Page 238 - The Arts of China, By Michael Sullivan Good Book

264 Flask Porcelain decorated in
,
underglaze blue. Ming Dynasty. Yung-
lo period {1403 -1 424).

265 Bowl. Porcelain decorated in
undcrglare blue. Ming Dynasty,
Ch'eng-hua period ( 1465-1487).
consumption (min: literally, "peoples"), and the even more
roughly modelled and painted export wares, made for sale or
barter to the countries of Southeast Asia, to which I shall refer
again. Soon after 1600 a particular type of thin, brittle Wan-li ex-
port blue and white began to reach Europe. This ware, called kraak
porcelain because it had formed part of the cargo of two Portu-
guese carracks captured on the high seas by the Dutch, caused a
sensation when it appeared on the market in Holland, and was
soon being imitated in the painted faience of Delft and Lowestoft.
In spite of intense efforts on the part of European potters, how-
ever, it was not until 709 that the Dresden potterJohann Bottger,
1
an alchemist in the service of Augustus the Strong of Saxony, suc-
ceeded for the first time in making true porcelain—more than a
thousand years after it had been perfected in China.