Page 183 - 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

The increasing porcelain dealers, however, resulted in declining the price of

enamelled porcelain. As shown in Figure 4-3, the price of enamelled cups and saucers

in 1732 was two times cheaper than 1729, while the blue and white ones remained

almost unchanged. From this point, we see how enamelled porcelain changed the

market in a very short time. The increasing competition of the enamelled porcelain

trade urged local porcelain dealers to upgrade their services, as well as their sales

techniques. This leaded to a different pattern of porcelain trade from a large quantity

of blue and white porcelain trade that local porcelain dealers started the business of

supplying enamelled porcelain with special design, as we will see in the following

sections.

4.4. Private Trade of Enamelled Porcelain

Britain was the major client for armorial services with a possible total of five thousand

armorial pieces, followed by Holland, with about six to seven hundred. 29 Among more

than 3,300 pieces of armorial porcelain of the eighteenth century illustrated in

Howard’s two volumes studies, most of them were enamelled wares. The perfection

in the use of opaque enamels of the enamelled porcelain from about 1729 provided

Chinese craftsmen with a full range of colours with which to satisfy the needs of trade.

A large portion of special orders included porcelain decorated with the coats of arms

of families and corporations. From the late 1720s onwards, the private order of

armorial services was exclusively decorated with enamel colours. The number of

29 David S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, vol.1 (London: Faber, 974); Chinese Armorial
Porcelain, vol.2 (Wiltshire: Heirloom & Howard Limited, 2003).
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