The Spanish Trade in Kraak Porcelain to the New World and its Impact on the Local Ceramic Industry

This article discusses the Spanish trade in Kraak porcelain, a new style of export porcelain made from about 1573 at private kilns in Jingdezhen, China. The Kraak finds at urban domestic and religious sites from the colonial period in the New World and Asia, as well as at sites in Spain provide evidence of the Spanish trans-Pacific and trans-Atlantic trade in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. It also sheds light on the profound and lasting impact that Kraak porcelain had on the local maiolica industry in the New World.