Chinese Export Porcelain

Some of the most beautiful and highly collectible porcelain that can be found today, was once considered mere ballast in the holds of clipper ships plying the trade routes between China, Europe and the United States! This porcelain, now known generically as "Chinese Export," includes such patterns as Canton, Rose Medallion, Fitzhugh, and Bird and Butterfly. Chinese Export was made in China exclusively for export, between the years 1780 and 1880 and a little into the 20th century.

China had been trading with the West from as early as 200 A.D., and there are many incredible accounts (some filled with fantastic and highly fictional tales) from the rare Westerner who made the trip successfully. Marco Polo is perhaps the best-known. The Romans, the Crusaders, the Portuguese, the Russians, Swedes - all heard the stories from returned travelers and their curiosity grew. Finally the first European port was opened in Canton in 1556, and it enabled organized trade to begin.

Even before the Chinese were really aware of the "outside world," beautiful porcelain was being made for the royal family and court. Along with spices and silks, porcelain was highly profitable for the European traders. Because trading was so complicated and filled with risk, those who were successful became fabulously wealthy. The Chinese wanted gold, which to a large extent was used to bring in opium from the Near East and India. Although the Opium Wars in the first half of the 19th century closed Canton briefly, other ports opened such as Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Macao.

Porcelain was a very popular trade item in America. However, the quality of porcelain produced for trade with the West was never high enough to be acceptable to the Chinese themselves. Indeed, early export porcelain was quite heavy, perhaps to provide greater weight as non-spoiling ballast on the tall-masted clipper ships. Toward the end of the 19th century, the porcelain became lighter and more translucent yet poorer in quality, coinciding with ships turning to steam, when ballast was no longer as necessary.

The porcelain was mass-produced in standardized designs. These designs were probably created by English and American designers, who then placed orders for bulk production by Chinese "factories." Some of the patterns we are familiar with today are not Chinese in origin at all, but were first made in 18th-century England! Wealthy Europeans often ordered sets of china with their family coats-of-arms or monograms integrated into part of a standard pattern. These are very collectible today. Some patterns are polychrome, such as the Rose Medallion and Rose Mandarin patterns, and others are monochrome, such as Canton (the popular blue-and-white) and Fitzhugh (usually green).

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