by Michelangelo. But it was Minton which coined the word "Parian" to suggest Paros, the Greek isle that furnished much of the stone used in the classical period. Thus, it quickly became the medium's generic name.

Ultimately, potteries produced two varieties of Parian ware: statuary Parian, used in the making of figures and reproductions of sculpture, and standard, Parian, from which they made hollowware. Statuary Parian, incorporating a glassy frit–a semi-fused substance used to add density–was classified as soft porcelain. Standard parian, with a greater proportion of feldspar in the composition but no frit, was hard porcelain. The presence of iron in the feldspar without iron silicate caused early Parian statuary to appear ivory-tinted. Both English and American potters either obtained details of the original formula or worked out their own, resulting in enormous production of Parian wares on both sides of the Atlantic. Plus the invention in 1844 of a patented machine that allowed scaled reproductions of larger bronze or marble originals made replicas of figures and busts by noted sculptors widely available.

What is Jasperware?

What is bone porcelain?

What is Blanc-de-Chine?

What is majolica or maiollica?

What is Chinese Porcelain?

Chinese porcelain is hard paste made using china clay and Chinese porcelain stone, baidunzi. While rim chips and hairline cracks are common, pieces tend not to stain. Chinese wares are usually thinner than Japanese and do not have the Japanese stilt marks.

Wares from the 16th century include Kraak porcelain, Yixing stonewares , Blanc-de-Chine, Blue and white, Famille verte, noire, jaune and rose, Chinese Imari, Armorial wares and Canton porcelain. Chinese export porcelain is generally decorative, but without the symbolic significance of wares produced for the home market. With the exception of the rare Huashi soft paste wares.
In the 16th century, Portuguese traders began importing late Ming dynasty blue and white porcelains to Europe, resulting in the growth of the Kraak porcelain trade (named after the Portuguese ships called carracks in which it was transported). In 1602 and 1604, two Portuguese carracks, the San Yago and Santa Catarina, were captured by the Dutch and their cargos, which included thousands of items of porcelain, were auctioned, igniting a European mania for porcelain. Buyers included the Kings of England and France. Many European nations then established trading companies in the Far East, the most important being the Dutch East India Company or VOC. The trade continued until the mid-17th century when civil wars caused by the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644 disrupted suppliers and the European traders turned to Japan.As valuable and highly-prized possessions, pieces of Chinese export porcelain appeared in many seventeenth-century Dutch paintings.
Under the Kangxi reign (1662-1722) the Chinese porcelain industry at Jingdezhen was reorganised and the export trade was soon flourishing again. Chinese export porcelain from the late 17th century included Blue and white and Famille verte wares (and occasionally Famille noire and jaune). Wares included garnitures of vases, dishes, teawares, ewers, and other useful wares, figure models, animals and birds. Blanc-de-Chine porcelains and Yixing stonewares arrived in Europe giving inspiration to many of the European potters.

For the potters of Jingdezhen the manufacture of porcelain wares for the European export market presented new difficulties. Writing from the city in 1712 the French Jesuit missionary Père Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles records that "...the porcelain that is sent to Europe is made after new models that are often eccentric and difficult to reproduce; for the least defect they are refused by the merchants, and so they remain in the hands of the potters, who cannot sell them to the Chinese, for they do not like such pieces".

What is faience?

What is armorial ware or armorial porcelain?

What is Imariware or Imari ware?

Imari porcelain is the European collectors' name for Japanese porcelain wares made in the town of Arita, in the former Hizen Province, northwestern Kyūshū, and exported from the port of Imari, Saga, specifically for the European export trade.

Imari was simply the trans-shipment port for Arita wares. The kilns at Arita formed the heart of the Japanese porcelain industry, which developed in the 17th century, after the white kaolin clay was discovered in 1616 by abducted Korean potter Yi Sam Pyong (Yi Sam-p'young; 1579-1655). Yi Sam Pyong was kidnapped along with several thousand other Korean artisans by Japanese invaders during the Seven Year War (Imjinwaelan) of 1592-1598. Arita soon came to rival the output of the Chinese kilns at Ching-te-Chen. Blue-and-white porcelain made at Arita was also widely exported to Europe through the Dutch East India Company, but "Imari porcelain" connotes Arita wares more specifically designed to catch the European taste.

Though sophisticated wares in authentic Japanese styles were being made at Arita for the fastidious home market. European export porcelains imitated Chinese underglaze blue decors ("blue-and-white" wares) or made use of enamel colors over underglazes of cobalt blue and iron red. The ware often used copious gilding, sometimes with spare isolated sprigged vignettes, but often densely patterned in compartments. There were two quite different styles in these wares. "On the one hand a gaudy, brash brightly coloured and highly decorated style, the Imari style" Globular Imari teapots with swan-necked spouts helped establish the classic European form for these new necessities of life.

Early experiments with overglaze colored enamels at Arita are associated with the famous Sakaida Kakiemon (1596-1666), whose name is memorialized in "Kakiemon" ware, the other main tradition in enamel decors. Dutch traders had a monopoly on the insatiable export trade, the first large order being placed at Arita by the Dutch East India Company in 1656. The trade peaked in the late 17th century and was slowly replaced by Chinese kilns in the early 18th century, as social conditions in China settled with the full establishment of the Qing Dynasty. Very fine "Chinese Imari" export wares were produced in the 18th century, eclipsing the original Japanese exports.

Chinese Imari patterns, as well as "Kakiemon" designs and palette of colors, influenced some early Orientalizing wares produced by the porcelain manufactories at Meissen, or later at Vincennes.

European centers imitated the style of "Imari" wares, initially in faience at Delft in Holland, and in the early 19th century at Robert Chamberlain's factory at Worcester