Page 35 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

Research on the porcelain trade with the Danish East India Company has been

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conducted by Aa. Raschm and P.P. Sveistrup and Bredo Grandjean. Their researches

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listed porcelain cargos brought back from Canton in the eighteenth century.

Although some accounts were listed in detail, they do not provide a complete record

of how porcelain was traded by the Danish East India Company. Hanna Hodacs’s

research, which used Danish and Swedish East India Companies’ archival records,

provide a more detailed analysis of the quantities, qualities and colour assortments of

Chinese silk brought back to Scandinavia during the eighteenth century. Although

Hodacs’s research focuses on tea and silk, extensive archival records yield detailed

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information about porcelain as well.

The book Chinese export porcelain for the American Trade 1785-1835 provides

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detailed documentation when dealing with historical aspects of the China trade.

Mudge has accessed rich sources of material privately owned or in the possession of

societies and museums. Geoffrey A. Godden used a similar method but focussed on

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the porcelain trade with Britain during the eighteenth century. This research has

made several contributions to the field, as it not only provides a detailed account of

some EEIC’s trading records, but also discusses private trade and its associated

porcelain pieces. Because of his discussion, we have some information about the

33 Aa. Raschm and P.P. Sveistrup, asiatisk kompagni: i den florissante periode, 1772-1792
(Copenhagen, 1948); Bredo Grandjean, Dansk Ostindisk Porcelæn Importen fra Kanton ca. 1700
– 1822 (Copenhagen, 1964).
34 For a general introduction of the Danish East India Company trade, see Ole Feldbæk, ‘Danish
East India Trade 1772-1807’, Scandinavian Economic History Review, 26, 2(1978), pp.128-144.
35 I give special thanks to Hanna Hodacs for her generosity of sharing archival records with me,
although because of the time, I could not make use of it in this thesis.
36 Mudge, the American Trade.
37 Geoffrey A. Godden, Oriental export market porcelain and its influence on European wares
(London, New York, 1979). Geoffrey A. Godden was a ceramics specialist collector and dealer;
but to the public he was best known for his expert valuations of fine Chinese porcelain on BBC
Television’s Antiques Roadshow.
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