From Asia to the Western World
The ginger jars in all their glory: talk the name and you immediately think of deep cobalt blue, graceful designs, porcelain origins rich in history. Ideal for storing the most mouth-watering pickles, oriental spices, or alas–tea. This somewhat grand tapestry has been woven leaf by leaf, and each leaf an episode of human history.
Before these become the mascots of Western rooms, they were useful items. Over a thousand years ago during China’s Tang Dynasty. They were not the decorative items we now know them as. Instead, they served to store spices and proud ginger (from which they were named), They also kept wine in them. At first-just functional and plain grass.
The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) was when ginger pots turned into the fantastic examples of craftsmanship we know today. Fast forward to the soft blue patterns painted on white porcelain. Fabulous dragons, lotus flowers, strange animalsthe lot! Each design toldits own tale and left the storyin blue. These designs were not made just to please the eye; but were also filled with meanings. The dragon is symbolized as power. Peonies cry out in wealth while the phoenix tells of rebirth. Surely there is no jar that has been so truly understood!
Now, how did these Asian triumphs find their way to the West? Imagine the crackle of sail-cloth and all the hubbub at vibrant European harbors during the Age of Exploration. Merchants were not merely bearers of spices or silks but also of these illustrious ginger jars. They sailed, they traded and these ginger jars became a memento of their voyages to and fro. As for the European upper classes, these needn’t just giant containers – they were rare marvels from foreign lands. And so curiosity was aroused, before long they were being spread about like hairpins in Paris.
By the time of the 17th and 18th centuries ginger jars had become a collector’s treasure in Europe. Kings, queens and nobility all had their parlour stuffed with these newly recognised treasures. Ginger pots were fad for royal circles too; nobles showed off ginger pots in there on a visit just like a particularly adorable Corgi or a distinguished day with the hunt. So also, across the Atlantic as European immigrants brought their traditions to America, ginger pots found a new home; and the whole western hemisphere was soon bedazzled by their charm.
To the present. Stepping into any fashionable boutique one encounters a kind of regal grand manner as ginger pots lie there. It would seem that their usage has once more shifted from practical to decoration-adornments of the most durable and simple variety. No longer reserved for all manner fragrant teas, but rather a quick filling it has found with flowers. Decorators and taste-mongers from by-gone China often regard them as the very epitome of grace. They are settled just so in a room.
Colonial Trade’s Influence on a Classic Keepsake
When you think of traditional home d cor, you might think of ginger jars. However, these beautiful pots were more than just pretty they had a tale to tell that spans centuries and continents. Indeed, it is almost as if these pots were the superstar globetrotters of their age, in blue-white confections, each new pattern gently exuding an aura of old-world charm and colonial connections.
What would ultimately become known as ginger jars began their journey way back in China, where their smooth lines and curves were not solely for attraction. Originally they were containers for spices and oils yes, ginger! But as Europe s voyagers began to explore beyond the limits of their known world in the search of new trade routes, they came across these oriental containers. It was no longer just another vessel to them: the ginger jar became an intriguing anomaly. A surprise equivalent to finding an artists’ gallery in a farmer’s field.
The fever for them did not abate until ginger jars descended upon Europe. This was an era in which the sea-going venture was as much about spice and silk as it was about the exotic and the inexplicable, and an epitome of vulgar taste: ginger jars. In England, they found employment as parlor, dining room or case-de-salon, becoming symbols of affluence and culture. Visualize the parlance 17th Century English house wives gave them: Those jars of ginger, lest it shall burn inside your belly.
Their next appearance in the vicissitudes of time was the Dutch Golden Age. The Dutch East India Company, famous for opening up Asia s trade routes, supplied Europe with an influx of Asian goods. Yet this was not just about money it was a drum of culture beating. European homes soon overflowed with things that could hardly have been farther from their shores. Dutch craftsmen even began to fashion their own ginger jars, fusing native flavor with imported designs. The two styles were merged, a picture of beauty combining Chinese aesthetics and European motives.
In the course of time, Victorian England became fascinated by this Eastern Asian fashion. As aristocracy and merchant classes turned their home into listening room, collection became the subject of a coffeehouse’s ponderings of next morning. Victorian people could think and talk of ginger jars in much the same manner as we do about the latest electronic gadget, discussing the styles, origins and designs of these items. The ginger jars were not simply beautiful objects; they also served as a topic to set minds thinking.
Fast forward to modern times. With changing tastes and inexpensive international travel, ginger jars are perfectly fashionable accoutrements in homes now more than. Old is new? They say so. As grandmother put it, The styles comes back into vogue if you wait long enough.
What makes this even more important then just a story of merchandise movement is that it still means something. This is that extraordinary story told in the lives of little things. Every ginger jar, Prestige Ware product or newly forged treasure: all these things contain a tableau of exploration and exchange. It’s as though they contain some vestige of those times when port cities all but hummed, ensconced neatly in blue and white.
