“. . . it is the wonderful calligraphic blue and white porcelain dishes for which the Ming dynasty is best known and which were most popular in China and, as they were exported, throughout the Western world. Skilled artists dipped their brushes in cobalt and painted blossoms, birds, acrobats, magnolia trees, lovers, flowering branches, pavilions, and swirling vines and scrolls on porcelain dishes, teapots, bowls, teacups, vases, jars, ewers, and plates. There is something mysterious about the deep rich blue of cobalt together with the arctic white of porcelain that elicits a passionately positive response in all but a very few who behold the combination. Blue and white evoke a sense of serenity, purity, and, perhaps royalty in the user or viewer.”

—Suzanne Stauback, from Clay: The History and Evolution of Humankind‘s Relationship with Earth’s Most Primal Element, 2005.