Page 36 - A Re-examination of Late Qing Dynasty Porcelain, 1850-1920 THESIS

objects. By investigating the attributes of each piece, such as shape, proportion, color,

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and texture, Honey was able to provide a new way to understand Chinese ceramics.

Since that point in time, the field of ceramics has been fairly thoroughly studied. The

majority of scholars have followed in Honey’s footsteps, allowing objects to shape the

trajectory of their research within the confines of specific eras. Scholars like Julia B.

Curtis, He Li, Margaret Medley, Stacey Pierson, and Suzanne Valenstein have all

published works that thoroughly investigate Chinese porcelain. These scholars take a

variety of methodologies and collections into account in their research, producing a wide

range of literature on the subject. Although scholars have analyzed the topic, the

majority of research establishes a solid understanding of Neolithic ceramics up until the

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18 -century Qing dynasty. The lack of information readily available on porcelain in the
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early 20 century highlights a major gap in Chinese ceramic scholarship.
Currently, the most comprehensive study on the porcelain produced during the

early Republic is H.A. Van Oort’s 1970s publication The Porcelain of Hung-hsien and

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his 1977 publication Chinese Porcelain of the 19 and 20 Centuries. Van Oort’s work
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was groundbreaking in establishing the porcelains produced during the early 20 century
as worthy of study; however, he only evaluated a small percentage of objects. At the

time of both text’s publication, the porcelains studied were some of the only published

wares dating to this time. A recent dissertation by Ellen Huang “China’s China:

Jingdezhen Porcelain and the Production of Art in the Nineteenth Century,” extensively

explored the kilns and the objects being produced. Another dissertation “Staging

Sovereignty: Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) and Late Qing Court Art Production,”

9 William Bowyer Honey, The Ceramic Art of China and other Countries of the Far East (New
York: The Beechhurst Press, 1954), 1.
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