Page 34 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Company, Beurdeley uses porcelain sales catalogues and calculated the total quantity

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of French porcelain imports in 1731, 1769, 1775 and 1790. According to

Beurdeley’s account and the sale catalogue, porcelains sold in France were of two

main types: blue and white, and coloured ones. Given the nature of the sales catalogue,

which provided a clear description, it would be very useful for further research on the

porcelain trade to ask how different types of porcelain were treated in different ways.

However, Beurdeley did not provide more details about whether there were other

source materials of this kind.

Research on the porcelain trade with the Swedish East India Company is also

partially known. Christian Koninckx’s research is by far the most comprehensive

study on the Swedish East India Company’s porcelain trade. In the book The first and

second charters of the Swedish East India Company (1731-1756): a contribution to

the maritime, economic, and social history of north-western Europe in its

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relationships with the Far East, he calculates the number of pieces for the period.

In his appendix, Konninckx also lists the number of pieces brought in on every ship.

However, he does not specify the details of the porcelain, such as the shape or the

decoration. Neither does he specify precisely the location of these records. Since this

thesis aims to explore the details of the porcelain trade focusing on how different types

of porcelain were traded in different ways, Koninckx’s research does not provide

valuable information for the required insights.

31 Michel Beurdeley, Porcelain of the East India Companies (London: Barrie & Rockliff, 1962),
pp.102-3.
32 Christian Koninckx, The first and second charters of the Swedish East India Company (1731-
1756): a contribution to the maritime, economic, and social history of north-western Europe in its
relationships with the Far East (Kortrijk, Belgium: Van Ghemmert Pub. Co., 1980).
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