Page 158 - 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

There were porcelain sellers who did not have a shop. They gathered around in a

market near Huang Island and were very close to the Chang River, shown as no.5 in

Figure 3-13. It was a very large open space about 500 hundred meters long and 500

78
hundred meters wide. The place was entirely occupied by stalls selling porcelain.
Everybody could come and go freely to buy, no matter whether the porcelain was fine

79
and bad quality, or whether it was in sets or single pieces. Figure 3-14 shows an

80
example of a porcelain retailer. Porcelains were placed on a red blanket, which was
very convenient for the buyer to examine.

78 Lan Pu, Jingdezhen taolu, p.113.
79 Ibid.
80 This image is from a set of painting on porcelain manufacture and trade. It was brought back
from China circa 1755 by Colin Campbell, Director of the Swedish East India Company and
purchased on 20 October1795 by the Consistorium Major for the Lund University for 58 silver
kronen. Four leaves have been published and after a research by Belfrage the date of this set has
revised to 1730 by E. Belfrage. ‘Chinese Watercolours from the 18th Century Illustrating
Porcelain Manufacture,’ International Association of Bibliophiles XV Congress Copenhagen
Transactions, 1987, pp.20-26. I give my thanks to Jimmy Nilsson (librarian), thanks to him, I have
access to the digital collection.
142