Dehua (kilns)
Centered at Dehua in Fujian province, the Dehua kilns produced a number of different wares from the Song dynasty up until today. The production started during the Northern Song period to be greatly expanded during the Southern Song dynasty. The earliest wares were a limited line of qingbai wares mostly copying the more famous wares from Jingdezhen. Black, brown, green, blue-and-white and enameled wares was also made and exported from this area. The best known of these are the monochrome white wares such as Buddhist and Daoist figures, and vessels such as incense burners and vases who from the end of the 17th century and onwards in considerable numbers came to be exported to the west under the name of "Blanc-de-Chine". Some of these were even made in forms designed to appeal to Western tastes. Dehua porcelains are among the few Chinese ceramics on which potter’s seals are regularly found. Since 1954 Chinese archaeologists have discovered more than 300 kiln sites dating from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties in the Fujian province. By 1990 148 kiln sites has been established and documented as belonging to the Dehua district alone. Even if Dehua Blanc-de-Chine is the most well known it was by no means the only ware produced in Dehua, let alone in Fujian.
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