Page 127 - 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

Spiral shell-made utensils, mounted utensils of different colours.

Figure 3-5 A list of imported goods from Western countries via Canton during the
eighteenth century.

This shows goods in different materials of various colours. This list was published by Liang
Tingnan in Yue haiguan zhi [History of the Guangdong Customs] in 1839, vol.9.
Source: https://archive.org/details/02089235.cn, pp.82-83, accessed on 15 June 2016.

This list is of great importance, as it shows that the most obvious characteristic of

imported items is the colour. This is significant because this characteristic reflected

the fact that the impact of fashion on the trade was colour. In terms of consuming

enamelled porcelain, it was not just the painted subject which was of significance, but

the ‘foreign’ enamel colours. Chapter 2 of this thesis shows that enamelled porcelain

production has experienced an innovation during the 1720s, that new enamel colours

were introduced to the porcelain painting decoration. It was these new enamels and

new techniques that enjoyed esteem from contemporary consumers and connoisseurs

of Chinese porcelain, because new enamel colours made porcelain decoration into

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