Description:

Fabric: Ranges from a fine grained white porcelain to coarse grayish porcelaneous stoneware. (picture)

Glaze: Varies in color from a clear greenish or bluish color to an opaque grayish white. It is often crackled and very thickly but carelessly applied, sometimes leaving unglazed patches on the base which are burnt a reddish brown or buff yellow. The underglaze cobalt blue varies from a watery blue to a purplish black, or a muddy gray. It is usually full of pinholes and shows greenish black specks where the cobalt has burnt through the glaze. The glaze on the footring is not been removed so that a crust of sand is often formed on the entire footring and parts of the base and side. The decoration is extremely varied: phoenix with peonies, ducks in ponds, flower scrolls, and dragons or lions.

Form: Dishes, Bowls, Jars, Flower pots

Swatow is a coarse export porcelain which is represented in the ceramic load of the 1613 shipwreck Witte Leeuw. It is a misleading name as the exact kilns where it was made still are still not identified but they were probably located in the vicinity of what was formerly the port of Swatow now called Shantou on the northern coast of Guandong. During the 16th century and the beginning of the 17th century much of this ware was exported along the Southeast Asian trade routes. The Dutch distinguished between fine porcelain and this coarse porcelain as early as 1596. While it was traded during the first decades of the 17th century, only small quantities were taken back to the Netherlands. Dating of Swatow is vague; late 15th century to about 1700.

Sources
van der Pijl-Ketel, C.L. (ed) (1982) The Ceramic Load of the 'Witte Leeuw' Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Sites
Jamestown Rediscovery: Plow zone; Pit 3.
Flowerdew Hundred, the enclosed area
The Maine, c. 1618-25
Causey's Care
Mathews Manor


Prepared by Bly Straube