Old China
Years ago, I showed a glazed blue and white plate to one of the old time dealers in our neighborhood, Ken Hammitt. It was decorated with oriental junks sailing on a river, an arched bridge, a pavilion type teahouse with a person in the window, willow and pine trees, and rocks, islands, and hills in the background. Ken held the dish with two fingers as if he was holding a dead rat by the tail. "It's Canton," he said. "Cheap oriental export porcelain. They used it as a ballast for ships in the old days." Ken had a way of exaggerating things after he had his afternoon martini. I knew he didn't care much for Canton china, but I figured he made up the story about using it as a ballast.
After the Revolutionary War, America was eager to broaden her culture and develop new trading partners. An inexpensive line of tableware produced in an assembly-line like method as far back as 1772 in Ching-te' Che'n China, became widely available in North America soon after the Empress of China and ships like her began raising sails in 1784. Canton, the name is derived from the Chinese port where it was exported, became America's favorite china. It graced tables at George and Martha Washington's home in Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello mansion, and most of our forebearers. It can still readily found in antique shops and auctions today. In addition to elements already mentioned, Canton china can be identified by its three ring border; a narrow white rim at the extreme outer edge, surrounding a wider blue band decorated with diamond and asterisk looking designs, encompassing a continuous scalloped interior line filled with diagonal dashes referred to as the rain and cloud pattern.
Canton can be easily be distinguished from it derivative, transfer-decorated English Blue Willowware. Canton's hand-painted decoration has no people on the bridge, no fencing, and usually, no birds. It is a thick-walled pottery compared to Willoware. Nanking, a similar but superior grade of Chinese export porcelain, has small spears and posts in place of the rain and cloud border pattern and will often have a figure holding an umbrella on the bridge that is not found on early Cantonware.
Canton color varies from faded light blue to greyish-blue to navy blue. Surface texture varies as well. Canton was often molded out of unrefined clay, painted in haste, and baked in the bottom of the kiln where is was subject to damage by ash, and uncontrolled temperatures. It has been produced and sold from the 18th to the 20th century. Late pieces often have a straight line border. Superior form glaze and decoration, slight crazing to the glaze, and base wear are generally indicative of earlier pieces, however, there is no scientific way of dating Canton. Most Chinese export porcelain made prior to 1891, when new custom laws required the marking of "China" or "Made in China" is devoid of marks.
Canton can range in price from $20 for a butter plate to several thousand dollars for rare forms in good condition. At a March 7, 1995 auction in Amsterdam, Netherlands, twenty-two Canton tureens sold for an average of $7,000 each. Thirty-two pierced Canton latticework fruit baskets averaged $8,000, and seventeen cups and saucers averaged over $300 per set. The most interesting fact concerning the collection is where it was discovered. It was salvaged from the cargo of the Diana that sank without a trace on March 5, 1817. 178 years later, twenty tons of chinaware was discovered in the lower holds of the ship where it helped to serve as seawater safe ballast!
