Armorial porcelain
Describes any porcelain decorated with heraldic motifs but particularly 18th century porcelain produced in China for European families and bearing the family's coat of arms. European crests on Chinese porcelain can be found as early as the 16th century. Around c. 1700 the demand for Chinese decorated armorial porcelain increased. During the 18th century thousands of services were ordered. Drawings of individual coat-of-arms were dispatched to China to be copied as faithfully as possible and the resulting wares were shipped back to Europe and, from the late 18th century, to North America. Some were lavishly painted in polychrome enamels and gilding, covering much of the surface, while others, particularly those toward the end of the century, might simply incorporate a small crest or monogram. Coat of arms occurred on European pottery from the Renaissance with examples seen on Italian majolica, slipware, English and Dutch delftware, and on porcelain from the 18th century onward.
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