Page 60 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

paintings on porcelain manufacturers as works of art that could be compared to the

porcelain manufacture illustration commissioned by the imperial court and she argues

that the circulations of these images demonstrate various interactions among their

audiences, the transmission of knowledge, the connection between Jingdezhen and

the court, as well as the connection between Jingdezhen porcelain and its global

consumers.

While scholars have successfully investigated the manufacture and consumption

of these pictures, they remain silent regarding the connection between the trade of

these pictures and the trade of enamelled porcelain. According to published research

and surviving paintings from collections, dated was from 1730s to the 1830s. This

period coincides with the great prosperity of Chinese international trade via the

Guangzhou port.

This investigation approach covers studies of material culture and usage of

representations. Using images as a type of historical evidence has been encouraged

by Peter Burke to historians. 102 In terms of material culture studies, he pointed out

that ‘the use of image in the process of the reconstruction of the material culture of

the past...images are particularly valuable in the reconstruction of the everyday life of

ordinary people.’ 103 This theory has been widely accepted and used in Canton trade.

As mentioned above, export paintings on Canton are used as historical material to

provide complementary information to the trade. In order to get a full picture of

porcelain trade, it is time to apply this approach to those watercolours.

102 Peter Burke, Eyewitnessing: the use of Images as Historical Evidence (London, 2011).
103 Ibid, p.81.
44