Spanning over an area of over 5,250 square meters, a palace kitchen in Istanbul's European side was once feeding over 5,000 people per day, during the heydays of the Ottoman Empire.

The continuous smoke coming out of a total of ten big chimneys of Topkapi Palace, possessing a striking view when looked from the Asian part of the city, used to be the symbol of the power and prosperity of the empire.

"To make palace kitchens and tables even more magnificent and splendid, the Ottoman Sultans in the 13th century began to collect the most beautiful samples of Chinese porcelain," Omur Tufan, manager of Topkapi Palace Museum Porcelain Collection, said to Xinhua.

It was a symbol of great wealth for the Sultans to present the dishes in these rare and unique examples of Chinese porcelains at weddings, circumcision ceremonies, and other important days, according to the manager.

Now, a nearly 12,000-piece collection of Chinese porcelain is on display in the Topkapi Palace Museum, revealing an uninterrupted historical chronology of the evolution of Chinese porcelains from the 13th to the 19th century.

"These are the ones that have been well preserved and remained to the present day," Tufan said. Historians believe that the actual number of Chinese porcelains used in the Ottoman palaces was over 100,000, but most of them were lost or destroyed in several earthquakes and fires.

Tufan remarked that some of these pieces were presented as gifts from high-level state men or foreign diplomatic missions, and a significant part of the collection was transferred from China to the palaces through the ancient Silk Road.

"Until the early 1700s, China was the only porcelain producer in the world, and the pieces it produced were very precious known as White Gold," he continued.

"Ottoman Empire, on the other hand, did not know how to make it as they were not familiar with the technology. Therefore, the Sultans were very keen on these products, attributing great importance to using them as a symbol of nobility," Tufan noted.

According to Tufan, one of the most preferred types of Chinese porcelains in the palace kitchens was celadons because they were believed to change color or get cracked when poison was added.

"For this reason, the Sultans usually were eating their meals in the plates made of celadon," he said.

"They also loved the yellow ones, which were known as the Emperor's yellow, and they were using these pieces during Muslim's holy Ramadan, as the color was symbolizing both the nobility and also simplicity," Tufan added.

Later in the 16th century, Chinese artists started to write some verses from the Quran over the porcelains. During this period, the Muslim countries and the Ottoman Sultans purchased many samples to be used as dinner sets, Tufan added.

Deniz Esemenli, a retired academic and writer of several books on Ottoman history, said Chinese porcelains dominated and adorned not only the Ottoman palaces but the entire world until the 16th century.

"China initiated and significantly contributed to the development of porcelain production in the Ottoman Empire," Esemenli told Xinhua.

"Starting from the 19th century, Turkish artists have produced many pieces by imitating Chinese patterns, and mostly inspired by the blue and white samples," he said.