ship in medallion, brown, 7", 18th century, excellent....Armorial Porcelain -A brief historyCoats of Arms originated as identifying features in battle with knights wearing identifiable colours, patterns and emblems over their armour or on the helmets in much the came way as jockeys wear the owners colours or football teams have their team strips. Over the centuries these became more ceremonial and evolved to become family badges which still served the original purpose of identification but became increasingly decorative.The smart dinner services of the 17th C were usually made of pewter and these were usually embellished with a coat of arms and these gave way in the 18th c to silver which was usually similarly decorated. By the 1720s a new option appeared .The blue and white delftware pottery which had been in vogue in Europe at the turn of the 18thC was slowly supplanted by the new porcelain from China which was harder, whiter and more easily decorated .The Europeans proceeded to import vast quantities of table and decorative wares over the next hundred years until the European factories were able to achieve and in some instances better the porcelain making process.Whilst a few pieces of Armorial Porcelain started to appear in the early years of the 18th C it was not until about 1720 that the market opened up in a big way. By then the East India Company was gaining control of exports from China whilst on the other side of the world the ever increasing prosperity of Georgian England produced a ready market for grand 300 piece dinner services to complement the fine new houses which were being built with new found money .The new wealth no longer required baronial halls where the master of the house had in previous centuries eaten with the his servants. Private dining rooms were added to these new houses where family and friend eat together and the decoration was lighter and less formal with a desire for pictures and illustrations from nature giving the effect of bringing images of the garden into the house.Many of the early services were still imitating the blue and white Delft colours of the previous century but gradually the designs made full use of the Chinese famille rose palate and increased in complexity.The research of the late David Howard brought to light over 4000 armorial services exported to this country alone and he thought at the time of his death in 2005 that there were probably another 2000 still to be identified. The services were commissioned because they were smart, unusual and by European standards cheap. They were not bought as great works of art and it was not until the early 1900s that they were seen to be the fascinating decorative art form that they are today.Agents took orders from England usually using bookplates as a means of showing the image of the crest or coat of arms.The order would be transmitted to Canton by ship where the order would be sent out to one of the many factories in the surrounding Jiangxi Province. The plates would be made and then returned to Canton to be decorated and shipped back to Europe. This whole process could take up to three years.The market was largely in England although families from most countries on the western seaboard of Europe from Scandinavia to Portugal commissioned services and large quantities were shipped to the United States by the end of the 18th C.Patterns got marginally more complex and colourful as the century progressed and the shapes tended to evolve with the latest fashion for silverware.Spice boxes went out of fashion whereas with the increasing enthusiasm for caffeine drinks teapots,coffeepots and their related jugs, bowls,cups,and saucers came in. Tureens started to be used and the shape of these changed as the years passed.