21 SOUTHERN HOME | MAY/JUNE 2019
CENTURIES AFTER IT FIRST CAPTIVATED
COLLECTORS, BLUE-AND-WHITE
PORCELAIN CONTINUES TO BEGUILE
WITH ITS INCOMPARABLE
GOOD LOOKS. TEXT JENNIFER BOLES
ANTIQUES OBSESSION
the colorful past
of
Porcelain
A
s the Chinese saying goes, “The height of good taste
is the simple appreciation of blue and white.” Indeed,
few genres of ceramics have been more admired
than those resplendent in blue and white. The widely
collected porcelain first began to take root in the 14th century,
when cobalt ore from Persia, crushed for use as pigment, was
introduced to China via the Silk Road trade route. Having
already mastered the production of porcelain—the secret to its
white, translucent appearance would remain a closely guarded
secret for centuries—Chinese craftsmen began to experiment
with the blue pigment, applying it by brush to white porcelain
bodies as decoration before then glazing and firing it.
Although some blue-and-white porcelain was made specifi-
cally for the Chinese court, much of it was exported to the