Page 31 - Export Porcelain and Globakization- GOOD READ

gets a good insight into the different types of porcelain exported, their shapes and
decorations.
While most export ware comprised mass-produced blue and white tableware,
specifically designed pieces for the Western taste – so called chine de command –
could increasingly be ordered. This applies, for example, to the custom-painted
armorial designs (plate 110) with a family coat of arms, or initials which become
46
popular specifically in England . Another favored form was the garniture – a set of
five vases for display – and tea and dinner services being consistent in shape and
decoration. Cups with handles – not common in China – and used for tea, coffee, hot
chocolate and even beer, were produced according to European taste and drinking
habits (plate 93). Many different styles of porcelain were exported to Europe, the
Spanish Philippines and the Americas: the ivory white and glazed Blanc-deChine,
overglaze enamel ware (Famille Verte and Famille Rose, armorial porcelain, Rose
Medaillon), Nanking, Canton, Fitzhugh blue and white ware, the outside brown
glazed Batavia ware, Chinese Imari and Kakiemon as copies of Japanese export
products (see box 2) and unglazed red and brown stoneware from the Yixing kilns in
Jiangsu province.
Ninety-nine percent of the items sold in Canton came from Jingdezhen in Jiangxi
province. Only the white or ivory colored Blanc-de-Chine (plate 272) ware was
produced mainly in Dehua in Fujian province. The underglaze blue was applied at the
kiln site, but the overglaze enameling was often done in Canton. Especially, the chine
de command which was easier to produce in Canton workshops according to the
Western patterns the company or company staff had provided the painters. Millions of
pieces had to be transported from Jingdezhen to Canton to reach the European, and
later US, customers. The journey was mainly by boat on various rivers crossing the
province of Jiangxi and Guangdong. “This route began in Lake Poyang and proceeded
up the Gan River to Nanchang. Re-loaded onto smaller river boats, the porcelain
cargo would then continue upstream to Ganzhou. Continuing on smaller rivers, the
cargo boats eventually reached the southern border of Jiangxi province. Here the
porcelain had to be hand carried over the Meiling Pass, a stretch of some 30
kilometres that reached about 275 meters above sea level. After the Meiling Pass, the
goods were again reloaded onto small boats that navigated the winding narrow upper
47
reaches of the Bei Jiang River before reaching Canton” .
Design influences flowed both ways – and sometimes around. The forms of
Chinese export ware might have been designed after metal, glass and wood examples,
the décor after drawings the companies brought with them – such as many Ming
dynasty blue and white ware were imitations of Arabic brass vessels – while the
decoration might have been copied from Chinese sources, Japanese sources, Western
sources, or a combination.

30