Page 73 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 2 The Production of Enamelled Porcelain and Knowledge Transfer

proved convincingly that this workshop received support from Jesuits from France

21
and Italy in techniques, painters, as well as the material enamel.

However, we do not know much about the detailed information on how the

Imperial Workshop adapted such a technique; neither do we know how enamel

colours were made and how enamel colours were used outside the court during

eighteenth century China.

Due to the complexity of enamel painting techniques, introducing the

manufacture process rather than explaining the innovation first helps to better

understand this innovation. In order to demonstrate clearly the innovative way in

which enamelled porcelain was produced, I will show the manufacture of porcelain

step by step in the following section. Due to the lack of visual sources in the early

eighteenth century, it is worth noting that some of the following images relating to

enamelled porcelain production are dated slightly later, at around the 1750s, when the

innovation had already occurred.

2.3.2. Manufacture Process of Porcelain

The two primary ingredients of porcelain are kaolin and baidunzi. Baidunzi, literally

white brick, is found in the mountains along the Chang River to the east of Jingdezhen.

Kaolin, comes from the earth as natural clay of remarkable fine consistency and white

colour; it required no breaking or grinding, and less washing and purifying before it

was ready to use.

21 Xu,‘Europe-China-Europe’; Shi, Qinggong huafalang;pp.31-32; Emily Curtis, Glass Exchange
Between China and Europe, 1550-1800 (Surrey: Ashgate Publishing Limited, 2009), pp.112-113.
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