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- the same design. Records inform us that the court ordered tens of thousands of pieces annually for palace use alone.
The reign of Longqing (r. 1567-1572) saw more of the same with the emphasis on quantity rather than quality, and there was a tendency for the blue decoration to have a slightly �muddier� look.
The blue and white porcelain of the reign of Wanli (r. 1573-1619), which ranged from brilliant purplish blue and ink blackish blue to silvery grey, marked the final climax of Ming blue and white porcelain. Wanli�s court was extravagant and placed insatiable demands on Jingdezhen for porcelain, which, according to some sources, was more than a hundred thousand pieces each year. Private kilns also worked to provide porcelains for the overflow commissions. In some places at Jingdezhen the deposits of china clay were depleted and new sources had to be found. The lack of fine clay resulted in a steady decline in quality. Imported cobalt blue was also becoming scarce and had to be combined with local cobalt.
During Wanli�s reign the high quantity and variety of blue and white porcelain produced, destined for local markets and for export, must have been phenomenal. The standard export pieces, commonly known by the Dutch term �kraak� porcelain, were usually coarse and roughly finished. This type of ware is thin-walled and very brittle, and is covered by a thin, transparent glaze that has a tendency to chip off the lobed, foliated or cusped rims. The moulded form is decorated in a distinctive manner with flowers, insects and symbols, arranged in panels radiating from a central design. The most common motifs in the central panel tended to be ducks and water weeds, spotted deer, and landscapes, sometimes with human figures. Among the export wares carried by the Dutch to countries of Southeast Asia and the Near East was a non-Chinese shaped vessel called a kendi (figs. 52-55), which was used as a drinking vessel. By the early 17th century, the Dutch were commissioning wares with shapes which were more suited to European taste.
In the late 16th/early 17th century, there were a number of provincial factories in Fujian and Guangdong provinces producing coarsely made blue and white porcelain for export to India, Southeast Asia and Japan. The best known of these often carelessly and rapidly made wares are the so-called �Swatow wares', thought to have been exported from the town of Swatow in Guangdong (see following section on this ware), and blue and white porcelain made of finer material and neatly finished from the kilns of Dehua in Fujian, which were more famous for their blanc de chine wares (for an 18th century Dehua blue and white porcelain; see fig. 83).
The breakdown of the Ming dynasty after the death of Wanli in 1620 ended the production of imperial porcelain which was not resumed again until 1683 of the new Manchu dynasty called the Qing (1644-1911). However, very fine blue and white objects known as Transi�tional wares� were produced during this period of transition from one dynasty to the next (see the section on Transitional ware).
Swatow Wares
A loose group of sturdy South Chinese trade ceramics shipped to Japan and Southeast Asia from a port known as Swatow (Shantou) has become known to collectors as �Swatow wares.' This type of ware, usually of a grey, buff, or white stoneware or porcelain with a feldspatic glaze, is characterized by a crudeness in construction with grit adhering to the footrims and by a free-hand style decoration. The shapes seem to be largely limited to dishes and jars. Although these ceramics are known outside of China as Swatow wares, they were not produced by this port city in northern Guangdong province, but by a number of kilns in the vicinity.
Recent excavations of old kiln sites, located in the border area between Guangdong and Fujian province, have so far helped to identify four kiln sites, those of Raoping, Luoping, Tongan and Longqi, as possible producers of Swatow wares. Compared with the difficulty of finding the original kilns of the Swatow wares, the dating of these wares is relatively easy.
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