Page 35 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

Baochang often referenced Hongxian porcelain, which is frequently cited in the research

of Geng Baochang and Ye Peilan. While these scholars provide some information

concerning the Hongxian era, they often do not exclusively analyze this point in time,

focusing instead on a larger period of history.

Research in the field of Chinese ceramics is relatively new, with the majority of

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its earliest publications occurring during the 20 century. Generally, Chinese texts on
ceramics date far earlier than western scholarship. Books like the Jingdezhen Tao lu (景

德镇套路)date to the late Qianlong period (1735-1796) offering both text and wood

block prints to illustrate Jingdezhen’s porcelain production process. Chinese texts

formed the basis for western porcelain understanding. One of the oldest known surveys

written in the western world is Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: An Account of the Potter’s

Art in China from Primitive Times to the Present Day, completed by R. L. Hobson in

1915. This text attempts to extensively examine Chinese ceramics from the earliest
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times to the beginning of the 20 century. The overviews it provides build a foundation

for understanding porcelain; however, Hobson barely delves into the porcelain of late

dynastic China.

In 1954, William Bowyer Honey’s text The Ceramic Art of China and Other

Countries of the Far East, took Hobson’s research a step further in terms of scholarship.

Although Honey did follow Hobson, his study considers ceramics by analyzing specific

7 Within this study the term ceramics encompasses wares that are both low fired and high fired,
meaning it characterizes a broader range of objects such as earthenware, stoneware, and
porcelain. The term porcelain will only be used to identify wares that were created using kaolin
and petuntse stone fired at a high temperature to generate a vitrified body.
8 R. L. Hobson, Chinese Pottery and Porcelain: An Account of the Potter’s Art in China from
Primitive Times to the Present Day (London: Cassell and Company, ltd., 1915), 3.

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