Page 16 - A Time and A Place Catalogue, Jorge Welsh

Trade Given the popularity of this subject in European around 1720, provided Chinese porcelain painters
art, it was only natural that it should also appear
020 on Chinese export art, due to the special com­
missions that were becoming more frequent.
These images were portrayed on a variety
of mediums, ranging from individual plates,
dinner services, tea sets, punch bowls, mugs,
snuff boxes, urns, cisterns, vases, and plaques
made of porcelain, to folding fans, painted ivory
plaques, lacquer, and canvas. In 1683, the Kangxi
emperor (1662-1722) lifted the embargo on foreign
trade that had been established in 1655, during
the early years of the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).6
Consequently, the ports of Guangzhou (Canton)
and elsewhere reopened, and European merchants
were officially allowed to trade with China.7
On their arrival in Canton, the European supercar­
goes and officers, who would be acting on behalf of
their respective companies or representing their
own interests in private trade, would be escorted
by a Chinese merchant to his warehouse. These
storerooms would be packed with porcelain
decorated with patterns that were known to
be popular in the West. When other shapes were
desired, the buyers would have to place an order,
providing a specific design, with colour and shape
stipulations, that would be ready to be collected
in the following season. During the 18th century,
private trade in porcelain is estimated to have been
less than a quarter of the official Companies’ trade.8 of undecorated porcelain in stock available
The porcelain examples included in this catalogue
demonstrate that these scenes were painted mainly
in overglaze famille rose and polychrome enamels,
grisaille, sepia and gold, and sometimes a combi­
nation of all of these palettes. The development
of the so-called overglaze famille rose palette
with a greater variety of colour combinations and
subtle variations of shades, which, in turn, enabled
the painting of more complex and intricate designs
and transformed the overall appearance of Chinese
porcelain. This colour palette, which brought
enamelling on porcelain closer to painting in oil,9
permitted a more accurate, yet not necessarily
detailed, transposition of European designs,
in a way that must have appealed even more
to the Western customers.
Furthermore, in the early 1740s, the quantity
of porcelain ordered by the Europeans had
reached such high proportions that the procedure
of decorating the pieces with overglaze enamels
was not only carried out at Jingdezhen but also
at the port of Canton, so as to accelerate
the process.10
As a result, the lines of communication between
those ordering and those producing the porcelain
were considerably shortened, reducing the risk of
mistakes in the designs. The client, who no longer
needed to rely on intermediaries, exercised more
control in loco. In addition, the risk incurred of
breakage during transportation, during storage
in the warehouses, and loading the cargoes
was significantly reduced. From then onwards,
the Chinese merchants would have a quantity
to be painted with special designs at short notice
by local porcelain decorators.
From the mid-1730s onwards, with the develop­
ment of what was later termed grisaille decoration,
the Chinese painters were provided with a further
tool that enabled them to paint very fine strokes