Page 100 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 2 The Production of Enamelled Porcelain and Knowledge Transfer

supplied enamelled copperware to the court. In the early stage of enamel manufacture

in the Imperial workshop before 1730, Canton sent several craftsmen to the Imperial

workshop. Both Xu Xiaodong and Shi Jingfei argued that Canton had mastered the

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technique of enamel manufacture and enamel paintings.
Using a piece of enamelled porcelain decorated with coats of arms (as Xu

Xiaodong called painted enamel in Chinese), shipped to the Britain in 1731, with the

invoice issued at Canton, Xu Xiaodong compared this enamelled ware to another

piece of enamelled copper, and argued that the style was similar. Xu further argues

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that Canton could already start producing painted enamel during the early 1730s.
However, this argument is misleading and problematic. Xu Xiadong made a claim

about a similarity of style, while completely ignoring the fact that she was dealing

with two different materials. According to surviving objects and records themselves,

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the piece of enamelled ware was enamelled porcelain, not enamelled copper. The

Peers family had ordered two lots of porcelain, one containing blue and white and the

other enamelled porcelain in 1731. Charles Peers organised the transportation of the

first lot from Madras to England in January 1732, while enamelled porcelain was

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shipped to England in July 1732.

Furthermore, Xu Xiaodong did not explain nor illustrate the technical connection

between enamelled copper ware and enamelled porcelain. Canton was proved to have

produced enamelled copper for the court during the late seventeenth and early

60 Xu, ‘Gongting yu difang’, p.321.
61 Ibid.
62 A detailed description of this invoice, see Clare Le Corbeiller, China Trade Porcelain: Patterns
of Exchange: Additions to the Helena Woolworth McCann Collection in the Metropolitan Museum
of Art (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1974), pp.22-23.
63 David S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, vol.1 (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 1974),
p.174.
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