'Blue flowers/patterns') covers a wide range of white pottery and porcelain decorated under the glaze with a blue pigment, generally cobalt oxide.

The cobalt pigment is one of the very few that can withstand the highest firing temperatures that are required, in particular for porcelain, which partly accounts for its long-lasting popularity.

[4][5] The first Chinese blue and white wares were produced as early as the seventh century in Henan province, China during the Tang dynasty, although only shards have been discovered.

[11][12] There are still those arguing that early pieces are mis-dated, and in fact go back to the Southern Song, but most scholars continue to reject this view.

Blue and white porcelain made at Jingdezhen probably reached the height of its technical excellence during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor of the Qing dynasty (r. 1661–1722).

There was already a considerable tradition of painted Chinese ceramics, mainly represented at that time by the popular stoneware Cizhou ware, but this was not used by the court.

With the advent of the Ming dynasty in 1368, blue and white ware was shunned for a time by the Court, especially under the Hongwu and Yongle Emperors, as being too foreign in inspiration.

This was by Chinese standards a rather low-quality but showy style, usually in blue and white, that became very popular in Europe, and can be seen in many Dutch Golden Age paintings of the century following; it was soon widely imitated locally.

the Transitional porcelain style, mostly in blue and white greatly expanded the range of imagery used, taking scenes from literature, groups of figures and wide landscapes, often borrowing from Chinese painting and woodblock printed book illustrations.

In Japan, Chinese potter refugees were able to introduce refined porcelain techniques and enamel glazes to the Arita kilns.

[19] Though polychrome decoration in overglaze enamels was now perfected, in the famille rose and other palettes, top-quality blue and white wares for the court and elite domestic markets continued to be produced at Jingdezhen.

[20] From the 13th century, Chinese pictorial designs, such as flying cranes, dragons and lotus flowers also started to appear in the ceramic productions of the Near-East, especially in Syria and Egypt.

The Koreans began to produce blue and white porcelain in the early 15th century, with the decoration influenced by Chinese styles.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, Oriental blue and white porcelain was highly prized in Europe and America and sometimes enhanced by fine silver and gold mounts, it was collected by kings and princes.

The detailed secrets of Chinese hard-paste porcelain technique were transmitted to Europe through the efforts of the Jesuit Father Francois Xavier d'Entrecolles between 1712 and 1722.

By the 1770s Wedgwood's jasperware, and still using cobalt oxide, found a new approach to blue and white ceramics, and remains popular today.

The plate shown in the illustration (left) is decorated, using transfer printing, with the famous willow pattern and was made by Royal Stafford; a factory in the English county of Staffordshire.

Such is the persistence of the willow pattern that it is difficult to date the piece shown with any precision; it is possibly quite recent but similar wares have been produced by English factories in huge numbers over long periods and are still being made today.

A migration of Chinese potters to neighboring Vietnam during the Yuan dynasty is thought to be the beginnings of Vietnamese blue-and-white production.

[25] During this period, Vietnamese potters readily adopted cobalt underglaze, which had already gained popularity in export markets in the Muslim world.