The History of Chinese Porcelain

The history of Chinese porcelain, a story of innovation, trade, war, and forgery. We will explore the origins of porcelain in the 10th century, the explosion in trade between Europe and China of porcelain from the 17th century, and how European manufacturers began imitating Chinese porcelain from the late 18th century. To bring the story to life we will analyse in detail an antique collection of Chinese, British and Dutch porcelain, as well as a plethora of antique maps, paintings and photographs.

00:00 Intro
2:42 The manufacture of porcelain in China
8:26 Western nations begin importing Chinese porcelain
12:58 Dutch monopoly on the porcelain trade
17:31 Germany begins producing Chinese imitation porcelain
19:02 The British capture the market and copy Chinese porcelain

Make sure to watch in 4K!

Music tracks used in the video:

Track: Pure Dharma Buddha (Pipa Performance) NCM version
Music provided by Youtube Free Music Library (NCM)
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Track: Send kiss song (Matouqin) NCM version
Music provided by Youtube Free Music Library (NCM)
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Track: Listening (sheng/pipa) NCM version
Music provided by Youtube Free Music Library (NCM)
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35 thoughts on “The History of Chinese Porcelain”

  1. Dragon's Eye

    I love the materials you used, really brings the story to life!

  2. Bygone China

    Thanks for watching! Please remember to like and subscribe, and let me know what you liked and didn’t in the comments!

    1. Bygone China

      Thanks for your feedback, I definitely plan on doing a video on that topic in the future!

  3. E's Chinese Class

    Your video is really amazing. I can feel you really love Chinese culture. Thank you for sharing these stories!

    1. Bygone China

      Thank you, I do have a strong interest in Chinese history and culture, and do my best to share it with others.

    1. Bygone China

      Thanks for the positive feedback, and welcome to my Channel!

    1. Bygone China

      I am so glad that you enjoyed it, I hope that you also found it educational.

    1. Bygone China

      The British and Dutch porcelain has been in the family for several generations, and the Chinese Porcelain I recently bought at an auction.

  4. Marianela Muñoz

    Felicitaciones por su relato.Extraordinaria narración.

    1. Bygone China

      Muchas gracias, su apoyo es muy apreciado. Espero que también disfrutes de mis otros videos.

  5. E Chao

    Good video with informative & clear script. However, the speech is somewhat soporific & slow. Normal speech with subtitles could be a better alternative.

    1. Bygone China

      Thanks for your feedback, I will make sure to correct the speech in my future videos.

  6. blueboxjuggler

    Great channel, very glad I came across this video, super thorough and interesting, please keep uploading!

    1. Bygone China

      Thank you for the support! I have plenty of interesting videos planned, so stay tuned!

  7. Journeys into History and Nature

    Great introduction to porcelain!

  8. manny mo

    From a BBC docomentary on youtube TREASUREAS OF CHINESE PORCELAIN PART 1 TO 4

    1. Bygone China

      Did that BBC documentary direct you to my video on Porcelain? You must have a strong interest in Chinese porcelain if you watched both. What is your favourite style of Chinese porcelain?

  9. Yanya porcelain in China

    Blue and white porcelain is an eternal classic, and Chinese porcelain has also directly set off the trend of European aristocrats drinking tea. In the 17th century, during the reign of Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty in China, a missionary brought the secrets of porcelain making back to Europe, and since then European porcelain craftsmanship has undergone tremendous improvement.

    1. Bygone China

      This is a pretty good summary of the introduction of porcelain from China into Europe. I tried to cover this development in detail in the documentary – do you think that I did the story justice?

  10. SaffronCity

    I don’t even think that Chinese Willow could be attributed to the British dude after seeing the similarities.

    1. Bygone China

      I think most people would agree with you, considering that they are basically the same plate.

  11. mark andre augustus

    I thought I would look at the video for education. While it is informative, I was wondering why you began with English porcelain to show it was a copy of the Chinese and render your conclusion in psuedo-scientific comparisons. Your pace … with … all…. its…unnatural …breaks….was …. a …bit…..nauseating. Your extra syllable in pronouncing porcelain was quite odd and uncomfortable. Consider fixing these strange elements and re-posting. I am trying to be charitable here and hope my words are not too harsh. Thanks for the effort all the same.

  12. InfernoXV

    that’s a very odd pronunciation of the word ‘porcelain’…

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