Page 20 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

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court. Yangcai was first mentioned in 1735 by Tang Ying, the supervisor of the

Imperial Kiln in Jingdezhen who commented that Yangcai is a type which imitates the

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falang (enamel) style of painting. In Chinese, the word yang means ‘ocean’, and is

used as a reference to all things from countries overseas. Because the painting

techniques and the material enamel used in the imperial workshop were originally

from Western countries, the painting techniques and the material enamel were

categorised as bearing the characteristics of yang (foreign). Famille rose was first

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invented by Albert Jacquemart and Edmond Le Blant in 1862, in order to distinguish

porcelain of different appearances judging from the dominant decorated enamel

colours. Fencai literally means powdery colour. It aptly described such enamel, which

was both opaque and has a powdery texture.

Those terms mentioned above are still widely used in different contexts. There is

a tendency among scholars to abandon the term famille rose. However, in museum

collections, the term famille rose is still widely used. Some of them apply ‘porcelain

painted in polychrome enamels’ which I consider a better term. For example, the

Victoria and Albert Museum has entitled most of the collection of Chinese enamelled

porcelain ‘porcelain painted in polychrome enamels’ but lists famille rose as well in

the description in their online descriptions.

Enamelled porcelain in this research refers to porcelain decorated with new

enamels and new enamelling techniques, following technological innovation. It is a

5 Yu Peijin (ed.), Jincheng xuying: Yongzheng falangci tezhan [A special of exhibition of
porcelain with painted enamel in Yongzheng period of the Qing dynasty] (Taipei: National Palace
Museum, 2012), p.10.
6 Liao, Huali caici, pp.32-34.
7 Albert Jacquemart, Edmond Le Blant, Histoire artistique, industrielle et commerciale de la
porcelain (Paris, 1862), p.70; Sir Harry Garner, ‘The Origins of Famillie Rose’, Transactions of
the Oriental Ceramic Society, 37(1967-1969), pp.1-16.
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