Page 97 - 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

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In the same year, Tang Ying was posted to Jingdezhen by the Yongzheng

emperor. Even before this, Tang Ying was in charge of the artists working at the

Imperial workshops designing porcelain patterns.

In 1729, Nian Xiyao, the director of the Imperial Kiln in Jingdezhen sent an

artisan who was familiar with techniques of using glazes and two enamel painters to

the Imperial workshops. He also sent two hundred pieces of small brushes and enamel

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colours, including yellow, white, green, iron red, and black.
The two researchers mentioned above (Xu Xiaodong, Shi Jingfei) also used these

records to prove the connection between the court and Jingdezhen. As I have put them

in chronological order, a clear version of the exchanges can be uncovered.

First, it shows that the interaction between Jingdezhen and Beijing was dynamic,

as Jingdezhen’s support of the Imperial workshops experienced different stages.

Jingdezhen was originally in charge of sending craftsmen who knew how to make

porcelain, and later sent craftsmen who know how to paint enamels on porcelain. It is

not surprising that Jingdezhen was the dominant, perhaps even the sole supplier of

blank porcelain to the Imperial workshop, as it had supplied porcelain to the court

over the centuries. What is interesting and important is that Jingdezhen sent people

who knew how to paint enamels just a year after the court had sent new enamel colours

to Jingdezhen. The chronology of these records is certainly important, because it

shows in what respects the two sites have interacted with each other, with regard to

techniques. In 1728, the Imperial workshops sent enamel colours to Jingdezhen, and

in 1729 Jingdezhen sent it back to the workshops their own enamel colours. This

52 Tang Ying was born in 1682 and started his career at the age of sixteen in the Imperial
Household Department. There he learned the skills of paintings, calligraphy and poetry, and
became one of the artists to design artworks in various media for the court.
53 The Imperial Workshops Archives, vol. 4, p.99.
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