Antique Lamps – Blue and White Is Always Right!

Vintage Tins:Antique Lamps – Blue and White Is Always Right!

Why is blue and white so popular?  Blue & white has been popular for hundreds of years, with its fresh appeal never being out of fashion.   It’s interesting, but when we speak of blue and white, we nearly always think of blue and white “china” i.e., pottery and porcelain.  The evolution of this ever popular, blue and white, is a fascinating story….

The Chinese first discovered porcelain during the Tang dynasty, 618 AD – 906 AD. By the mid 14th century, during the Ming dynasty, Jingdezhen had Imperial patronage and was the most important centre for the production of porcelain in the world.  It was, in fact, the only place that could produce “true” or, hard paste porcelain.    

The “secret” of blue and white is cobalt, a natural mineral ore, then confined to Persia, today’s modern Iran.  Persia, or rather, Kashan, located near Tehran, held a monopoly on the valuable cobalt, mined in the low hills surrounding Kashan.

The Persians used cobalt for the decoration of white, tin glazed earthenware and, in fact, Kashan was an important centre for the manufacture and distribution of ceramics throughout the Middle East.  Here, we are speaking of a 9th and 10th century world, totally unrecognizable to us today with our instant everything and with every part of the world, just hours away!  At this time trade between countries was slow, dangerous and arduous, a trading caravan, typically taking a year for the round trip.

Trading caravans from Persia first introduced the Chinese to Persian cobalt; soon to be know in China as “Persian Blue”, the cobalt ore ground to a fine dark blue to black powder.  Chinese potters were excited and thrilled with this new product and trading began in earnest with bolts of pure silk exchanged for small packets of Persian Blue.

This trade between China and Persia undoubtedly propelled the Chinese decoration of ceramics into a new direction, with the first truly blue and white porcelain made around 1290 AD.

It was at this period that ceramic decorators were experimenting, especially with the firing techniques, as the cobalt could be unstable with the effect of over or under firing which is one of the reasons that this very early class of Chinese blue and white painting is sketchy with the blue being washy and rather pale. 

The term “hard paste” porcelain really refers to the “hard fire” or, high temperature, requiring kilns capable of raising temperatures up to 1250° C / 2300° F in order for the porcelain to vitrify with the hard, white, translucent result we call porcelain.

Whilst porcelain was in its infancy in China, tin glazed earthenware was being produced throughout the Middle East.  This was glazed, (a glassy coat over the surface of a ceramic body), with a lead / tin oxide mix which gave an opaque white ground, perfect as a canvas for decorating with cobalt blue.  The wares were painted in typically Islamic style with geometric patterns, stylized palms, Arabic script and flowers.  Syria was famous for its beautiful blue and white tiles and Turkey for its stunning blue and white Iznik pottery.

Turkish blue and white is known as “Frit ware” and is believed to have been discovered at Kashan, in Persia.  Frit ware was a type of artificial, or “soft paste” porcelain, soft paste referring to a “soft fire” or cooler temperature.  Iznik blue and white is freely painted in tones of blue with naturalistic subjects of fruiting vines, birds and animals.

Both the Turks and Persians greatly admired the blue and white porcelain imported from China and many of today’s surviving examples of Frit ware are decorated in Chinese style.

By the early 17th century, blue and white Chinese porcelain was “discovered” by European traders and it was the adventurous, seafaring Portuguese trading fleet that shipped the first cargo of blue and white to Amsterdam.   The first recorded shipments were in 1602 and 1604. The Portuguese merchants were shocked to find that their cargo was sold out before they knew it and realised they could sell as much porcelain as they could ship!