Page 192 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 5 Porcelain Trade at Canton 1740-1760

the eighteenth century, researchers tended to focus on the fact that large quantities of

items or objects survived in larger numbers. Admittedly, blue and white porcelain was

4
imported in large quantities and this served many ways in influencing other cultures.

The influential work of John Carswell Blue & White: Chinese Porcelain around the

5
World certainly made blue and white become an icon of Chinese export porcelain.
Moreover, the discovery of shipwrecks reinforced the idea that the Chinese export

porcelain was referred to as blue and white. The excavation of shipwrecks from the

Hatcher cargo (1643-1646), the Ca Mau cargo (1725) and the Geldermalsen (1752)

reinforced the picture that blue and white porcelain trade increased. The beautiful and

dominant colour of blue from the excavation catalogues certainly show that trade was

6
stable. The auctions of these shipwrecked porcelains held by Sotheby’s and
Christie’s expanded this point of view from a research interest into a wider audience,

7
with the auction catalogues printed in larger numbers. Both the fluctuating trade

pattern and enamelled porcelain could easily eclipse their existence from a public and

scholarly point of view.

The emphasis in both scholarship and auctions on blue and white and the large

figure of quantities has limited the discussion of Chinese export porcelain trade. In

4 John Carswell, Jean McClure Mudge, David and Alfred Smart Gallery, Blue and white: Chinese
porcelain and its impact on the Western world (Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1986). Adam
T. Kessler, Song Blue and White Porcelain on the Silk Road (Leiden: Brill, 2012). Robert Finlay,
The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London,
2010).
5 John Carswell, Blue & White: Chinese Porcelain around the World (London: British Museum
Press, 2000).
6 It should be mentioned that Ca Mau cargo and the Geldermalsen also carried overglaze
enamelled porcelain, but most of overglaze enamels or gilt disappeared after long immersion in
salt water, only those underglaze blue survived with beautiful original design and decorations.
7 Christie’s, The Hatcher Collection (Christie's, Amsterdam, 12-13 June 1984), Sotheby’s, Made
in Imperial China. 76,000 pieces of Chinese export porcelain from the Ca Mau Shipwreck, Circa
1725 (Sotheby's Amsterdam, 29, 30 & 31 January 2007). Christie’s The Nanking Cargo. Chinese
Export Porcelain and gold, auction catalogue (Christie’s Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986).
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