San Francisco Ceramic Circle An Affiliate of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco January 2016 P.O. Box 15163, San Francisco, CA 94115-0163 www.patricianantiques.com/sfcc.html

Picturing China on : SFCC JANUARY LECTURE Local Landmarks to the Willow Pattern Sunday, January, 2016 9:45 a.m. – Theater opens 10:25 a.m. – Program begins John Johnston Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor Former Curator of Asian Art San Antonio Museum of Art

About the speaker: John Johnston has already had a distinguished museum career. He most recently served six years as curator of the large Asian collection in San Antonio, which features Chinese porcelain. In 2015, he returned to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, to complete his doctoral dissertation on landscape features in porcelain decoration of the 18th and 19th centuries.

About the lecture: Landscape imagery is perhaps the most familiar motif found on blue and white porcelain made in both China and the West. This lecture provides an overview of the development of the landscape imagery on Chinese porcelain, from generic landscapes to depictions of specific historical sites. The talk also explores the relationship between landscape motifs on Chinese porcelain and imagery found on chinoiserie works, such as the Willow Pattern. China, , Kangxi Period Mini-exhibit: Please bring ceramics with Tengwang Ge jar, c. 1720 Porcelain with cobalt blue, height 71 cm. landscape decoration. San Antonio Museum of Art, Gift of Lenora and Walter F. Brown Photo: Peggy Tenison

SFCC LECTURES, FEBRUARY - MAY 2016

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 14. Jeffrey Ruda, Professor Emeritus of Art History, UC Davis, Raphael, Engraving, and the Art of Maiolica (in cooperation with the Graphic Arts Council, Achenbach Foundation).

SUNDAY, MARCH 13 or 27 (TBD). Charlotte Jacob-Hanson, independent scholar and lecturer, In the Footsteps of Fidelle Duvivier: The French-English Connection.

SUNDAY, APRIL 17. Loren Zeller, President, Transferware Collector’s Club, The Influence of Jean Pillement on 18th- and 19th-Century Ceramic Designs.

SUNDAY, MAY 22. Tentantive: Justin Raccanello, London, leading dealer in Italian ceramics, a topic in 19th to early 20th century Italian maiolica.

JANUARY LECTURE BACKGROUND: BLUE-AND WHITE By the mid-14th century, Chinese potters identified cobalt blue as the first underglaze paint that could withstand the high firing temperatures of porcelain. Uniquely Chinese, porcelain was already a technological and artistic wonder; durably underglaze-decorated porcelain was even more so. While Chinese elites of the time preferred monochrome glazes, blue and white porcelain launched a world-wide export market and has been the foreign stereotype of ever since.

The earliest blue and white can show rich blues, though firing effects were unpredictable and the brushwork is bold. Within a century, the Jingdezhen resolved the technical problems and were making blue and white porcelains for the Chinese court as well as for export. With export markets in mind, the Jingdezhen painters sometimes mixed either west-Asian Islamic, or Indo-Himalayan, motifs with their own traditions.

China, (1271-1368)

Detail: with Carp, 14th century

Porcelain with cobalt blue under transparent glaze, whole plate diameter 45.7 cm New York, Metropolitan Museum: purchase, Mrs Richard E. Linburn Gift, 1987 (museum photo)

For centuries, Islamic potters had used cobalt on earthenware and, separately, imitated occasional Chinese models. It was therefore no stretch for potters in Egypt, Iraq, and Iran to design in competition with the new Chinese porcelain. In the 16th century, Ottoman Turkish potters at Iznik and other sites entered this market at a high level. More freely than earlier Islamic potters, Ottomans adapted the blue-and-white color scheme and selected Chinese motifs to their own decorative traditions.

Turkey, Ottoman Dynasty (1299-1922) Dish, c. 1530-40 Stone-paste (fritware), diameter 34.8 cm London, The British Museum (museum photo)

Europeans mostly caught reflections of the Chinese breakthrough from Islamic wares, though they eagerly sought Chinese originals. Indirect contact may have given Europeans a head start at separating the blue- and-white color scheme from Chinese motifs. The Italian term alla porcellana credits China as the model for the dish at left, but the lacy foliage may owe more to Ottoman prototypes.

Cafaggiolo, Italy Detail: Dish alla porcellana, c. 1510 Tin-glazed earthenware, diameter 24.29 cm Los Angeles, The J. Paul Getty Museum (museum photo)

Left: Chinese Export Oval Vase with Cover, c. 1640 Porcelain with underglaze blue, height 18.5 cm Right: Delft, The Netherlands Oval Vase with Cover, c. 1660 Porcelain with underglaze blue, height 22.1 cm Boston Museum of Fine Arts (photo: SFCC staff)

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In the late 1500s, however, new sea routes to brought a critical mass of directly to Europe. Chinese design was again strongly identified with Chinese technology. The Dutch won most of the trade. In the mid-1600s, when the collapse of the disrupted production, Delft potters expanded output while refining the body and glazing of their tin-glazed earthenware. The initial look was emphatically blue-and-white and Chinese, to claim market share during the interregnum.

By the time Europeans made their own true porcelain at Meissen, just before 1710, export production at Jingdezhen and other sites in southern China had more than recovered. The Chinese scale of production was huge and their costs were low, especially for underglaze blue . When the Industrial Revolution let Europe reclaim its own markets through mass production, the idea of “china” tableware was locked into Chinese-looking motifs in blue on white. The Willow Pattern, a European pastiche of Chinese motifs, emerged by the early 19th century. The 1818 plate at left is the first dated example, amidst a flood of unmarked wares.

Staffordshire (probably), England Plate with a version of Willow Pattern, 1818 Lead-glazed earthenware with underglaze blue transfer print © The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The Willow Pattern lives on in our ironic, Post-Modern times. commissioned an After Willow tableware series in 1995. More recently a British designer, Olly Moss, made his Pokemon Willow or 8-Bit Willow plates for a private client. Moss’s other work includes the covers for the first worldwide digital edition of the Harry Potter novels, and officially sanctioned, limited edition Star Wars posters.

Olly Moss, British, b. 1987 Pokemon Willow or 8-bit Willow Plate with transfer print (Photo: ollymoss.com)