Early experiments during the end of the Eastern Han period and the Wei and Jin dynasties eventually led to the production of fine porcelain during the Sui and Tang dynasties. The first workshops were in the north.

Kaolin, a special type of clay, was an essential ingredient of the paste used to make porcelain and was fairly common in the northern regions of China. During the Song dynasty, porcelain was also being manufactured in the workshops of Jiangxi in the south.

Song porcelain products are generally simple, without the rich decoration typical of Tang ceramics. Their outstanding beauty is manifest in the delicacy of the body and lid, which are generally monochrome.

The porcelain of the Yuan (1260-1368), Ming (1368-1644), and Qing (1644-1912) periods is more lavishly decorated. The Ming dynasty was the golden age of white porcelain with cobalt-blue underglaze decoration. There were further experiments during this period and the ensuing Qing dynasty, with various decorative techniques using enamelled glazes.

Styles ranged from doucai (contrasting colours) to ivncai (five colours), and famille verte and famille rose, the latter two developed under the Qing dynasty.

In addition to a notable production of pieces in earthenware and stoneware, celadonware (Chinese stoneware with a delicate green glaze) achieved excellent results.

Although the technical quality of porcelain was being refined during the Eastern Han era (AD25-220), it is the pieces created during the Song dynasty that are still considered the most remarkable.

The Koryo Art of Korea

The division of the Korean peninsula into three distinct territorial units - Koguryo in the north (37bc-ad668), Paekche in the southwest (18bc-ad660), and Silla in the southeast (57bc-ad935) - led to a differentiation of art forms.

The small Buddhist sculptures in bronze or clay from the Koguryo temples were typical of the style of the northern Wei (ad430-534); the plastic art of Paekche showed the influence of the Chinese Liang dynasty (ad502-57), and the great granite temples, built after the unification of the country under Silla rule (ad668-918), echo the Chinese Tang style, surpassing it in the sculpture of figures.

Traces of Indian influence, as seen in the massive legs and the fan-shaped drapery at the bottom of the garments, were perhaps the result of repeated visits to India by Silla Buddhist monks and pilgrims.

The Great Silla style was characterized by the sculptures of Buddha and Bodhisattvas. These were set in the artificial caves of Sokkuram, south of the Silla capital Kyonju in southeastern Korea.

Close contacts with China were fundamental to the development of tomb wall-paintings, as exemplified by the realistic style of Zol Kuh from the mid-sixth century. Although there are no surviving examples of the paintings from the Great Silla period, it is known that there was an office responsible for the Fine Arts.

In the Koryo period (ad918-1392), the capital was moved to Kaesong, north of Seoul, and this led to the transfer of many arts and crafts workshops, which maintained their unique styles and techniques.

Painting, too, was strongly encouraged by artists of the imperial house, among them the emperors Hing Jong (1095), In Jong (1123-46), and Kong Min (1352-74). Sculptors of the time favoured a more naturalistic approach to figures, which were now produced in a freer style and possessed recognizably human features.

Artistic influences introduced by the Mongol invasion of 1231 resulted in an increased amount of decoration in sculpture, an abundant use of jewellery, and a more relaxed portrayal of the human figure, which was characterized by slanting eyes.

At the same time, the rising popularity of Zen Buddhism signalled a marked decline in the creation of effigies and cult objects. Major contributions to the art of the Koryo dynasty came in the field of ceramics, with the development of celadonware, a type of porcelain notable both for its form and linear decoration.

The influence of China, initially of the Five Dynasties and later of the Song and Yuan dynasties, helped to create beautifully balanced and extremely delicate products.

Introduced to Europe in the fourteenth century, Chinese porcelains were regarded as objects of great rarity and luxury. The examples that appeared in Europe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were often mounted in gilt silver, which emphasized their preciousness and transformed them into entirely different objects (68.141.125a,b).

By the early sixteenth century - after Portugal established trade routes to the Far East and began commercial trade with Asia - Chinese potters began to produce objects specifically for export to the West and porcelains began to arrive in some quantity.

An unusually early example of export porcelain is a ewer decorated with the royal arms of Portugal; the arms are painted upside down, however - a reflection of the unfamiliarity of the Chinese with the symbols and customs of their new trading partner (61.196).

Porcelains were only a small part of the trade - the cargoes were full of tea, silks, paintings, lacquerware, metalwork, and ivory. The porcelains were often stored at the lowest level of the ships, both to provide ballast and because they were impervious to water, in contrast to the even more expensive tea stored above.

The blue-and-white dishes that comprised such a significant proportion of the export porcelain trade became known as kraak porcelain, the term deriving from the Dutch name for caracca, the Portuguese merchant ship. Characteristic features of kraak dishes were decoration divided into panels on the wide border, and a central scene depicting a stylized landscape (1995.268.1).

As the export trade increased, so did the demand from Europe for familiar, utilitarian forms. European forms such as mugs, ewers, tazze, and candlesticks were unknown in China, so models were sent to the Chinese potteries to be copied.

While silver forms probably served as the original source for many of the forms that were reproduced in porcelain, it is now thought that wooden models were provided to the Chinese potters. It is likely that just such a model inspired a porcelain taperstick of around 1700 - 1710 (1970.266.3).

Porcelain decorated only in blue pigment painted under the glaze dominated the export trade until the very end of the seventeenth century. The popularity of polychrome enameled decoration, painted over the glaze seems to be a result of the growing interest in porcelain decorated with coats of arms.

The first armorial porcelain was painted in cobalt blue only, and this monochrome palette made it extremely difficult to depict a legible coat of arms.

Polychrome enamels allowed for detailed, accurate coats of arms, and the trade in armorial porcelain became the defining aspect of Chinese export porcelain in the eighteenth century. Curiously, only one complete design for an armorial service survives; made for Leake Okeover of England, the service dates to about 1740 (1978.196).

With the appearance of porcelain factories in Europe in the early eighteenth century, the demand for Chinese export porcelain began to diminish, and by the second half of the century the trade was in serious decline.

New geographical markets, however, revitalized the export porcelain industry. Following the nation's newfound independence in 1784, America officially entered into trade with China. Consistent with European trade, American agents in China expedited special orders for clients.

An unusually complete surviving service is that produced for Samuel Chace, who may have ordered it on the occasion of his marriage in 1784 (10.149.1-.247). Personalized porcelains often displayed fervent patriotism in their depictions of a variety of American themes and motifs, including the American eagle (51.86.334a,b), the country's forefathers - especially George Washington (34.74a,b) - and the Society of Cincinnati.

The latter is the subject of a remarkable punchbowl of around 1786 - 90; its painted decoration, executed in extraordinary detail, consists of a replica of an engraved certificate issued by the Society of Cincinnati to Ebenezer Stephens, a major general in command of the New York artillery (1984.449).

By the late nineteenth century, Chinese export porcelains, especially blue-and-white ware, had achieved a status in this country above the merely utilitarian. Looked upon with nostalgia, they became emblematic of the colonial era. During the last decades of the century, Chinese export porcelains were increasingly collected by connoisseurs, an indication of a new antiquarian interest in America's past.

The Charactoristics of Porcelain

Porcelain is the hardest of all ceramic products, and though this gives it many practical applications in science and electronics, it is primarily known as the best material available for fine vases, figurines and other decorations.

Table settings known as "China" are made of porcelain, and are referred to as such because porcelain was first fired in China over 1,000 years ago.

Porcelain took longer to develop than conventional ceramics mainly due to the extremely high temperatures needed to fire its ingredients. The ground mixture of kaolin and petuntse (the latter found only in China) must be heated to a minimum of 1250 degrees Celsius, and sometimes as high as 1450 degrees.

While the petuntse melts to form a natural glass, the kaolin remains resistant to heat even at those temperatures, allowing the item to hold its shape. When the two fuse together, porcelain is born.

Though porcelain was likely discovered during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), it was the emperors of the Song Dynasty (960-1279) that truly developed the craft. During those years, royal factories were built for the sole purpose of creating porcelain decorations for the royal palaces.

While the techniques for manufacturing porcelain eventually spread to China and Korea by the 1100s and to Europe by the 1500s, Chinese porcelain remained the benchmark by which all else was measured.

In its heyday, over one million people were engaged in the creation of porcelain in the Chinese city of Jingdezhen, which was established by the emperor as the imperial capital of porcelain. In letters sent to Europe in the early 1700s, Jesuit missionary Pere d'Entrecolles described the city as having over 3,000 kilns for firing porcelain.

The porcelain boom in China finally ended with the downfall of the emperor in 1912 and the subsequent closing of the kilns.

Collectors still regard many porcelain vases and bowls made during the half-millennium of the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing Dynasties (1644-1912) as best porcelain every made. The blue and white under-glaze with overlaid enamel colors perfected in the Ming dynasty, and the variety of colors and patters developed in the Qing Dynasty were highly sought after in Europe.

Though moderately expensive in China, the shipping costs meant that only the very, very wealthy could afford "Chinaware" in Europe.

To counter its high cost, European artisans tried to emulate the Chinese creations on their own. Although they were unable to fully duplicate the quality of Chinese porcelain, they were able to make their own version using different mixtures of clay and kaolin to create what is called "soft-paste" porcelain.

Though purists consider soft-paste a lesser form of porcelain, it has many merits of its own that make it preferred by some collectors. With a creamy (rather than white) tone, it generally blends well with colors giving it a silky tone which appeals to many.

The third type of porcelain is "Bone China," which was discovered in England around 1750. In Bone China, burned animal bone is added to the kaolin and petuntse (imported from China), making a porcelain harder than soft-paste, but still not as durable as the original.

Almost exclusively manufactured in England, the bone ash gives Bone China more translucence than the others.