Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

‘China over ye Chimney’: porcelain for display

From the late 1600s to around 1800, porcelain decorated many European stately homes. It was displayed on mantelpieces, shelves and lacquer cabinets. Pieces were usually arranged symmetrically, according to shape and colour, Japanese and Chinese porcelain often mixed together. A surviving 1688 inventory from Burghley House tells us how the porcelain was arranged ‘over ye chimney’ or ‘upon ye cabbenett’.

Kakiemon-style porcelain

The most prized export porcelain in the late 1600s – especially in Britain – was Kakiemon-style ware. Made at the Kakiemon workshop in Arita, it had a fine milky-white body and elegant decoration in brilliant, translucent enamels. It was much copied at European potteries such as Chelsea and Meissen.

Hexagonal 'Hampton Court' jar (EA1978.688)   Bottle in double-gourd form with birds and peonies (EA1978.686)   Baluster jar with flowers (EA1976.52)

Cup of petalled form (EA1978.600)   Lobed bowl with butterflies (EA1990.1239)   Gourd-shaped ewer with moulded vine leaves (EA1978.637)

Petalled saucer with cranes (EA1978.713)   Bottle with the 'Three Friends of Winter' (EA1978.695)   Foliated plate with tiger and bamboo (EA1978.744)

Teapot with European mounts (EA1978.658)   Octagonal dish with quails and millet (EA1978.574)   Figure of two sumo wrestlers (EA1981.43)

Figure of a boy seated on a shogi, or chess board (EA1978.670)   Figure of dancing woman (EA1990.1242)   Figure of a man holding a fan (EA1960.10)

Figure of a shishi, or lion dog (EA1978.662)   Bowl with horses and English Empire-style mounts (EA1978.664.a)   Bowl with horses and English Empire-style mounts (EA1978.664.b)

Kendi with figure of Hotei (EA1978.646)   Water-dropper in the form of a mandarin duck (EA1983.242)   Misshapen baluster jar with flowers (EA2000.19)

Kendi with figure of Hotei (EA1978.641)   Figure of a reclining stag (EA2001.5.a)   Figure of a reclining hind (EA2001.5.b)