Page 128 - 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

more shades of colour, which created a more vivid style of painting both in the

landscape, animals and figures on porcelain.

One feature of enamelled porcelain that studies on porcelain consumption

especially could not ignore was the importance of colour to eighteenth century

Chinese consumers. Tang Ying of Illustration of porcelain production noted:

Vases of white porcelain are painted in enamel colours in a style imitated

from Western design, which is called ‘yangcai’ (foreign colours). Clever

29
artists of proven skills were selected to paint decoration.

Lan Pu 蓝浦 in the Records of Jingdezhen Ceramics also commented:

…foreign colours (porcelain decorated with new enamels) pieces: a new

production of the European method of painting. Landscape, human figures,

flower and plant, fur and feather –they are all done with marvellous

30
delicacy and precision.
Artists’ painting on porcelain using new enamel colours enjoyed a much greater

choice than artists in the previous period, not only of colours but also of ways to use

those colours. This competitive spirit was expressed across the production, and proved

to be influential in eighteenth century China. The wealthy middle class were eager to

display the splendour, novelty and strangeness of Western objects in their homes,

which they especially appreciated for their colours. Enamelled porcelain was painted

with a new discipline and executed with a new precision of colours. The red, green,

white, pink, yellow and many others shades combination and patterns made enamelled

porcelain into ideal objects for display.

29 Tichane, Ching-Te-Chen, p.164.
30 Lan Pu, Jingdezhen taolu [Records of Jingdezhen Ceramics] (Jiangxi,2004), p.102.
112