23 SOUTHERN HOME | MAY/JUNE 2019
A PIECE FOR EVERY BUDGET
Because of the variety of blue-and-white ceramics and the large volume
that has been produced over the centuries, the price spectrum is
wide-ranging, from around $100 for a small saucer or plate up to the
thousands for garniture sets or tulipières. The earliest examples of
Chinese porcelain are the most expensive.
CONSIDER LESS-POPULAR OPTIONS
Blue-and-white Chinese porcelain and Delftware are the most
in-demand items among today’s collectors and therefore command
the highest prices. According to antiques dealer Barry Hutner, English
blue-and-white transferware is no longer as popular as it once was,
making it newly affordable (prices start in the low hundreds) and a
good opportunity for collectors.
DAMAGE MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Although some damage is to be expected in pieces that are hundreds
of years old, prominent chips and cracks can greatly decrease the
value of porcelain, especially Chinese Export.need to KNOW
Delftware, a tin-glazed earthenware that did indeed mimic
the look of Chinese blue-and-white. In the early 18th century,
Germany’s Meissen factory succeeded in cracking the code of
porcelain composition and produced its own version of blue-and-
white china called “Blue Onion,” a pattern that remains popular
today. The English followed suit with their pottery factories that
mastered blue-and-white transferware, including those still-
coveted patterns of “Blue Willow” and “Flow Blue.” Americans
also were not immune to the charms of blue-and-white. After the
War of Independence, the U.S. established direct trade with China
in order to continue to feed its desire for porcelain.
Just as they are today, blue-and-white collectors were rabid
in the intensity of their collecting. Their all-consuming passion
for the porcelain eventually sparked a new mode of display, the
porcelain room, whose décor was dedicated to large quantities
dramatically displayed on brackets and hung profusely on walls
covered in Asian lacquer, gilt, or mirror. Perhaps the most famous
porcelain room is located at Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin,
Germany. Designed in the early 18th century, the space is laden
with thousands of pieces of blue-and-white porcelain. It seems
that for some collectors, however, the display format of a collection
was not the only challenge. As blue-and-white devotee and author
Oscar Wilde once quipped, “I find it harder and harder every day
to live up to my blue china.”