In 1602 AD, the Dutch East India Company captured a Portuguese merchant ship at sea, which carried a large amount of porcelain.
Because the origin of these porcelains was unknown, they were named after the merchant ship "Clark".
From then on, Clark porcelain became synonymous with my country's export porcelain in the Ming Dynasty.
According to archaeological excavations and academic research, Clark porcelain should have been produced in the Zhangzhou area of Hu Jian. The products in Tongjing Town are different and have different styles, making them easy to distinguish.
However, the merchant ships that transported Clark porcelain did not necessarily transport all the porcelain from the Hujian area, but certainly the porcelain from Jingzhen.
After all, all exported porcelain was called Clark porcelain, so Jingzhen's porcelain was also considered Clark porcelain overseas.
"This should be a Ming Dynasty merchant ship similar to the Wanli shipwreck."
"Is it also a product of Dehua kiln?" Gao Qijing started to be smart again.
While Chen Wenzhe was watching, he picked up a few porcelain pieces and pieced them together.
"Porcelain pieces like this are not from Dehua Kiln, but from Jingzhen."
Then he picked out some more porcelain pieces: "This should be the porcelain produced by Hu Jian, but it may not be the Dehua kiln you think of. The concept of Dehua kiln was a bit big in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. How specific is it?
I really can’t say.”
After putting together a round box, Chen Wenzhe was a little silent looking at the unique glaze color and unique shape.
"This is Jiaozhi Xianghe, a special box that must have come from Hu Jian, but there are many porcelain pieces inside, but they came from Jingzhen."
Soon, Chen Wenzhe made a judgment by analyzing a large number of broken porcelain pieces.
This time, those lucky guys should have gained quite a lot.
Even if the sunken ship is relatively small, the value of the porcelain it carries is definitely not small.
If it was, as he suspected, a transport merchant ship from the Wanli period like the Wanli shipwreck, then the harvest would definitely be huge.
The Wanli shipwreck is quite famous. The porcelain salvaged from the Wanli ship and the porcelain found in front of Chen Wenzhe seem to be from the same era and have the same characteristics.
From 2004 to 2005, the Swiss Nanhai Marine Archeology Company cooperated with the Malay government to salvage a sunken ship about 6 miles off the east coast of the Malay state of Terengganu.
Because the shipwreck contained a large amount of Chinese porcelain in the Wanli period style, the shipwreck was named "Wanli".
The Ming Dynasty shipwreck "Wanli" was found in the sea about 6 miles off the east coast of Terengganu state in Malay. It was discovered in 1997.
In November 2003, Swiss private salvager Stein led investigators to determine the location of the sunken ship and found that the hull had been damaged and that most of the cargo had been broken into pieces.
The hull of the "Wanli" is very small, about 18 meters in length, and its structure is of European design. About 10 tons of broken porcelain were recovered from the water.
Among them, there are only more than 7,000 complete and semi-complete vessels, and it is estimated that there are at least 30,000 original porcelain vessels.
Most of the porcelain produced is the blue and white porcelain of Jingzhen Kiln, which is called "Clark Porcelain".
There is controversy here. As for whether Jingzhen’s porcelain is Clark porcelain, you don’t need to care too much.
Because to foreigners, all porcelain produced after Wanli and Jiaqing in the Ming Dynasty are Clark porcelain.
This batch of Jingzhen porcelain has the shapes of plates, bowls, saucers, covered jars, covered boxes, military holders, gourd bottles, jade pots, teapots, etc.
Among them, there are more than 2,000 pieces of porcelain with inscriptions, including the year number, the name of the craftsman and workshop, and the anti-counterfeiting mark.
The reason why Chen Wenzhe thought of this sunken ship was mainly because of the porcelain fragments they salvaged this time. It was obvious that there were only ordinary dishes and dishes inside.
There are covered jars, covered boxes, military holdings, gourd bottles, jade pots, spring bottles and teapots.
It can be said that the porcelain products on this ship are almost the same as those on the Wanli.
These Clark porcelains are truly fine Jingzhen porcelains and are all works from the Wanli period.
If you say how to recognize it, it is too obvious.
Clark porcelain is characterized by wide edges, mostly blue and white porcelain.
On the rim of the plate or bowl, draw divided and circular landscapes, figures, flowers, fruits, etc.
In fact, the production of Clark porcelain can be divided into two periods from Wanli to the early Qing Dynasty and Kangxi period.
The former is consecrated blue and white porcelain, while the latter is thin.
Especially the Wanli Clark blue and white plate, which is painted with Zhejiang materials, is still easy to identify.
There are many colors, just a blue and white color, there are several shades of emerald blue, gray blue, and light blue.
The painting of Wanli Clark porcelain is not simple. It mainly uses the water dividing technique to form three to four color levels.
This technique laid the foundation for the maturity of Kangxi blue and white.
Whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty, the porcelain that could be exported was at least edible.
Although it is not as good as it is now, with the best exporting and the worst staying at home, the situation is actually the same.
The painters of that period, especially the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, were skilled in using their brushes, no matter hooking, dotting, or dyeing, they could do whatever they wanted, naturally and freely.
This cannot be achieved in other periods, especially periods of weakness.
Painters of this period used two strokes to piece together the circles they drew. This was also a characteristic of porcelain paintings in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
This floral pattern has a typical European style.
In the eyes of foreigners, porcelain made with this technique is pure Clark porcelain. This is also the name of our country's blue and white porcelain in Europe, specifically referring to this kind of export porcelain that is deeply loved by European princes and nobles.
Gao Qijing only knew that Clark porcelain was produced in the Qing Dynasty, which was actually considered normal.
Few people know that the development of Clark porcelain has gone through several periods.
Of course, what Chen Wenzhe values most is the changes in decorative patterns in each period.
For example, in the first period from 1550 to 1570, Clark porcelain has no decoration on the edges and arc belly;
The second period is from 1560 to 1580. Clark porcelain has decorated edges and undecorated camber;
These two periods were the initial stages of Clark porcelain. There were no consecrated patterns yet, but the decorative themes and technical techniques were consistent with the structure and shape of later porcelain.
The third period was from 1575 to 1590. Clark porcelain was consecrated and the inner walls were consecrated and decorated.
In the fourth period, Clark porcelain has small consecrations with ribbon and bead-like pendant patterns, which in turn separate the large consecrations.
The fifth period is similar to the fourth period, but in the circle of circular decoration in the center of the plate, many rhombus-shaped decorations are introduced, and occasionally small openings on part of the edges are filled in.
The sixth period was from 1605 to 1625. Karak porcelain simplified the edge consecration into a circular or nearly circular consecration;
At this time, the rhombus decoration continued to exist, but more symbolic themes with specific animal figures were used as decoration.
These characteristics are all very obvious, and the most obvious one should be the last one, which is the seventh development period of Clark porcelain decoration.