Page 186 - 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

manufacture place in Jingdezhen. It is certain from this point that more and more

supplying dealers like Coiqua, especially small operators, seized the opportunity to

place special orders for trade in porcelain.

Another extraordinary example of a more detailed order survives. This order was

made by Joint Auditors of ‘His Majesty’s Revenue’ between 1728 and 1730. It is a

sheet of vellum with the arms of the Tower family painted on one side (Figure 4-7)

and a list objects wanted on the reverse (Figure 4-6):

6 Punch Bowls Coloured to these Arms

On outside to be Enamelled Ware

2 sets Enamelled Ware for a Tea Table with Crest on the side of

33
each piece.
Additionally, on the reverse is a description in Chinese characters, the rest of

which was probably lost when the vellum was framed in the nineteenth century, I

translate:

One screen of 8 leaves and 8-foot high with all the accessories

Two big plates, four small plates

The Tower family made five orders of this pattern, but of different decorations

between 1720 and 1730. There is one in blue and white, one in red and gold, and the

remaining three are enamelled. The blue and white and red in gold were made in a

slightly earlier period prior to 1728 and the enamelled ones were made between 1728

and 1730. The Tower service is of great interest because it reflects the rapid changes in

33 Christopher and Thomas Tower were brothers. They were joint auditors of His Majesty’s
Revenue and members of Parliament; Thomas was a trustee of the colony of Goergia. See more
from David S. Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, vol.2, p.142
170