Page 164 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

new trade agreements with China, sending an embassy in 1792. Led by Lord Macartney,

the mission lasted until 1794. Although the trade agreement failed, the group returned to

England with a wide variety of porcelain for the royal court, along with a letter from the

Qianlong Emperor that read in part,

You, O King, from afar have yearned after the blessings of our civilization, and in
your eagerness to come into touch with our converting influence have sent an
Embassy across the sea bearing a memorial. I have already taken note of your
respectful spirit of submission, have treated your mission with extreme favor and
loaded it with gifts, besides issuing a mandate to you, O King, and honoring you
with the bestowal of valuable presents. 204

The letter indicates that Qianlong presented gifts to George III. Records

belonging to the Royal Collection Trust describe porcelain, although it is now unclear

which pieces of porcelain from the collection originated from this exchange. It is

necessary to understand that the wares dispersed to the Western market were created with

a completely different set of standards than those applied to domestic Chinese wares.

Within China, domestic wares were generally of a higher quality. They were produced

with finer porcelain and were decorated with exquisite brushwork. This category of

porcelain included the highest caliber of wares: the imperial wares. However, the export

wares were often of a lower quality, made with poorly developed clay, and characterized

by quickly applied painted decorations. 205 Early British collectors predominantly

procured these export wares; however, these early diplomatic gifts identify a different

category of porcelain arriving in Britain. The letter serves as one of the first indicators

that British collections received wares from China that fall into the category of an

204 From the Emperor Qianlong’s “Mandates” in Annals and Memoirs of the Court of Peking, by
E. Blackhouse and J.P.P. Bland, London, 1914, 323 – 334.
205 Along with a high demand for export porcelain and the spreading desire to collect it, the
Western world was also exposed to the differences between export wares and those wares deemed
imperial.
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