Page 191 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 5 Porcelain Trade at Canton 1740-1760

traders. The formal market of blue and white porcelain was easily affected by trade

policy, as well as other factors. On the contrary, enamelled porcelain trade was

controlled by shopkeepers and was not affected by these factors.

In the third section, the chapter discusses the problem of whether porcelain could

be enamelled at Canton during this period. Based on various pieces of evidence, this

research provides a different point of view from present scholarship suggesting that

porcelain could not be enamelled at large scale in Canton prior to 1760.

5.2. The Fluctuating Trade of Blue and White Porcelain

The period 1740-1760 was a time when Jingdezhen porcelain (both blue and white

and enamelled porcelain) production reached its peak both in technical perfection and

1
production volume. By this time, the vast proportion of porcelain made for both

2
domestic and overseas markets is believed to have come from Jingdezhen. At
Canton, it was a time when many European countries had established their own

3
‘factory’ at Canton. The porcelain trade was assumed to be entering a steady stage.
Paradoxically, with Jingdezhen being about to flourish, the trade of blue and white

porcelain at Canton fluctuated.

However, this fluctuation has not yet been recognised by current scholarship. In

order to emphasise Chinese porcelain’s influence to other societies and cultures during

1 Liang Miaotai, Ming Qing Jingdezhen Chengshi Jingji Yanjiu (The study of porcelain industry
during Ming-Qing period) (Nanchang: Jiangxi Renmin Chubanshe, 2004), pp.240-294. Michael
Dillon, ‘A History of Porcelain Industry in Jingdezhen’ (Ph.D thesis, University of Leeds, 1976),
pp.50-52.
2 Coline Sheaf, ‘The Geldermalsen 1752’ in Coline Sheaf and Richard Kilburn, The Hathcher
Porcelain Cargoes: The Complete Record (Oxford, 1988), p.100.
3 Geoffrey A. Godden, Oriental export market porcelain: and its influence on European wares
(Granada PublishingLimited: London, 1979), p.43.
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