Vase and Cover
description: During the 18th century, another example of the phenomenon of chinoiserie, the European interpretation or imitation of Chinese art or other traditions from East Asia, was this vase. The Yuan dynasty experienced technological developments in the creation of porcelain in the imperial kilns at Jingdezhen in the 14th century. It is worth noting that “taste for underglaze blue porcelain may have been both stimulated and enabled by the international connections of the Yuan regime,” which flourished under the Mongol rule and allowed for the importation of the particular blue glaze from Persia (Vinograd and Thorp 299). The technique of making porcelain required specific materials and firing techniques that Europe did not have access to, and they set about making their own imitations like Delftware and Meissenware, and this soft paste porcelain vase is decorated in the underglaze blue and white style with a Chinese landscape design on the vase that highlights elements of nature with swathes of blank space for the water and air. The shape itself is also an elongated version of a Chinese vase (V&A description). In England, these type of ceramics “were first encountered as ‘curiosities’ and then altered to make them less curious,” and after that they appeared as tableware and decoration, and as chinoiserie developed as fashionable, Chinese ceramics continued to be copied in European ceramic shops as well as collected (Stacey 23). This vase, then, emerges out of a long history of cultural hybridization to appeal to a European consumer.
creator: Richard Chaffers Factory, England
source: Victoria and Albert Museum
date: 1758-1762
contributor: Rylyn Monahan