Ashmolean Museum: PotWeb - Japanese Export Porcelain 1

Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology		The Collections:
PotWeb:	Ceramics online @ the Ashmolean Museum	•	Early Europe & Near East
		•	Classical to Medieval
		•	Europe from 1500
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Japanese Export Porcelain in the Ashmolean Museum

The Background to Japanese Export Porcelain

The Japanese export porcelain trade spans a relatively short period from 1659 to about 1740 AD. Several factors drove its development:

The temporary demise of the Chinese export porcelain industry 1650-1680
The closure of Japan to the outside world in 1639 except for Dutch and Chinese merchants
The rapid development of a fledgling porcelain production in Arita
The dominance of the Dutch East India Company in the Far East
The vogue for chinoiserie in Europe

However, eventually other factors led to the decline of the export trade:

The refurbishment of the pottery industry in Jingdezhen in China by the Qing dynasty
The switch back to trading with China by the Dutch because Chinese porcelain was cheaper
The rise in porcelain production in Europe and its ability to effectively imitate Far Eastern wares at lower cost

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