Page 32 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003

34. it accounts neither for their authorship-
European or Chinese-nor for the number
35. and fluency of their variantforms. Were there
34. SauceTureen and Stand. Chinese (Scottish market), ca. I785.Hard paste. Westerners in Canton who were artists as well
H. of tureen with cover (.317) 5 in. (12.7 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann
Collection, Gift of Winfield Foundation, I95I (51.86.3I7ab, ; .318) as traders? Didthe Chinese painters, as has
Boththetureenand thestandarecopiedfromcreamwaremodelsdesignedabout been suggested, introduce innovations of
1770-71 byJosiahWedgwood(fig.35), who basedtheformof thestandon a Sevres their own? This seems unlikely in the case of
Western imagery that was being copied from
modelhehadseenin I765. Theensemblewas clearlyin generalcirculationin Cantoni , exemplars, but reasonable in the light of sec-
as it isfound with a varietyof armorial,pictorial,andfloral decorationsintendedf gr ondary patterns that evoke traditional Chinese
diffrent markets.On ourpiecesthe armsarethoseof theBrucefamilyof Scotland; decorative motifs. Because the evidence of
anotherexamplebearsthe armsof PeterIII of Portugal(r.i777-86).
35.Josiah Wedgwood (I730-I795). Sauce Tureen and Stand. English preparatorydesigns and written documenta-
(Staffordshire),ca. 1770. Cream-colored earthenware.Leeds Museums tion is lacking, it is not yet possible to recon-
and Galleries (Temple Newsam House) struct a conduct of trade in Canton that would

have permitted and fostered the development
of decorative styles so independent of their
respective Asian and Western origins.

The circulation and exchange of models
were, for much of the trade, somewhat more
restricted, as shapes tended to be specific to
local customs; in addition, the steady pro-
duction of table services for both the bulkand

privatetrades prompted a degree of standard-
ization. By the 1770s this began to change, as
the production of creamware in England,
especially Josiah Wedgwood's Queen's Ware,
was moving taste toward a new material and

style (figs. 34, 35). Wedgwood became a piv-
otal figure in the transition from the bright
polychromy of porcelain to a quieter-toned
earthenware, thereby hastening the decline of
the export trade, as England in the last quar-
ter of the eighteenth century commanded 70
percent of Europe'strade with China. He con-
gratulated himself on the success of his
Queen's Ware in India,writing in 1767 that he
had been told "itwas allready in Use there, &
in much higher estimation than the finest
Porcellain.... Don'tyou thinkwe shall have
some Chinese Missionaries come here soon

to learn the art of making Creamcolour?"

34