Transitional porcelain

During this period, the Ming system of large-scale manufacturing in the imperial porcelain factories, with orders and payments coming mainly from the imperial court, finally collapsed, and the officials in charge had to turn themselves from obedient civil servants into businessmen, seeking private customers, including foreign trading companies from Europe, Japanese merchants, and new domestic customers.

[2] This situation lasted from 1620 to 1683, when the new Qing dynasty, after some decades struggling with Ming forces, finally resumed large-scale use of Jingdezhen for official wares under the Kangxi Emperor (r. 1662–1722).

The larger kilns and a major part of the town were destroyed in 1674 by Ming forces after the Revolt of the Three Feudatories had become a civil war.

[4][5] The start of the period is conventionally taken as being 1620, under the late Ming dynasty, with the death of the Wanli Emperor (1573–1620), although the most characteristic style probably began from about 1628.

The transitional ware of the early Kangxi decades witnessed a move away from designs and aesthetic standards of the painter Dong Qichang to newer tastes typified by the artist Shen Shitong and his use of western perspective.

The influence of the artist Dong Qichang can be readily seen on ceramic ware of the period with its heavily accented light and dark tones.