TOYO Guilted floral Ceramic Decorative candle holder.
Circa from 1950-1980.
Made in China Under Strict Supervision by H.F.P.
MACAU FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES ONLY.
Macau comprises a small, narrow peninsula projecting from the mainland province of Guangdong and the two islands of Taipa and Coloane.
Extending up a hillside is the city of Macau, which occupies almost the entire peninsula.
The name Macau, or Macau (Pinyin: Aomen; Wade-Giles: Ao-men), is derived from the Chinese Ama-gao or 'Bay of Ama', the patron goddess of sailors.
History of Macao:
The first Europeans to arrive at the coast of China was the Portuguese.
The first ship anchored in the Pearl River estuary in 1513, and further Portuguese visits followed regularly.
Trade with China commenced in 1553.
Four years later Portuguese paying tribute to China settled in Macau, which became the official and principal entrepôt for all international trade with China and Japan and an intermediary port for ships traveling from Lisbon to Nagasaki (at the time, Japan’s only out port for trade).
Missionaries arriving on Portuguese ships turned Macau into an East Asian center of Christianity.
Even though China's trade with the outside world was gradually centralized in Guangzhou (Canton) toward the end of the 18th century, merchants were allowed into Guangzhou only during the trading season - from November to May - and the international merchant community established itself at Macau.
By the mid-19th century the British colony of Hong Kong had surpassed Macau in trade, and within a few years the merchants had largely deserted the Portuguese possession, which never again was a major entrepôt.
In the 1930s and 40s Macau, declared a neutral territory during the Sino-Japanese War and World War II, became a refuge for both Chinese and Europeans.
The Chinese population in the territory continued to grow when the communist government assumed power in China in 1949.
In April 1987 Portugal and China reached an agreement to return Macau to Chinese rule in 1999. On Dec. 20, 1999, Macau became a special administrative region under Chinese sovereignty.
Macau's ceramic history:
Porcelain production in Macau has a long history dating back to the 16th century.
The city was a major center for porcelain production and trade during the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to its strategic location as a major port along the trade routes between China and Europe.
During this period, porcelain produced in Macau was highly prized for its quality and was exported to Europe and other parts of Asia.
The porcelain was produced in a number of kilns in the city and the surrounding areas, with many of these kilns being owned by Portuguese traders.
Macau, being a city with a rich history of trade and cultural exchange, has a history of porcelain production.
However, it is not known to have been a significant industry in the area.
Historically, Macau was known more for its trade of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, as well as other goods, rather than for producing porcelain itself.
The Macau porcelain was actually produced by Chinese artisans but decorated with western techniques and motifs, mostly European.
This specific Macau porcelain was in high demand in the 17th and 18th century.
This porcelain was sometimes referred to as "Macau porcelain" to distinguish it from the porcelain produced in China and Japan, which was considered to be of higher quality and more refined.
The traditional porcelain industry in Macau have decline with time, but there are still some pottery workshops that produce traditional Macau porcelain.
The craftsmanship and designs of the porcelain has been passed down over generations and are considered a representation of Macau's cultural heritage.
In recent years, the government of Macau have been promoting the traditional porcelain industry as a way to promote Macau's cultural heritage and to attract tourists to the city.
In present days, Some of the Macau's porcelain production is focused on souvenirs for tourists, like plates, vases and other decorative pieces, but there are also some potteries that continue to produce more traditional and high-quality pieces, as well as some contemporary design.
Porcelain Industry:
There are few natural resources, an exception being fish in the Pearl River estuary, which are used for local needs.
Much of Macau's imports consist of raw materials or semi finished goods for manufacturing purposes.
One of these goods were whole or partially undecorated porcelain blanks onto which local companies added enamel decorations.
These porcelain blanks appears to have been manufactured at various locations in mainland China, of which Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province can have been one however, the porcelain wares often seems to look different than the typical Jingdezhen wares.
The polychrome porcelain industry once ranked fifth among Macau's industrial exports.
Starting in 1950:
The first polychrome porcelain production in Macau started in 1950.
With no substantial increase of the porcelain export during the 1960s, in 1970s the porcelain export started to grow 45% annually, from about 5 million MOP$ (Patacas) per year until it reached about 26 million MOP$ (Patacas) in 1979.
One important reason for this was the increase in property value in nearby Hong Kong that gradually pushed out the labor intensive porcelain workshops to less expensive land, which was found in Macau, that was also politically stable still under Portuguese rule.
During 1980 to 1986 the porcelain export continued to grow but slower, by 23,5 percent annually.
In 1987 Macau Ceramic exports topped the one hundred million Yuan mark until in reached its highest point in 1988 after that the export had increased a further 18,7% over 1987.
In 1981 Macau had more than 40 polychrome porcelain factories, employing a total of nearly 2,000 people.
The last few decades had seen many small factories closing shop or becoming absorbed by other firms so that by the mid-1980s, fewer factories than before produced more decorated porcelain than ever - output.
Some of these were large, in particular Heng Hui Polychrome Porcelain [恒辉彩瓷行], whose factory occupied several thousand square meters over three floors and employed nearly 1,000 people.
Heng Hui also operated a second factory in Shantou (Guangdong Province) which employed another 2,000 people.
Turning point in 1989:
The year 1989 was a turning point for the Macau porcelain enameling industry.
The western 'China fever' began to cool off and the Macau ceramic industry saw its export decrease with a fifth as compared to previous year.
In 1990 the west experienced a recession.
In combination with competition from Chinese mainland private kilns, this caused the largest decline in 40 years, export dropping with 43.6%, causing polychrome ceramics to slip from Macau's fifth - to its tenth-ranked export industry.
In 1992 the value of exports dropped even further.
The main reason being the polychrome ceramics export quota set by mainland China, which caused a lot of the polychrome ceramic production to move inland.
The beginning:
The background to how this industry came about was the political upheaval during the first half of the 20th century, the Sino-Chinese war in 1935 and the communist takeover in 1949.
All these events contributed to a relocation of small scale porcelain decoration industry, that could be set up anywhere with very modest capital.
Ultimately a workshop or home industry did not need to be larger than one single individual, or one family, to which any importer or exporter could sub-contract work.
During the cultural revolution in China from 1965 to the early 1970s the porcelain export industry in China took a downturn and much trade moved out to Hong Kong and as it seems, Macau.
Porcelain that we based on style and marks can place in this category of Macao ware are mainly those that we due to marks and stickers can tell for sure that their origin is Macau.
Over time we have also observed that the "Macao enamels" are a bit more opaque than any other enamels, and are are therefore easy to recognize.
When this collate with other characteristic signs, they have also been added to this section.
Somehow there is sometimes - as always when it comes to Chinese porcelain - a conflict between marks and reality, and some "Macau" pieces does seems to come with a "Hong Kong" mark too.
Geographically it is not far between neither Canton, Macau or Hong Kong located in the Pearl River delta in the Guangdong province of China however politically, the difference in the last quarter of the 20th century was considerable.
Transport wise, by boat, we are talking about a few hours at most.
The style of the "Macau group" is however easily recognized by its slightly "un-Chinese" style of decorations and its often pale or opaque enamel where the Hong Kong studios characteristically use a brighter enamels, that I and Simon Ng between the two of us started to call Hong Kong Cai.
Until further, I have decided to group these marks and pieces, decorated in this peculiar style under one headline, to make it easier to study and identify them.
Since Macau was a detour between Jingdezhen for the blanks, Macau or Hongkong for decoration, and then export via Hongkong, Macau was a detour and a historical parenthesis.
Maybe in a hundred years it will be recognized and collected because of just that.