Chinese Royal Family Members Enjoy Porcelain From Jingdezhen, China

A little place in China called Jingdezhen has made some of the most revered porcelain pieces the world over. But it’s no mistake; this town once made porcelain items and tea sets just for the royal families. Emperors, empresses, princes and the like all ordered porcelain from Jingdezhen.

The very fact that Jingdezhen once produced porcelain for the imperial family is what made the artisans in this town reach such a high level of skill.

In the 13th century, Kublai Khan founded the first royal kiln in Jingdezhen. He loved the porcelain made there for its pure white color. White became an important color under the Khan, and it is under his rule that Jingdezhen porcelain really got going.

After its founding, dynasty after dynasty continued to operate royals kilns in Jingdezhen. A huge number of porcelain was ordered from the small town, and at times they had trouble keeping up production.

Eventually the emperors demanded so much porcelain from Jingdezhen that special administrative teams had to be set up just to manage the porcelain production. These managers had to send only the finest pieces of porcelain to the emperor, and sometimes their life depended on it.

These royal administrators were to make sure that no one other than the emperor and his family even saw the porcelain produced by the imperial kilns. If any piece was deemed unworthy of the royal palace, it was smashed into pieces and buried. The techniques were also closely guarded. If any potter was caught teaching others how to make such great porcelain, he could be executed.

Making royal porcelain items was half of the battle; finding the materials to start with was the other. certain emperors were not satisfied with what they could find in China, and ordered exports from as far as Iran to be integrated into their porcelain.

Empires rose and fell, but these royal kilns continued to operate till the 1900s, the last years of imperial China.