Page 311 - Life & Land Use on the Bahrain Islands (Curtis E Larsen)

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Chinese Imported Wares

Porcelain was produced in China before the fifteenth century and the use of cobalt
blue was used on white vases at least as early as the Tang dynasty (ca. ninth and
tenth centuries). The demand in China for white porcelain intensified with the
founding of the Ming dynasty in 1368 (Tregear 1966:27-30). By this time, Canton
and Chu'an Chou were filled with porcelain for export to the Middle East (Lane
1957:25). In 1402, the demand was great enough to set up an imperial porcelain
factory to satisfy the court. The occurrence of blue and white porcelain on
Bahrain postdates this period, but the exact time of entry into the gulf is
uncertain. Lane (1957) feels that blue and white wares being made in the Middle
East before the end of the fourteenth century and became a dominant fashion in
the fifteenth century. Medley (1975) states, however, that Chinese blue and white
(in contrast to blue and whites manufactured in the Middle East) began to flow into
the gulf region in the fifteenth century. The entire range of blue and white
porcelain extends on until the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Celadons,
also continued through the Ming dynasty. Examples of these are illustrated in
Figure 68a. Ming blue and white porcelain are shown in Figure 68b-e. Also of

Figure 68: Late Islamic Glazed Wares

a. 518.A, Pit 1, Level 1; celadon glaze on stoneware.
b. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; blue on white Ming porcelain.
c. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; blue on white Ming porcelain.
d. Provenience not noted; blue on white Ming porcelain.
e. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; blue on white Ming porcelain.
f. 518.A, Profile, Level A; blue on white glaze on buff ware.
g. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; blue and white glaze on buff ware.
h. 518.F, Pit 1, Level EH*; olive green and white glaze on buff ware.
i. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; green-glazed interior; buff ware.
j. 518.BC, Profile, Level A; red-slipped interior; buff ware.
k. 518.BA, Profile, Level B; black design under green-glaze; buff ware.
l. 518.A, Pit 1, Level 1; green-glazed interior on buff ware.
m. 518.AA, Pit 2, Level lb; green-glazed interior on buff ware.
n. 518.BA, Profile, Level A; green-glazed interior on buff ware.