Page 268 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 7 Porcelain Dealers and their Role in Trade

head of China ware merchants, sometimes much dearer, often a little cheaper, with

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generally better China ware and always the best packed of any man in Canton.’

In all, by presenting and displaying to their customers, Chinese porcelain dealers

were able to play a more active role in supplying goods. They were no longer passively

waiting for customers to select their porcelain in stock; instead, by displaying samples,

Chinese porcelain dealers were able to reduce their cost and risk, which helped them

retain a connection with international markets and domestic supply.

It is also evident from the daily transaction of the porcelain trade that took place

at the shop that porcelain dealers learned to deal in items of the most fashionable

designs. Most of the literature concerning the imported porcelain has been amazed by

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the overall quantities. However, different types of porcelain were sold at different
prices by porcelain dealers. In order to sell porcelain at a higher price, Chinese dealers

were impelled to specialise in the knowledge of decoration patterns, and changing

decoration patterns too. In doing so, they could be aware of the most fashionable

designs, and would make their sales more profitable.

The most profitable items were enamelled porcelain decorated with coats of arms.

From the late 1720s onwards, private orders of armorial services were exclusively

decorated with enamel colours. Because armorial porcelain pieces were decorated in

the coats of arms of notable family, most of them could be dated precisely. From this

point of view, the number in Table 5 provides a reliable source to analyse private

enamelled porcelain trade in the eighteenth century. However, porcelain of this kind

still remains a valid topic of research to art historians. The focus of studies on these

26 Phillip Library, Peabody Essex Museum: Benjamin Shreve Papers MH-20, box 10, folder 4,
ship Minerva Account Book 1809, pp.42, 50, 53, cited from van Dyke, Success and Failure, p.156.
27 For instance, K. N. Chaudhuri, The Trading World of Asia and the English East India Company:
1660-1760 (Cambridge, 1978), pp.406-410.
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