Page 114 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 3 Enamelled Porcelain Consumption in Eighteenth-century China

Enamelled porcelain (decorated with new enamels) first appeared in China in the late

seventeenth century, as I have shown in Chapter 2, and the Kangxi emperor had such

a personal affection for enamelled porcelain that he established an enamel workshop

at the court in 1693. It is well established that enamelled porcelain of the period

between the late 1680s and early 1740s is a type of imperial art work that was

1
produced exclusively for the court. As a result, enamelled porcelain is a well-

established category in the study of Chinese porcelain, and one that has a relatively

long history in both connoisseurship and scholarly studies of porcelain in China.

On the other hand, enamelled porcelain that survived in overseas collections

received scholars’ attention as a category of ‘export’ commodities. Since the 1950s,

western curators and collectors have made an effort to exhibit and catalogue the

surviving enamelled porcelain in museums and private collections.

All of the exhibitions and related publications have served to reinforce the notion

that enamelled porcelain was produced either for the court or for the export market.

However, the assumption of classifying enamelled porcelain as either ‘imperial’ or

‘export’ is problematic. Whilst this binary classification serves to reinforce its

associations with imperial and overseas consumers, it reveals little information about

the consumption of enamelled wares in the domestic market. This is hardly surprising,

given that the current methodology for ceramic studies are those of art history or

1 Works on enamelled porcelain of this period feature them as ‘imperial wares’. The most recent
and comprehensive example of this is Shi Jingfei, Riyue Guanghua, Qinggong huafalang [Radiant
Luminance: The Painted Enamelware of the Qing Imperial Court] (Taipei: The National Palace
Museum, 2012); Yu Peijin (ed.), Jincheng xuying:yongzheng falangci tezhan [A special of
exhibition of porcelain with painted enamel in Yongzheng period of the Qing dynasty] (Taipei:
National Palace Museum, 2012); Liao Baoxiu, huali yangcai: Qianlong yancai tezhan [Illustrated
Catalogue of Stunning Decorative Porcelains from the Ch'ien-lung reign] (Taipei: The National
Palace Museum, 2008); Cai Hebi Qing Gongzhong falangci tezhan [Special Exhibition of Ch’ing
Dynasty Enamelled Porcelains of the Imperial Ateliers](Taipei: National Palace Museum, 1992).
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