This richly illustrated book traces the history and evolution of blue and white in China, first during the Yuan dynasty (1271-1368), when the Mongols ruled all of Asia, creating an environment in which blue and white could travel swiftly as far as the Mediterranean. In the fifteenth century the Chinese became enamoured of their own product, while at the same time the Ming potters were susceptible to ideas from the Islamic world and commercial and aesthetic pressures during the colonial period of European expansion. From the sixteenth century onwards, passion for collecting became a major influence on the concept of chinoiserie. Finally John Carswell shows how the combined efforts of scholars, collectors and archaeologists have illuminated how, why and when blue and white developed and has made such a major impact on world civilization. The stunning illustrations are from museums and private collections around the world and include some never before published. The book also includes a very special unpublished material from a mysterious fourteenth century shipwreck in the Red Sea. Seen by only a handful of experts, the findings from this shipwreck are very important for art history and are published here for the first time. Full details with line drawings and complete mini-catalogue of this material are given in the book.

Blue and white, of all Chinese ceramics, has enjoyed the most universal and long-lived popularity. Its many styles seem to sum up Chinese design. During the entire period of manufacture of blue and white, Ch'ing-tê Chên in Kiangsi province was the center of the Chinese porcelain industry. Porcelain is the only product of Ch'ing-tê Chên; bu the town has stocked a world of pantries, and at times encompassed an enormous worker population, in the eighteenth century outnumbering all the cities of the world save Constantinople.-pg. [9].

In this new History, the author traces the history of 'blue and white' from its uncertain beginnings to the end of the Qing Dynasty. Considerable attention is also paid throughout to social and political events so that the reader can see something of the purely 'human' conditions that were contemporary with the production of the porcelain.