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For many years the Western world has enjoyed the riches of China's porcelain exports. But the genuine artefacts used in the Imperial palaces have never before been displayed outside of Asia. Our Dutch team was on hand to bring us this exciting report.
A Chinese Imperial porcelain exhibition is taking centre stage at the Gemeentemuseum in The Hague, Holland.
The collection of a hundred masterpieces belongs to the Shanghai Museum, and is being displayed outside Asia for the first time.
The porcelain originates from between the 16th and 20th century, during the Ming and Ching dynasties.
It was manufactured especially for the Emperor in exclusive factories, and differs greatly from the well known porcelain exports seen in the West.
[Professor Titus Eliëns, Head of Collections, Gemeentemuseum]:
"What you can imagine is that the quality is much, much higher, that you have special decorations which are related to the Emperor. All the porcelain is marked with the mark of the Emperor, so it has its own, for example Wanli has its own mark etc etc."
The exhibition was made possible after a Dutch collector of Chinese porcelain donated his collection to the Shanghai Museum.
[Henk Nieuwenhuys, Chinese Porcelain Collector]:
"To show their gratitude for my donation, they agreed to provide this porcelain for an exhibition at the Gemeentemuseum."
Those fine works allow Westerners to learn more about traditional Chinese culture.
[Henk Nieuwenhuys, Chinese Porcelain Collector]:
"In the Western world we know so little about the Chinese tradition, the Chinese culture. And I think in today's modern world with internet and Iphones, you know, we need to do a better job and understand the different cultures. And cultural exchange like the exhibition here in the Netherlands is a good start"