Page 26 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003

29. Sauceboat. Chinese (European market), ca. I7I5-20. Hard paste. W. 7 in.
(17.8cm). Gift of Margaret H. Davis, 1983(1983.250)
No singleexportporcelaindocumentso richlythewidespreaddiffusionof a modelas
doesthissauceboatP. robablyderivedfromsilver,theformfirstappearsin Delftpottery
in an Imari-styleexampleofabout17z5,possiblypainted byAry Rijsselbergh(active
ca.i715-23); it appearsamongChineseexportarmorialservicesfortheEnglish market
abouti723.A versiondecoratedin the ChineseImari stylewas in theDresdencollection
ofAugustusII by i72I and was copiedexactlybyMeissenaboutI730-35. Themodel
was interpretedin English delftwareabouti75o-6o and in Worcesteprorcelainabout
i755-58. Thehandlesof theEnglish versionshave traditionallybeendescribedasfoxes, pean trade, which, by the opening of the reign
but in theDelft modeltheyaretoovagueto be identifiable.
28
extraordinarydelicacy (fig. 24), this technique
of imitation engraving continued in use late
into the eighteenth century. Forthe English
marketits appeal was lessened by the 1760s,
when competition from transfer printing
obviated both the time and the art.
The concurrent developments of grisaille
and famille rose decoration are a good indica-
tion of the expansion and force of the Euro-
of the Qianlong emperor in 1735, included
more than half a dozen countries: Holland,
England, France,Sweden, Denmark,Portugal,
and Spain. All except the two last-based in
Macao and Manila, respectively-had their
factories in Canton (Guangzhou), which soon
became the center not only of trading but of
decoration. Painting in underglaze blue would
always be carried out in Jingdezhen, but its
distance from Canton-some 400 miles-
usually meant a lapse of over two years for
completion. Porcelains enameled in Canton,
however, could be supplied within a few
weeks, and we may well suppose that as the
volume of the private trade increased so did
the desire to have orders filled more quickly.
The establishment of enameling workshops in
Canton seems to have taken effect about
1740. According to VOCrecords, the porce-
lains commissioned from the Amsterdam
draftsman Cornelis Pronkbetween 1736 and
1739 (fig. 27) were completed in the north, at
Jingdezhen, and the simultaneous appear-
ance of certain pictorialsubjects and decora-
tive borders in under- and overglaze color
schemes datable to the early 1740s (fig. 30)
indicates Jingdezhen's continued role in the
enameling of export porcelains to that time.
By its nature, Chinese export porcelain is
an artistic hybrid,subsuming ever-shifting
balances between East and West as well
as interactions within each culture. Even the