Blue on White

“Made in China” is a label that today has become synonymous with common, trinket, mass-produced and endlessly repeated. That great country, however, has given rise to hundreds of marvelous inventions for civilization and refinement. From the Chinese artisans came an exquisite ceramic, often painted in white and blue, whose heritage has not ceased to captivate the world: porcelain.

The delicate and translucent Chinese porcelain could only be used in the imperial court. The mysterious recipe for its preparation was such a well-kept secret that it took centuries to spread. It consisted in adding quartz to the kaolin -white clay- and to the feldspar, and making two firings of the objects; the second one after the glazing. The result, a perfect product: light, waterproof and resistant to acids.

Under the Yuan dynasty, trade traffic along The Silk Route brought from Persia the use of cobalt oxide as a blue paint that, on a white background, gave an indisputable stamp to the finest Chinese porcelain. Then, through the following dynasties and thanks to maritime trade they spread through the rest of Asia, the Islamic world and passed from the Old to the New Continent in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Each country manufactures its own ceramic objects that differ from the rest by the quality of the native clays and, above all, by the shapes and drawings: cranes, dragons and lotus flowers from the Far East coexisted with windmills, country scenes and floral designs from different European countries. In America they sometimes have pre-Columbian designs.

Blue on white characterizes the porcelains of Holland -the famous Delft-, but also those of Japan, Persia or England. Both colors are repeated in all times and in four continents, whether Moroccan, Portuguese or Turkish ceramics. We are especially interested in the Spanish one because it was from it that the Talavera pottery was born, the most emblematic craft of Mexico, which owes its name to the Spanish population of Talavera de la Reina. The pieces that come out of Talavera’s workshops are called “earthenware”, also called majolica: clay fired and enameled by a glaze painted with oxides. Some of these pieces are in stock at Snowdrop, our online store.

Accredited as a product with designation of origin, the Talavera of Mexico and Spain, have been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO in 2019.

Tiles are another expression of pottery work where glazed clay is painted with blue and white. The city of Lisbon has a wonderful example of this art with which they upholster the walls of their houses, buildings, churches and even the walls of the subway.

And if one day, fortunately, you stroll through the colorful market of the Great Bazaar of Istanbul, do not forget to ask for a small hidden jewel: Rüstem Pasha Mosque. You will be dazzled by its blue and white filigree tiles from Iznik which cover the entire interior of the most beautiful and tiny mosque in the city.