Posts Tagged ‘export market’

Later Japanese ceramics
In 1853 Commodore Nlatthew Galbraith Perry of the United States Navy entered Japanese territorial waters, forcing the country to accept diplomatic relations and trade with the West after over 200 years of seclusion. One of the effects of this exposure was the introduction of western technology, and this, coupled with the ambitions of the new Meiji Government after 1868, encouraged expansion. The town of Arita, the traditional home of Japanese porcelain, responded not only by making increasing numbers of conventional wares but also with brilliant showpieces suitable for display at international exhibitions and trade fairs, such as those held in London in the 1860x, in Paris ( 1867), and in Philadelphia ( 1876). The potters in the most important ceramic centres – Kaga, Satsuma, Kyoto and Seto – also benefited from the liberal policies of the Meiji Government. Vast quantities of pottery and porcelain saturated the markets in Europe Lind the USA. Such was the craze for all things Japanese that both impressionism and the Aesthetic Movement were inspired by the imported wares.
The range of Meiji ceramics is vast and includes extraordinarily elaborate and over-decorated earthenwares and the most delicate and flimsy eggshell porcelains. The majority arc generally considered to be of variable quality, especially the blue-and-white Arita and Imari porcelains. The mass-produced wares for the export market rarely correspond to the canons of the traditional Japanese aesthetic; the designs are mostly very busy and often lack coherence. They appear either to reflect a Western picture-postcard view of Japan or to be re-creations of earlier export porcelains. The emphasis was on space-filling decoration such as millefiori (thousand flowers) or overlapping panels of various shapes filled with diverse ornament.
ARITA
Late Imari porcelain (made in or around the town of Arita) consists mainly of decorative vases, bottles, bowls, and dishes; figures or useful tablewares
were rarely if ever made. The majority v of the production was f off-white, poorly levigated
porcelain covered in a thinnish
glaze. Surface pitting, iron flecks, and smudged cobalt indicate the somewhat
casual nature of this mass-produced output. Designs are often partly stencilled with outlines in a variable Underglaze blue, which were then infilled with an orangey iron-red, green, turquoise and gilding. The surface decoration featured either a main subject within complicated borders, or an all-over design made up of small panels showing various non-concordant subjects. For such wares the emphasis was on ornamentation –the “more-is-better” school of thought. Output includes enormous Indian dub-shaped vases with flared and frilled necks; small shallow saucer dishes; globular bottles with tall narrow cylindrical necks; multi-lobed, high-shouldered jars; and large dishes moulded in the form of a chrysanthemum. These wares arc generally unmarked, although many have impressed characters. The best Imari wares at this time were made by the Fukugawa family. In 1894 Chuji Fukugawa founded the Fukugawa Manufacturing Manufacturing Co. in Arita, which produced very refined wares -with symmetrical, soft, smoky -blue underglaze decoration.
Blue-and-white Arita wares are made of the same material as the Imari type, but the designs are not compartmentalized in the same way, relying instead on ordered floral, bird, or animal subjects. Some of the flatwares, especially the smaller dishes, were decorated entirely using stencils.
KAGA AND SETO
Although Kaga on the island of Honshu was a major centre for stoneware, it produced little porcelain of note Until the 19th century. The porcelain from the region around Kaga is known as Kutani ware. There are two basic styles of this: the first uses dark washes of green, purple, yellow, and black; the second, which was made specifically for export to the West, is known as “Red Kutani”. This export ware has a red ground and grisaille decoration showing people in romantic land- and riverscapes enjoying the delights of the season; decoration may also be heightened with gilding. another common type of Kutani ware does not use red.
By the end of the 19th century there were 434 kilns in Seto in Owari Province, producing mainly export wares. The potters generally appear to have made blue-and-white porcelains, some very close in feeling and design to the Chinese porcelains produced during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722). Output consisted of thinly potted ornamental vases and teawares, which were sent to Tokyo for decoration.
SATSUMA AND KYOTO
Although Satsuma was an important centre of ceramic production from the 16th century, the town is synonymous with the highly decorative export wares made from the mid-19th century. These cream-coloured earthenwares with finely crackled glazes and thickly applied enamelled and gilded decoration were also produced in the town of Kyoto. Satsuma and Satsuma-type wares were first shown outside Japan at the international exhibitions, resulting in a huge demand for them in the West. While some are of the very highest craftsmanship, many are of rather mediocre or poor quality, intended for sale in department stores.
In Satsuma the Seikozan studio, and in
Kyoto such potters as Kinkozan IV (1824-84) and Yabu Meizan (1853-1934), made extremely fine panelled wares decorated with miniature scenes depicting people carrying out everyday activities like fishing, playing, or strolling in parklands or along riversides. Landmarks such as Mount Fujiama were also depicted, together with animals including monkeys, cranes, pheasants, peacocks, and cockerels, and flowers
Such as chrysanthemums, irises, proms blossom,
and wisteria. Around these panels the ground was embellished with complex patterns or overlapping designs. Wares included koro (incense burners), vases, wine or sake ewers, howls, covered jars, and figures. The most sophisticated wares with the finest-quality decoration appealed to followers of the Aesthetic Movement in Europe and the USA. Most of these wares are clearly signed on the base.
NORITAKE
In 1891 the McKinley Tariff Act passed by the American Congress declared that all Japanese wares imported into the USA should be clearly marked with the word “Nippon” (the Japanese name for
One of the most important factories that produced what were known as “Nippon” wares was the Noritake Co., established in 1904 in Nagoya by Icizaemon Morimura 1875). The company specialized in the production of porcelain wares, at first copying debased Rococo-style European wares decorated with flowers, fruit, foliage. in
and landscapes i pale pastel tones with gold relief highlights. During the 1920s such well-known designer-, as the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1956) were commissioned to supply designs reflecting the current vogue for Art Deco-style tea, coffee and dinner services. After 1921 the American government decided that the Nippon marls was to be changed to “Japan” or “Made in Japan”.

Arita
• BODY porcelain
• GLAZE usually fairly thin with surface pitting
• TYPES blue-and-white and Imari-style wares
• DECORATION Imari: busy; blue and white
Kaga and SetoBody
• porcelain
• DECORATION Kaga: loosely painted with predominant iron red or grisaille; Seto, mainly delicately, drawn natural themes in clear, bright g
underclaze blue
Satsuma and KyotoBODY
• fine earthenware
• GLAZE Satsuma: warm, creamy, crackled glaze
• PALETTE enamelling in bright colours, gilding
DECORATION landscapes; people carrying out everyday activities; flowers; animals
Marks
Kyoto: seal mark for Yabu Meizan
NoritakeBODY
• at first a grey Seto body; from the each- 1920s a pure white porcelain similar to that made at the French factory of Limoges
• TYPES good quality utilitarian wares of European/ American form intended for export
Marks
Mark used on many Noritake Nippon wares (C.1911-1921); “M” is for Morimura

Arita blue-and-white wares
Almost all early Japanese porcelain was produced in Arita on Kyushu, the westernmost of the main Japanese islands and, significantly, the closest to Korea. It is most unlikely that the manufacture of porcelain would have developed in Japan as early as this without the know-how of Korean potters, who were brought to Japan when Toyotomi Hideyoshi returned from his invasion of Korea at the end of the 16th century. Early Arita porcelain is generally, if superficially, classified into three main types: Arita blue and white, Imari, and Kakicmon.
A Ming-style blue-and-white dish
This large dish is a fairly faithful rendition of late Ming kraak porcelain Emblems used by the Chinese as decorative motifs, including the “Eight Precious Objects” of the scholar (a musical stone, jewels, a coin, a pair of books, an open tied lozenge and a closed tied lozenge, and the artemisia leaf), were often copied by the Japanese. The artemisia leaf can be seen in this dish in the broad panels in the top right corner. (c. 1660-80; diam. 40cmll6in, value H)
DOMESTIC WARES
The earliest Arita wares wore crude-bodied, heavily potted porcelain, casually decorated in blue and white, and were generally not exported. These wares were clearly influenced by both Korean blue-and-white and imported late Ming porcelain. By the mid-17th century the Arita potters were producing a more refined and broader range of objects for the newly established export market, as well as for the domestic market. The type of decoration on these later wares was complex, combining natural themes with geometric patterns; dishes or bowls featured leaf or flower forms and, more rarely, bird or animal shapes. The underglaze blue used ranges from a poor-quality grey or blackish blue through to a bright purplish blue. Wares made for the domestic
EXPORT WARES
In 1647 the civil war in China between the Dynasty and the invading
disrupted the well-established trade between Japan and Europe. The Japanese were persuaded by Dutch East India Company to supply - white wares in the style of either the Chinese kraak porcelain or the Transitional
decorated with semi-botanical subjects narrative themes applied in a mechanical These are not close copies but loose
Japanese decorators were hampered by she they had to work from wooden models of originals supplied by the Dutch.
Wares produced at this time included
northern European metal or ceramic forms example the Enghalskrug (narrow-necked
or Kugelbauchkrug (bulbous globular rank:_
and the Birnkrug (pear-shaped tankard
specifically Chinese shapes as the kendi a
drinking vessel) and the klapmuts (a wide-dish) were also made. The trade with Europe continued until the kilns in China were reestablished in 1683, after which the Dutch mainly
returned to their patronage of Chinese porcelain. which was much less expensive than Japanese wares. However, porcelain made in the kilns at Arita continued to be exported to the West until the mid-18th century
market include small dishes and c.1640 Japanese wares include The third type of blue-and-white solely for the export market.

Korea’s close proximity to China has resulted in a marked Chinese influence in its ceramic production, ev ident in both the forms and the techniques used by potters. However, Korea has also produced stonewares and porcelains unique to its culture.
THE SILLA AND KORYO PERIODS
During the Silla kingdom (57 BC—AD 935) ceramic production in Korea consisted of grey- or brownish-bodied stonewares of distinctive architectonic form. Tall vessels with hemispherical bowls on an elongated spreading foot were decorated with geometric
windows and incised bands. Bowls were decorated with punched circlets, small repeated motifs, scratched geometric patterns, and, occasionally, animals or humans. Drawing inspiration from the Yue wares of south-eastern China, Korean potters developed celadon wares during the Koryo period (918-1392). Even if some of the forms are noticeably Chinese, there is almost always a distinctive Korean feel to them.
The green glaze is of a subtle tonality akin to the colour of the famous Ru wares of the northern Song Dynasty. However, er, the sangam celadons, which are painstakingly inlaid with black-and-white clays, are unique to Korea. A wide range of objects was made, including large blossom vases, ritual water ewers, and tiny covered boxes. Porcelain was also produced, albeit in very limited quantities, during the Koryo period.
CHOSON DYNASTY (1392-1910)
Developed from the sangam celadons of the Koryo period are the robust and often crude punch’ong wares, a greyish-green celadon-type stoneware made for about the first 200 years of the dynasty. Production ceased at the time of the invasion of Korea by the Japanese leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1592-8). The wares are decorated by stamping and washing through with slip. Decoration may feature tiny repeated motifs, flower-heads, or scrolls. Korean wares are generally very heavily potted with a curiously sticky glaze. The greyish-green glaze is thin, translucent, and mostly crackled, and it occasionally flakes. Choson whitewares were made throughout the period; earlier wares were often plain white, although many pieces can be painted in underglaze copper red, iron brown, or blue. Bulbous forms, often with faceted sides, are characteristic of the later Choson period, as are pierced vessels such as brushpots, pipe rests, and waterpots.
Early stoneware
• BODY dull dark grey or brown; potting tends to be very thick, and there is strong tendency for the items to warp
• FORMS “architectural”
• TYPES funerary wares
• DECORATION pierced and incised; often geometric patterns, rarely figures
celadon
• BODY generally a distinctive greyish blue-green like the classic Ru ware of the northern Song Dynasty
• GLAZE of greyish-olive tone; usually irregular; frequently crackled
• IDENTIFICATION celadon wares were fired on gritty kiln supports, often leaving crude patches on the underside of the foot-rim
• DECORATION the miniaturized inlay technique (sangam), using black-and-white clay, is unique to Korea
Porcelain
• BODY heavily potted; sometimes large pieces are warped or cracked; pierced and carved wares of the 18th and 19th centuries are very sophisticated
• GLAZE bluish or greenish irregularly crackled glaze
• DECORATION most common is the dragon; also cranes, tigers, and other animals
Marks
Most ceramics are unmarked before the late 19th century

Qing before 1800
Following the overthrow of the Ming Dynasty by the Qing Dynasty in 1644, production at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province was severely disrupted until 1677, when one of the classic eras of porcelain production began. This lasted until c.1750.
BLUE-AND-WHITE WARES
Blue and white dominated the export market during this period, but these wares were not prominent among the ceramics made at the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen. Before 1800 Qing imperial blue-and-white wares tended to imitate early Ming versions, particularly from the Yongle (1403-24) and Xuande (1426-35) reign periods, with decoration that was carefully spaced. The designs on these pieces are generally formal, measured arrangements showing stylized lotus flowers among scrolling foliage. The blue was applied in imitation of the “heaped and piled” effect that connoisseurs so admired in the early Ming wares. Often the reign mark used on those wares was used again in deference to the earlier period.
ENAMELLED WARES
Enamelled porcelains came into their own during the Qing period, replacing blue-and-white wares as the focus of technical and artistic innovation. The technical advances signalled by the development of famille-verte and famille-rose wares greatly enhanced the decorative possibilities of the medium, while the body had now become so refined and delicate as to be the perfect foil for artistic virtuosity. Increasingly, the white porcelain was not so much decorated as painted in the manner of silk-scroll painting.
The famille-verte palette was first introduced during the late 17th century as a development of the wucai palette. In early famille verte the blue is applied under the glaze in the Ming wucai style, but distinguished from it by a generally brighter palette. In the mature famille verte, which dates from the last years of the 17th century, the blue was applied over the glaze and is transparent. Gold was sometimes applied to famille verte wares of the early 18th century. The designs on these wares tended to be detailed representations of nature, including dramatic rocky landscapes and flowers, or precious objects such as classic vases and items for the scholar’s desk.
The famille-rose palette was created c.1720, at the end of the Kangxi reign period. The palette is named after one of the constituent colours – opaque pink enamel, which was achieved using gold. The palette also includes Lin opaque white and yellow that made blending and shading of colours possible in a way that could not be achieved with the transparent colours of the familleverte palette. This gave rise to the exquisitely refined decoration seen on porcelain of the Yongzheng period, with ink-and-wash-style landscapes or
naturalistic depictions of flowers and fruit
rendered in a painterly style against superbly
clear white backgrounds. Among the most
refined Yongzheng and Qianlong wares are
famille-rose wares known as guyuexuan, which were painted in the imperial workshops. Some of these bear poetic lines or calligraphic designs, and they were copied widely in the 20th century.
MONOCHROMES
In this period monochromes were the ceremonial wares used by the emperor and had to be of the very finest quality. In the early 18th century copper-red glazes, which had been so highly prized in the early Ming period, were reintroduced. However, as a result of a longer firing time, these new colours are not as resonant and fresh as their earlier Counterparts, and they can be distinguished from the originals by the extra laver of clear glaze over the copper red. Copper oxide was also used to make the so-called “peachbloom” glaze, which was introduced at this time and applied to a limited range of small wares intended for the scholar’s table, including water droppers and brush rests. This glaze is characterized by the combination of a pinkish red and a cloudy greenish bloom, creating a colour reminiscent of the blush on a ripening peach.
REIGN MARKS
The practice of marking imperial wares with the name of a reign period was introduced during the early 15th century, and continued to the end of the Qing period. Either four or six (or, in very rare cases, eight) characters were inscribed in underglaze blue, and often enclosed within a double circle. In the Yongzheng period, seal-script reign marks became common, and during the succeeding Qianlong period they were the norm. Conventional script became popular again at the end of the 19th century. Reign marks should not be taken at face value when dating a piece, since it was common practice to inscribe wares with the mark of art earlier reign period, particularly those of the much-esteemed Nling period and especially of Emperor Chenghua (1465-87). This was not so much a question of fraud as of admiration for and imitation of antiquity.
The experimentation with monochrome glazes resulted in many innovative effects, such as the speckled turquoise and dark-bloc “robin’s-egg” glaze, which is thought to have been inspired by the Jun wares of the Song period. The “teadust” glaze is created when iron oxide is underfired, resulting in a mottled green on a yellowish-brown background. The “iron-rust” glaze is
a streaked reddish-brown with a metallic sheen, achieved by cooling the ware very rapidly after firing. The pale-little Clair-de-lone glaze was created by incorporating a very small amount of cobalt blue and was applied only to the most delicate wares.
“ARCHAIC” WARES
The Qing emperors, especially Qianlong, were avid collectors of antiquities, and many Qing imperial ceramics closely imitate ancient models. This is particularly evident in the traditional forms that were favoured, which include pastiches of early bronzes and jades and also of classic ceramics of the Song and Ming Dynasties; some wares were made using a combination of the two forms. The Qing potters also tried to re-create the glazes applied to the archaistic pieces of the Song period; these included thick, crackled glazes used on Guan wares. The Qing copies are generally smoother and shinier than the originals.
Qing reign periods Shunzhi ( 1644-6 1 ) Kangxi(1662-1722) Yongzheng (1723-35) Qianlong ( 1736-95) Jiaqing (1796-1820)
Daoguang ( 182 1 —50) Xianfeng (1851-61)
Tongzbi ( 1862-74)
Guangxu (1875-1908) Xuantong (1909-11 )
• BODY very fine white porcelain
• POTTING extremely neat with smooth, rounded foot-rims, the bases of bowls and dishes arc flat, unlike the slightly convex form of the bases of Ming wares; there are no visible joins on vases and pots
• GLAZES a wide range of innovative glazes appears on monochromes; imitations of crackled Song-period Guan glazes are found on “archaic” pieces
• ENAMELS many colours enhanced with opaque white and yellow in the famille-rose palette, permitting shading and more decorative potential
• FORMS small, fine pieces for delicate porcelains as well as imitations of archaic bronze and jade forms
• Di CORATION blossoming and fruiting branches
rendered in a painterly manner; emblems of good luck, such as the characters sbou (long life) and fu (bat), are often integrated into the designs
Reign marks
Reign marks for Shunzhi and Kangxi are always written in conventional script; for the period of Yongzheng they may be written in the same manner or in seal script; Qianlong, Jiaqing and Daoguang are usually done in seal characters; from the Xianfeug reign onward, marks may be written in either style