Page 218 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

connection to Cixi’s porcelain designs. Additionally, the inclusion of a variety of

symbolic flowers provides further connection to the empress dowager. In this instance,

chrysanthemums and peonies are two symbols used predominately by Cixi. The

combination of several insects again pays homage to the spring dayazhai pattern that

incorporates birds, flowers, and insects into a design. The application of the enamels

shows light brushwork, creating a painterly effect on the petals of the flowers. The

washes of color generated on the surface indicate a high-caliber artist rather than a mass-

produced image that was traced onto the porcelain surface. Examples like these vases

indicate that the porcelain produced during the reign of Yuan Shikai looked toward Cixi’s

patronage and styles of Cixi and maintained the imperial caliber associated with the

earlier Qing dynasty.

Another collection worth examining in the establishment of republic ceramics as

high art is the collection housed at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-

Trent. This study has already addressed Stoke-on-Trent as an area of British porcelain

development that relied heavily on Chinese styles. Over time a vast amount of Chinese

porcelain moved throughout the Stoke-on-Trent region, allowing Chinese porcelain

collections to amass. In 1942, Ronald Copeland (1884–1958), a pottery manufacturer

th
from the Spode family, collected 68-pieces of early 20 -century Chinese porcelain. 280
Copeland purchased the majority of his collection from the Sparks Gallery in London.

This gallery, which was also frequented by Sir Percival David, provided a strong

provenance for the origins of each porcelain ware. This collection proved critical

because Copeland acquired it prior to 1942. This date establishes the porcelain was

280 Blakey, “Bringing China to Stoke-on-Trent,” 36. The rise of Stoke-on-Trent made it
comparable to Jingdezhen, becoming a porcelain city within the West.
179