New exhibition shows how Chinese porcelain became the rage in Jamestown

History details the harsh life of early Jamestown colonists.

Infected mosquitoes in the marsh spread disease. Starvation during the frigid 1609-10 winter. Ongoing military conflicts with Native American tribes.

A special exhibition at Jamestown Settlement, however, reveals another way of life for the wealthy and cosmopolitan.

“Following the Dragon: Chinese Ming Porcelain in Early Jamestown” showcases rare treasures connecting the first permanent English colony in North America to Imperial China, when emperors ruled and dynasties flourished.

The exhibit pairs artifacts from the early 17th century with intact pieces from international collections. The archeological relics come from excavations at James Fort, which was originally thought to have been washed away but was discovered in 1994. More than 100 Chinese Ming porcelain vessels were unearthed at the fort; 31 are part of the exhibit.

One of the most enigmatic shards, a 2 ½-inch fragment of what was likely a rice bowl, features two dragons. The design caught the eye of Merry Outlaw, a senior curator with the Jamestown Rediscovery Foundation.

“I remember thinking, ‘What in the world must these folks have thought when they excavated this?’” Outlaw said. “It’s something you wouldn’t expect to find, especially at Jamestown.”

Bly Straube, Jamestown Settlement senior curator, collaborated with her longtime friend Outlaw on the exhibition.

“Here were these things that belonged to kings and nobles and the upper echelon clinging to the banks of the James River.”

Courtesy of the  Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation 

Outlaw posted a photo of the unusual shard in a Ming Dynasty Porcelain Facebook group and received an almost immediate response of a parallel piece — from Bantam, Java, a port town in Indonesia. That’s where Queen Elizabeth I granted a royal charter for the English East India Company on Dec. 31, 1600. The joint-stock company grew into what today would be considered a Fortune 500 company, a powerful corporation responsible for the global trade of spices, textiles and other goods.

Outlaw began researching the connection between Bantam, which is also spelled Banten, and Jamestown and learned of mariners and privateers who traveled between the two, likely accounting for some of the porcelain found in the first colony. Christopher Newport was part of the East India Company, the captain of the Susan Constant, and brought five different fleets to Jamestown. He traveled to Bantam three times, died there in 1617 and is buried on the island.

The Dutch imported large amounts of porcelain that sold well in English shops, Outlaw said. By the 1620s, the Dutch sailed regularly up and down the James River, where they might have sold to the Jamestown aristocracy.

The earliest porcelain shards found date to 1610, “when half the population was made up of elite individuals,” Outlaw said.

Chinese porcelain, so valuable that it was considered white gold, is regarded as the first global brand.

Among the more intriguing discoveries from ongoing excavations: 45 fragments from a celadon, or grayish-yellow, colored bottle, which has only one known parallel — two bottles in the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace in England. It was initially displayed by King George IV at his Brighton Palace.

Straube was able to borrow one of the bottles for the exhibit, a significant feat as the vessel had never left England or royal hands. While the current King Charles III had concerns about the carbon footprint of shipping the vessel to another continent, the artifact was one of several borrowed from the British.

“They all got together and shipped with one courier,” Straube said. “That saved us money and was good for the environment, too.”

The Ming bottle with gilt-bronze mounts features a fenghuang, a mythical bird representing the Chinese empress, symbolizing joy, peace and sincerity.

An additional part of the exhibit explores the meanings behind the iconography on the porcelain, messages generally about a good and wealthy life. Museum staff put together an interactive exhibit that highlights the ancient iconography alongside modern-day emojis.

Outlaw recently released the illustrated book, “Following the Dragon: Late Ming Porcelain from James Fort, Jamestown, Virginia,” which is available at Jamestown Settlement and Historic Jamestowne.

The exhibition will be on view through July 12.

Visit jyfmuseums.org for tickets and more information.