Page 34 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

the company left it almost entirely up to the
Chinese, stipulating generic patterns and
color schemes. But there were occasional
specific instructions: "samples of textiles" are
mentioned in 1736 in a solitary reference to
that medium as a design source; also in 1736
the first pattern was commissioned from
Cornelis Pronk (fig. 27). The painting of ewers
in 1762 was to be "in the Dresden manner,"
and two years later a dinner service was to

have a "Marseille ground." In 1777 and 1778,
in reaction to competition from the Swedish
market, commercially popular patterns were
requested. The presence in Canton from
1784 to 1791 of Willem Tros, a Dutch designer
who had been employed-possibly as a
modeler-at the Loosdrecht porcelain factory
near Utrecht, is the only known instance of
a European artisan active in Canton, although
it is not certain whether he was active as a
modeler or a painter.
33. Dish. Chinese (Continental market), I770-75. Hard paste. Diam. 53/4 in.
As the principal trading center, Canton be-
(40 cm). Bequest of George D. Pratt, I935 (45.I74.35)
came a dispersal point for designs and shapes
originating in different countries. The ready dis- A rare example of exportporcelain reflecting German ceramic this dish comesfrom
style,
a service more than each with a diferent emblem and
semination of pictorial and decorative designs dispersed of 13o pieces, painted
motto. A small number the images and mottoes appear in Devises et emblemes
of
was a natural result of the mechanics of the
anciennes et modernes, by Daniel de la Feuille, published in Amsterdam in I697.
trade in which customers-company or pri-
the
The majority, including present image, are untraced and would have been gathered
vate-simply handed over a pattern for copy- into ayet unidentified compilation from other sources. The exuberant cartouche
corresponds
ing. Once received in a painter's workshop, it closely to the work the Augsburg ornamentist Franz Xavier Habermann (1712-I796),
of
became design currency and an additional whose designs occur on Fiirstenbergporcelain.
element in a widening repertoire made gener-
ally accessible through the finished porcelains
displayed in the porcelain merchants' shops.
Thus, we find a number of standard border I
patterns enframing pictorial subjects and
armorials for different markets; and at the
i
same time, a border as original and specific as
0 Id
that in figure 30 has been found on porcelain
with generic decoration. Similarly, a single
ip'
print source would be rendered in different
0 ---i~~~~~~~~~~~
palettes and with different borders. While
this explains the ubiquity of certain designs,
Dish, detail cartouche
of
33