Page 35 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

it accounts neither for their authorship-
European or Chinese-nor for the number
and fluency of their variant forms. Were there
Westerners in Canton who were artists as well
as traders? Did the Chinese painters, as has
been suggested, introduce innovations of
their own? This seems unlikely in the case of
Western imagery that was being copied from
exemplars, but reasonable in the light of sec-
ondary patterns that evoke traditional Chinese

decorative motifs. Because the evidence of
preparatory designs and written documenta-
tion is lacking, it is not yet possible to recon-
struct a conduct of trade in Canton that would
have permitted and fostered the development
34.
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 bulk and
private trades 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
35. polychromy of porcelain to a quieter-toned
34. Sauce Tureen and Stand. Chinese (Scottish market), ca. I785. Hard paste. earthenware, thereby hastening the decline of
H. of tureen with cover (.317) 5 in. (12.7 cm). Helena Woolworth McCann the export trade, as England in the last quar-
Collection, Gift of Winfield Foundation, I95I (51.86.3I7a, b; .318)
ter of the eighteenth century commanded 70
percent of Europe's trade with China. He con-
Both the tureen and the stand are copiedfrom creamware models designed about
1770-71 byJosiah Wedgwood (fig. 35), who based theform of the stand on a Sevres gratulated himself on the success of his
model he had seen in The ensemble was in circulation in Cantoi n, Queen's Ware in India, writing in 1767 that he
I765. clearly general
as it isfound with a variety of armorial, pictorial, andfloral decorations intended gr had been told "it was allready in Use there, &
f
diffrent markets. On ourpieces the arms are those the Brucefamily of Scotland; in much higher estimation than the finest
of
another example bears the arms Peter III of Portugal (r. i777-86).
of
Porcellain.... Don't you think we shall have
some Chinese Missionaries come here soon
35. Josiah Wedgwood (I730-I795). Sauce Tureen and Stand. English
to learn the art of making Creamcolour?"
(Staffordshire), ca. 1770. Cream-colored earthenware. Leeds Museums
and Galleries (Temple Newsam House)

34