Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 3, 1995 TAG: 9509070002
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LUCINDA FLEESON KNIGHT-RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Contrary to popular myth, it was never used as mere ship ballast. True, it was heavy and did help balance ships when it was stowed in the holds for the long voyage back to England and eventually the American colonies. Records do show that the British and American merchants advised the Chinese to make their porcelain a little heavier to withstand the rigors of the China Seas, but it was never cheap.
From the beginning, it was made for kings and other royalty. English and other European potteries almost immediately set to copying the translucent porcelain into coarser potteries. There was always more blue and white ware than any other color combination.
For three centuries, blue and white ceramics have never gone out of style, and they now seem to be more in demand than ever. Blue and white is experiencing an even more intense period of popularity than ever, with nearly every linen manufacturer, mail order catalog, and china designer offering blue and white checks, florals, and reproductions of old designs.
Open a home design magazine and see blue and white china collections: framed in niches, displayed on mantels, stacked in china closets, or filling the shelves of breakfronts. The china itself is often used as the focal point of an entire room, with the blues and whites echoed in linens, curtains, and furnishings.
One of the charms of collecting blue and white ceramics is that unless you are a connoisseur of the high art of rare Chinese export, with the wallet to go with it, you can collect whatever pieces you wish, including chipped or battered platters, pitchers and cups picked up at flea markets and secondhand stores.
There are collectors who pride themselves on limiting purchases to $10 a plate (an increasingly difficult thing to do), and collectors who spend $100,000 and more.
Fred B. Nadler, an antiques dealer in Bernardsville, N.J., says he has had decorators call and ask him to put together a whole collection of blue and white ware to serve as the starting point for designing a room. ``Blue and white can be used in mass, in great quantities. It never looks overcrowded, and it goes well with white pieces. Also with rare things,'' he says.
When Chinese export porcelain began arriving in Europe three centuries ago, it was rapidly and widely copied. First came Delft, the Dutch tin-glaze earthenware decorated with cobalt overglaze. Then various potteries around Staffordshire in England copied the fine porcelain in pottery, originally imitating Chinese motifs of blossoms, pagodas, willow trees and bridges.
After 1773, the East India Company began to reduce its imports of chinaware, as English potters in Bow and Worcester adopted the process of transfer printing blue images onto white pottery. Usually using elaborate bookplate engravings for inspiration, they made china with scenes of pastoral settings, castles, and English, Italian and other landscapes. Among the earliest transfer patterns were black and white or red and white. But more of the blue and white combination was made than any of the other paired colors.
Transfer printing made blue and white pottery cheap enough for most people to buy, as the process of transferring a printed scene to a plate was so much quicker than painting by hand. Suddenly, even the commoners could own and collect Chinese-style pottery.
The great house of Spode china introduced three classic designs: the Willow pattern, now nearly ubiquitous as it was copied by dozens of other firms; Tower; and Blue Italian in 1816. The inspiration for Blue Italian was a book engraving showing ruins believed to be the Coliseum in Rome. The pattern has been in continuous production, but in recent years has become reissued in mass, and is a favorite seller at most department and china stores.
``So why is blue and white so universally beloved?'' asked Mary Gilliatt, an authority on English country and other design styles, who three years ago devoted a whole book, ``The Blue and White Room,'' to the subject.
She traced how blue and white has been an ever-present color combination for centuries, in all cultures, from the Chinese tradition that connected blue with immortality, to the Egyptian belief that blue represented virtue, faith and trust, to the East African tradition of blue as a symbol of fertility and the joy of childbirth.
Design scholar Gilliatt said she believes that more is involved in the appeal than just the aesthetics of how the colors look together, although blue and white have a wider range of tones than other colors, and go together well in any of their countless permutations. ``I think that like a good many instinctive choices we make in decoration, it is because of various conditioning of which we may be hardly aware. A condition formed, first of all, because so much of nature - sky and sea, rivers and lakes, and wild flowers, in particular - consists of varying shades of blues and whites.''
In the Philadelphia region there are several experts and dealers who specialize in prized, museum-piece chinese porcelains.
Elinor Gordon, who operates Chinese Export Porcelain by appointment in Villanova, is perhaps the most knowledgeable dealer in the area. ``When you keep it all blue and white, it's spectacular,'' she says. ``My rule of thumb in any porcelain is that I try to get people to zero in on one thing. I don't care how beautiful an item is. If you have a room that is blue and white and then introduce a pink piece, it's going to scream. By sticking with only one color, or with colors that live happily together, with each addition to the collection, it gathers momentum.''
Sometimes she recommends using blue and white as the main colors, but adding a background of red. ``When you mix blue and white with washed-out Chinese red for a background cabinet, it really sings. It ties the room together beautifully.''
She has prized pieces from the Kang Hsi period, the earliest export period, from 1662 to 1722. As she picked up a Kang Hsi plate recently, she held it to the light, to show that it is eggshell thin. ``They loved asters,'' she said, turning the plate over to show the flower design on the back of the dish.
The early porcelain is among the most expensive. One of Gordon's Kang Hsi tea caddies, made in 1710, is priced at $3,250.
This is pricey for many clients, particularly younger couples just starting collections. For them, she recommends blue Fitzhugh, with its four Chinese symbols of the four martial arts, dating from 1800 to 1815. She offers plates for $225 apiece, and a covered vegetable dish for $2,000.
The pattern was named for a Welsh family, which - so goes the story - saw a service return from China and ordered some for themselves.
``The Fitzhugh is priced so young people could buy it. I've had young people buy six dessert plates and then add dinner dishes later on,'' she explains.
Nadler has pieces from the 17th to 19th centuries, including some with unusual scenes showing cultural pollinations between East and West. For instance, this spring he had a pair of plates depicting the Rotterdam Riots, with late 17th-century Dutch villagers storming the castle. Another late 17th-century plate shows Chinese women in Louis XIV French court dress and hair styles. His prices range from $350 to $50,000. ``For a collector, that's not really a lot, to buy something for $10,000 to $20,000,'' he said.
For a still life at the Philadelphia Antiques show in April, he grouped 19th-century blue and white garden seats and pedestals with hanging wall pockets that were designed to hold chopsticks but that can double as flower holders. ``They're all of different periods and all compatible,'' he said.
by CNB