Portuguese traders and explorers introduced many exotic products in Europe, including Chinese porcelain. It wasn’t until the eighteenth century that the secret behind the chemical composition of this special ceramic artifact was discovered.
One of the first Europeans to lay eyes upon porcelain was not a Portuguese citizen but an Italian one. Marco Polo was delighted when he saw the white refined, almost translucent chinaware. In the thirteenth century the explorer traveled around China: in that century the Chinese had been producing porcelain for five centuries. They painstakingly kept their manufacturing methods a secret and the later European lovers of the product had no choice but to import it or produce porcelain imitations.
The victory march of porcelain
It took some time for porcelain to be exported to Europe after Marco Polo had gone. It was first shipped off by way of the Silk Road, a trading route that went from China to the Middle East. A number of products made their way from Arab cities to Europe including porcelain, though be it in smaller quantities. In the early sixteenth century the Portuguese discover the sea-route to China and the popularity of porcelain rises fast. Around 1585 ten porcelain shops had been established in port town Lisbon. Future king Philip II’s (1527-1598) love for porcelain contributed to the status of the chinaware as well. He owned an elaborate collection of over tree thousand pieces of Ming china. The Portuguese imported great amounts of the refined pottery and distributed it through their trading network all over Europe.
Portuguese in Amsterdam
A lot of Portuguese Jews lived in Amsterdam; they had fled the anti-Semitism of their own country. In 1497 these Sephardic Jews were presented with two options: convert to Catholicism or leave the country. Many of them were tradesmen and operating from Amsterdam they were able to keep in touch with the mother country. Many international products reached Amsterdam via Portugal, before this Dutch city grew out to be Europe’s most important transit port in the seventeenth century. Already in 1520 porcelain, also called porcolana, was for sale here.
Porcelain shot to fame in the Netherlands when in 1603 a group of Dutch fortune-hunters took possession of a Portuguese ship. The Portuguese had been annexed by Spain and it so happened to be that the Netherlands were at war with this country. The overpowered ship was loaded with porcelain worth millions. The white chinaware was called ‘Kraakporselein’, Kraak porcelain, after the generic name of the Portuguese ship, a Caraque. Within ten years the expensive porcelain had obtained the status of luxury show product among the Dutch rich and famous. The chinaware (and its high price) inspired the Dutch potters to experiment. They created faience, a type of pottery that was glazed with a white layer of lead and tin to cover the clay and make it invisible. When the import of original porcelain decreases due to problems between the VOC -the Dutch East India Company- and Chinese authorities, production of faience increases considerably. The Dutch clay fabrications were nowhere near as refined as the real Chinese ceramics, nevertheless, Delft Blue, a copy of Chinese porcelain, was a big hit.
The secret revealed
At the beginning of the eighteenth century two Germans, a geologist and an alchemist, united forces. Their joint expertise enabled them to discover the secret of the Chinese, and on the twenty-fourth of April 1708 the first European porcelain-factory was set up. In this century the number of designs and materials for chess games increased immensely and because of improved techniques porcelain was also an option. Renowned producers such as Wedgewood from Great Britain or Meissen from Germany soon not only sold porcelain tableware but also porcelain chess sets.
Porcelain is still very popular although faience is a worthy competitor. Sometimes the only way to see what type of ceramics you’re dealing with is to break it. This is the case of the Portuguese chess set made of blue and white ceramics, dated before 1975. The colors are so clear and the pieces so finely made that it is very hard to distinguish it from real porcelain.
You must be logged in to post a comment.