To most people ‘Chinese Export’ conjures images of armorial porcelains, large blue and white tureens, ‘Rose Medallion’ and ‘Willow Pattern’ blue and white. The truth is that porcelain was only one, albeit the most important, aspect of the commercial trade between China and the West. China was exporting silk to Imperial Rome before the birth of Christ, sending bolts of this great rarity by caravans of Bactrian camels through the steppes of Central Asia to the Mediterranean. After the fall of Imperial Rome, the Byzantine Empire inherited the trade and monopolized Europe’s access. It was for the commercial reason of grabbing the monopoly by destroying the holder that the city-state of Venice joined in one of the Crusades and sacked Constantinople, carrying off great treasures, including the four great Greek gilt bronzes horses now above the main door of San Marco in Venice.

By the 14th century, China was exporting porcelains to the Turkish and Persian empires, large celadon and blue and white chargers, now almost all in the Topkapi Museum in Istanbul and the Ardibil Shrine in Iran.

A particularly rare Islamic-form ewer, rarely found outside of these two museums, with a six-character mark of the Zhengde emperor (1506-1521) and fitted with Turkish mounts, was recently sold for $479,000.

Blue and white porcelain dominated the trade to the Middle East, but export to Europe began in the 16th century when the Spanish and Portuguese first reached China. The Portuguese returned home via the westward route, but the Spanish went east to Mexico and then Havana where the Chinese cargoes met up with the silver, gold and emerald cargoes from Mexico, Peru, Bolivia and Columbia. One need only think of Mel Fisher and his treasure hunts to remember that part of the cargo of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha was Chinese blue and white porcelain. Despite the swoons and praises from the finders about these pieces being worth untold sums, the truth is that they were mass-produced. The quality was low then and the quality is low now.

With the arrival of the Dutch in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the tone of the export market changed. The Dutch, intelligent and aggressive merchants, established themselves as the main conduit for Chinese porcelains to Europe and maintained their virtual monopoly through most of the 17th century. The porcelains were almost always blue and white and were generally of domestic Chinese forms. By the late 17th century, the Dutch began to commission porcelains in European shapes – candlesticks, coffee pots and the like through their powerful cartel called the Dutch East Indies Company that traded with both China and Japan. This created a fashion in Europe, and the Dutch profited handsomely. The present market is well stocked with these blue and white wares and they are generally not terribly expensive. It was during the late 17th century that the Chinese began creating new levels of quality porcelains with enameled decoration. The red, green, black and yellow enamels at their disposal appeared in Europe with the now-familiar names of famille verte, famille jaune and famille noire. Pink enamel began to be used around 1720 or so when Jesuit artisans taught the Chinese how to extract the minerals needed and a whole new market developed.

It was in the early 18th century that the English managed to gain a foothold in the export market and soon monopolized it with massive orders for armorial dinner services. Most armorial porcelains were created for the English market, but the Chinese also catered to the French, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Mexican, Russian, German and other markets. With the very rare exception of great Southern families who commissioned armorial services, the market in the American colonies did not exist. The subject designs were as varied as the nationalities – armorial, religious, political, European print-based and genre (foxhunting, for example), etc. One such outstanding example, circa 1750, was a gilt floral ground tureen, cover and stand with famille rose panels of children at play (probably taken from a Dutch print) that recently sold for $43,000. Tureens, because of their limited use today are not as expensive as they were, but the price of this example reflects the rarity of the gilt ground and the previously unrecorded design of children at play. A more outstanding example of grand and elegant porcelain was a pair of 18th century tureens in the forms of geese recently sold at auction in New York. Proving the adage that if it sticks out it is broken, both had damaged necks, but the combination of rarities – a pair of attractive subjects, large sizes and the use of the difficult-to-attain purple enamel on the breasts – accounts for the price paid, $479.000.

In the late 18th century, the demand for Chinese export porcelain began to decline. This was probably due to expanding domestic markets, especially in England, for household porcelains. The English (and other) porcelain factories found themselves with two golden situations on their hands: a burgeoning middle class as a result of the Industrial Revolution and the discovery of high-quality kaolin clay near present-day Seagrove, North Carolina. Starting before the American Revolution and continuing today, the North Carolina deposits are the primary source of clay for the English porcelain factories.

While Europe lost its enthusiasm for Chinese export porcelain, the American Republic, now experiencing the Industrial Revolution in production and clipper ships in trade, stepped into the gap. Some quality porcelains were created for the American market, mainly in the Baltimore and Philadelphia corridor, but by and large, Chinese quality had all but collapsed and the majority of porcelain created for the American market during the first half of the 19th century was the bottom of the barrel. Porcelains decorated with the so-called ‘Mandarin Palette’ retained some residue of 18th century quality, but the mass-produced, blue and white ‘Willow Pattern’ porcelains represent the lowest quality Chinese export ever created. I am aware that they have a certain charm in some eyes, but the sheer quantity available and their low price make them ideal for kitchen use in a country house. The most garish (and unfortunately, most plentiful) export porcelain is the so-called ‘Rose Medallion’. Derived from the ‘Mandarin Palette’, it was produced in vast quantities from the 1830s until the beginning of the 20th century and the Chinese have recently begun cranking it out again.

Ignoring ‘Rose Medallion’, ‘Willow Pattern’ and ‘Mandarin Palette’ and concentrating on the products of the 18th century, one can find categories of export to appeal to almost any interest. One can choose from porcelains made for specific countries or subjects ranging from armorials to the religious to the amorous or the political. Export porcelain need not be expensive and small collections are easily created. A perusal of sales at the main auction houses can easily lead to eye-opening possibilities without eye-opening damage to the pocketbook.