Page 132 - 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

Figure 3-6 Detail from painting Prosperous Suzhou depicting a foreign goods store.
Source: Chen Jingsha, A Masterpiece of Chinese Genre Painting: Suzhou’s Golden Age
(UK: CYPI Press, 2014), p.100.

This section shows the distinctive values of enamelled porcelain that were

attractive to the eighteenth century Chinese consumers. It explains why enamelled

porcelain, as a particular category of porcelain, grew in popularity in the eighteenth

century. I will continue to demonstrate that enamelled porcelain was consumed widely

in eighteenth-century China. It emerged as a special category of luxury items and a

specialised commerce of its own.

3.5. Enamelled Porcelain Consumption in Eighteenth-Century China

One of the main reasons that fine porcelain became a category of item for collecting

and decorating is the growth of wealth in the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries

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