Page 248 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780
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CHAPTER 6 A New Context of Porcelain Trade 1760-1770
Figure 6-6 Painting shows the ovens of firing enamelled porcelain.
A set of eleven paintings depicting porcelain production, late eighteenth century.
14 x 19in (35.5 x 48.2cm) each painting.
Photo Courtesy of Bonham’s. This set of painting was auctioned on 17 March,
2014, New York.
Such workshops were first established not far from the porcelain streets.
According to Zhao Guohuan (1925-1990, he was designated by local Government in
Guangzhou as the master of enamelling porcelain in 1986), the earliest workshops
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were located in the north of the European Companies factories area. It is not
possible to find out how many workshops were established in Canton and we do not
know the scale of the production. However, the establishment of the craft guild of
Lingsi tang suggests the production of enamelled porcelain in Canton reached a
certain scale in the 1770s. Based on the oral interviews from other senior enamellers,
72 Zhao Guohuan, Guangcai shihua [The history of enamelling in Canton] (Guangzhou, 1987),
p.47. Zhao’s evidence was from the oral interviews of the older generations of enamellers.
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