Page 181 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 4 Early Eighteenth-century EEIC Porcelain Trade in Canton 1729-c.1740

likely to cost them too much time. Consequently, small dealers’ more flexible

mobility allowed them to respond to the new requirements quickly.

Another key element of the enamelled porcelain trade of the period between 1729

and 1740 was that the number of porcelain shops increased. Numerous records of the

EEIC’s records show the experience of the supercargoes in porcelain shops. Along with

the prevalence of tea drinking in Britain, the EEIC were interested in buying ‘useful

wares’. In 1732, the EEIC spent in total almost 10,000 taels of silver on enamelled

wares and 39% were spent on service in sets. 25 In order to buy porcelain in ‘sets’,

supercargoes have to look over the examples before they make a contract. Extant

records of viewing ‘China ware’ in porcelain shops have been written down. The

interior of porcelain shops was repeatedly depicted in different contemporary

materials, such as painting in gauche paper, silk and on porcelain. 26 Figure 4-4 shows

a painting of a porcelain shop in the 1730s. As we can see, the supercargoes were

about to view the ‘China ware’ in a porcelain shop. Judging from the interior design,

the shop was quite small and this suggests that this was probably not a Hong

merchant’s warehouse, but a small porcelain shop.

25 This number was calculated from the account of porcelain trade in IOR/G/12/33, Appendix A.
26 For a general discussion of paintings on porcelain manufactures, see Lam Yip Keung Peter,
‘Porcelain Manufacture Illustrations of the Qing Dynasty’ Journal of Guangzhou Museum of Art,
1(2004), pp.21-49.
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