Dehua porcelain is a type of white Chinese porcelain, exclusively produced at Dehua, a region located at the centre of Fujian province. A traditional European term for this particular type of porcelain is Blanc de Chine (French for "White from China") and has been produced almost without any interruption from the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) to the present day. Large quantities of Dehua artefacts arrived in Japan and in Europe as Chinese exports boomed during in the early 18th century and it was vastly copied from the Meissen workshops and elsewhere. From the Ming period the porcelain objects which were manufactured achieved a fusion of glaze and body traditionally referred to as "ivory white" and "milk white." The special characteristic of Dehua porcelain is the very small amount of iron oxide in it, allowing it to be fired in an oxidising atmosphere to a warm white or pale ivory color. This color makes it instantly recognizable and quite different from the porcelain from the Imperial kilns of Jingdezhen, which contains more iron and has to be fired in an atmosphere with carbon dioxide. Precise dating of blanc de Chine of the Ming and Qing (1644–1911) dynasties is often difficult because the conservatism of the Dehua potters led them to produce very similar pieces for decades or even for centuries, and there are blanc de Chine figures being made in Dehua today extremely similar to those made during the Ming dynasty.