Page 116 - 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

3.2. Studies on the Domestic Consumption of Chinese Porcelain

Studies on domestic consumption are scarce. In recent years, scholars from research

3
fields such as global history, economic history and material culture have examined

4
the consumption of Jingdezhen porcelain of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
As for porcelain consumption in China, scholars have conducted some general

studies. Robert Finlay examined the culture of porcelain in China between the tenth

and fourteenth century. He observed that porcelain in this period was largely

consumed both in domestic and export markets. Porcelain was a substitute for jade,

and was mainly used to make every-day utensils. The most admired porcelain was

5
designed in the style of bronzes. Compared to his extensive research on how Chinese

ceramics played roles in other cultures, his research on how ceramics were consumed

within China is less developed. Moreover, his research on the eighteenth century

merely expanded on the famous letters from François Xavier d'Entrecolles (1664-

3 By far the most comprehensive study on Chinese porcelain in global context has been conducted
by Robert Finlay, see, Robert Finlay, The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History
(Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 2010). In 2010, the project entitled Cultures of Ceramics in
Global History, 1300 to 1800, hosted by the Global History and Culture Centre at the University
of Warwick, explored many perspectives concerning the material and visual culture of Chinese
ceramics. The presented papers at the conference were later developed a special issue Global
China in Journal of World History vol. 23, no.1 (2012).
4 For studies of economic historians on Chinese porcelain consumption and its impact, the most
useful ones are from Maxine Berg: see ‘In Pursuit of Luxury: Global History and British Consumer
Goods in the Eighteenth Century’, Past and Present, 182 (February 2004), pp.85-143; ‘Asian
Luxuries and the Making of the European Consumer Revolution,’ in Maxine Berg and E. Eger
(eds.), Luxury in the Eighteenth Century: Debates, Desire and Delectable Goods (London:
Palgrave, 2003), pp.228-244.
5 Finlay, The Pilgrim Art, pp.107-136.
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