Page 17 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

*4
CHINESE SCHOOL, CIRCA 1800
Porcelain Production – a set of twenty
watercolour and bodycolour on paper
each 9¿ x 9¿in. (23.2 x 23.2cm.)
eight framed, twelve unframed (20)
£10,000-15,000 US$13,000-19,000
€12,000-17,000
PROVENANCE:
Anon. sale, Christie's Swire, Hong Kong, 9 Oct. 1990, lot 1362.

Chinese porcelain was frst imported into Europe by the Portuguese in the 16th century, and by the late 18th century East India
Company ships from Europe and America were transporting millions of pieces annually in their cargoes from Canton to the West.
The frst sets of Chinese paintings describing porcelain production in diagrammatic series began to reach Europe in the second half
of the 18th century.

The artist illustrates the stages of porcelain production from the mining of porcelain stone and kaolin, its mixing and washing and
fashioning into clay bricks, transportation, fring, decoration, packing and shipping. As with the watercolours of tea production,
these illustrations set the production within a fantastic landscape: 'Once again, the processes are represented by the Cantonese
painters as taking place in surroundings of idyllic rural beauty, far removed from the realities of Jingdezhen. This was the vast
porcelain-producing centre some fve hundred miles north of Canton, source of the empire's tablewares and of the millions of pieces
exported annually, and perhaps the largest industrial complex anywhere in the eighteenth-century world. ... We should remember
that it was Chinese painters who fulflled these needs for a fantasy China. In their depiction of porcelain manufacture ... they gave
a generally faithful rendering of the actual techniques involved, but in a totally unfaithful setting, reducing to gentle cottage crafts
what were intensive industries.' (C. Clunas, Chinese Export Watercolours, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1984, p.27).

In addition to the hammer price, a Buyer’s Premium (plus VAT) is payable. Other taxes and/or an Artist Resale Royalty 15
fee are also payable if the lot has a tax or λ symbol. Check Section D of the Conditions of Sale at the back of this catalogue.