Page 85 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

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Kraak porcelain had a profound and lasting impact on local ceramic production in Per-
sia and Japan as well as in Europe. Imported kraak porcelain from China was not only
rare, but expensive in these countries, so local potters were inspired to imitate it. In the

s, in particular, kraak exports became scarce throughout the world because of internal
struggles in China. Fighting between the Manchu armies and Ming loyalists disrupted the
flow of trade from Jingdezhen, where the porcelain was produced, to the coast where it
was exported. To fill the void, local potters in Persia, Europe and Mexico produced wares
as close as possible to the originals in their humble tin-glazed earthenware. The tin-glazed
earthenware imitations appear to have been acceptable, as long as they gave the illusion of
real kraak porcelain. Japanese potters, who had been producing porcelain from , were
the only ones able to make imitations in porcelain. The best imitations were made by tin-
glaze potters in Persia and the Netherlands. In these countries, the panelled kraak style was
particularly influential and lasted at least until the end of the th century. The tin-glaze
potters, however, were somewhat freer in their interpretation of the main themes.

Persia4
Persia, which had a long tradition of copying Chinese porcelains, was one of the first coun-
tries to produce kraak imitations. The last decade of the th century had seen a vigorous
revival of the pottery industry in Persia. Shah Abbas ( - ), whose reign was contem-
porary with that of emperor Wanli ( - ), encouraged trade with the Europeans.
records indicate that from onwards, large quantities of porcelain – mainlykraak – were
regularly imported by the Dutch to Persia, through the port of Gamron (present-day Ban-
dar Abbas) on the southern coast of Persia on the Persian Gulf. By the early th century
Persian potters started to develop new styles of tin-glazed earthenware imitating di er-
ent types of kraak porcelain. Sometimes the decoration was identical to that of the kraak
original. Other times, it included Persian or other Chinese motifs. The closest imitations
were sold in the cities of Kirman and Mashhad (see Fig. ). The kilns that manufactured
tin-glazed earthenware in the kraak style with a white body and deep underglaze cobalt
blue decoration have not yet been discovered. Peasants in the small town of Kubachi in
Daghestan, north western Iran hung good quality imitations of kraak porcelain, mostly
dishes of varying sizes, on the walls of their homes. Kubachi imitations were also made in
polychrome enamels. The Safavid potters probably had access to kraak wares in their capi-
tal, Isfahan (established in ) and the other great cities of Persia. Many of the Persian