<5%, indicating a bubble of over-production, which only the strongest kilns survived. Quality declined during the 14th century, although initially production and exports continued to grow. By the middle of the century Jingdezhen ware was being made as blue and white porcelain, and this spectacular new ware gradually replaced Longquan celadon in many of its markets. Floods and war seem to have brought some kilns to an abrupt end; some excavated kilns lie deep under soil deposited in flooding. However, even the stoutly potted celadons of the Ming period have had their imitators at Jingdezhen and in Japan. A sunken trade vessel was found in Sinan County off the Korean coast in 1976, whose cargo included over 9,600 pieces of celadon from the Yuan period, though not of the highest quality. These were probably bound for Japan; there was a single religious statuette. Sunk in 1323, the finds made it clear that Song types had continued to be produced later than was thought. Longquan celadon enjoyed a final period of high achievement under the early Ming dynasty, when it was an official kiln operated by and for the court. The floral decorative designs were very similar to those in contemporary Jingdezhen blue and white and also court lacquerwork, suggesting that pattern books were supplied from the centre by court artists. Shapes included large flat dishes that were very difficult to fire. By around the mid-15th century the court ceased its orders, and the decline of the kilns resumed. By the late Ming few kilns survived, and they mostly produced utilitarian wares such as tiles and water pots, as the area continues to do. From the twentieth century native and foreign enthusiasts and scholars have visited the kiln sites and excavated there. Among modern Chinese scholars, the main kiln sites were first systematically investigated by Chen Wanli in 1928 and 1934, after the sites had been excavated by speculators and art-dealers since 1916. Notes References Clunas, Craig and Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Ming: 50 years that changed China, 2014, British Museum Press, Deng, Gary, Maritime Sector, Institutions, and Sea Power of Premodern China, 1999, Greenwood Publishing Group, , 9780313307126 Gompertz, G.St.G.M., Chinese Celadon Wares, 1980 (2nd edn.), Faber & Faber, "Grove": Oxford Art Online, "China, §VIII, 3: Ceramics: Historical development", various authors Krahl, Regina and Harrison-Hall, Jessica, Chinese Ceramics: Highlights of the Sir Percival David Collection, 2009, British Museum, , 9780714124544 Massing, Jean