Page 188 - 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

Figure 4-7 The design of arms of Tower family.
Source: David Howard, Chinese Armorial Porcelain, vol.2
(Heirloom & Howard Limited, 2003), p.142

The Tower family service provides us with extremely valuable evidence

regarding instructions relating to special orders. It contains the dealer’s name and

Chinese translations of the instructions. This order was signed by Dao Zai (刀仔) (as

circled in Figure 4-6). Dao Zai could be a porcelain dealer or a dealer who also had a

shop. He would have received the Tower order from a supercargo or captain and

conveyed it to Jingdezhen. He might also have received an order from other Canton

porcelain dealers. Together with other orders, this would have been carried by Dao

Zai on his journey to Jingdezhen. A contemporary pictorial illustration of the

eighteenth century on porcelain manufacture depicted the process of the porcelain

dealers’ journey to the Inland-Jingdezhen. 34

34 Walter August Staehelin, The Book of Porcelain: Manufacture, Transport and Sale of Export
Porcelain in China During the 18th Century (London, 1966), p.46.
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