Page 26 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

This approach is exemplified by Hugh Moss’s book, By Imperial Command: An

Introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels, published in 1976. The main

purpose of this book was to illustrate the collection of enamelled porcelain in the

residence of the emperors of the Ming and Qing dynasties known as the Forbidden

City. Subsequent exhibitions and scholarly publications reiterate the idea of ‘imperial

wares’. The introduction of the catalogue of Special Exhibition of Ch’ing Dynasty

Enamelled Porcelain of the Imperial Ateliers, an exhibition held at the National Palace

Museum in Taipei in 1978 highlights the objects that were recorded in the Imperial

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Household Department Archives. It has provided valuable information on the
Imperial Household Department Archives, but has also served to single out the

exclusive association made by scholars with the imperial court. Following a similar

framework that associates enamelled porcelain with the emperor and making

extensive use of the records of the Imperial Household Department Archives, two

other exhibitions were held in the same museum. The Stunning Decorative Porcelains

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from the Chi’ien-lung Reign exhibition was held from 2008 to 2010. This two-year

exhibition allowed the public to view more than five hundred pieces of enamelled

porcelain from the Qianlong period (r.1736-1795). The catalogue of this exhibition

was written in both Chinese and English, and provided detailed information about the

production, imperial commission and display of enamelled porcelain at the court. This

11 The Imperial Household Department was an institution of Qing-dynasty China. Its primary
purpose was to manage the internal affairs of the Qing imperial family and the activities of the
inner palace. See Evelyn Rawski, The Last Emperors: A Social History of Qing Imperial
Institutions (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 2001). In manuscript form, with detailed records
of manufacture of works of art from 1723 to 1911, Imperial Household Department Archives is
the most important source for the understanding of the imperial management system of imperial
workshops, now collected in the First Historical Archives in Beijing.
12 Along with the exhibition, the National Palace Museum has published a website in Chinese,
English and Japanese relating to the exhibition: See
http://www.npm.gov.tw/exh97/porcelains/en_overview.html, accessed on 25 April, 2013.
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