ABSTRACT
The so-called blanc de Chine wares come from a smallish group of kilns that lies somewhat apart from the mainstream of Chinese production. Dehua, a district or xi an in the province ofFujian bordering the south-easterly coast of China, has been making these mainly useful wares and decorative figure models for a period of several centuries and, it is worth remarking, the kilns are still working today.Already in the seventeenth century some quantities of Dehua ware had begun coming to Europe; and even in its export varieties, blanc de Chine must be reckoned a very superior kind of porcelain.lt was greatly admired here in the eighteenth century - as shown by the extent to which both its forms and the material itself were imitated in our earlier porcelain factories - from Meissen, St Cloud, Vincennes and Chantilly through to Chelsea, Bow, Bristol, and many others. Like most Chinese porcelains-and unlike some of the European imitations-it is a 'hard paste'; yet its often creamy white, somewhat glassy appearance is directly mirrored in a number of the Western products, and was clearly seen as an ideal. As for the term 'blanc de Chine', exactly how and when this came into use is not known, but the ware has always been greatly admired and collected in France and the French writers who pioneered the study of Chinese ceramics in the mid-nineteenth century were well accustomed to its use.
