Page 104 - The colours of each piece: production and consumption of Chinese enamelled porcelain, c.1728-c.1780

CHAPTER 2 The Production of Enamelled Porcelain and Knowledge Transfer

exclusively enamelled porcelain. From their findings, it is impossible to compare the

difference between items made in enamelled porcelain and those made of copper.

Research has been conducted by the Victoria and Albert museum made an exception,

in 1999, a total of forty-eight objects were examined, comprising twenty-one Chinese

porcelain objects dating between 1730 and 1750, eight nineteenth century and late

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Qing porcelain, two glass bowls, four Canton enamels. The EDXRF (Non-invasive

energy dispersive X-ray) analysis demonstrates that the enamel colour composition of

eighteenth-century enamelled porcelain from Jingdezhen was mostly closely related

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to those of Canton enamelled copperwares. Rose Kerr further suggested that enamel
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colours for use on metal were a major influence on porcelain enamelling. However,

further research has not yet been conducted since then.

It is reasonable to conclude that during the eighteenth century, Jingdezhen

enamelled porcelain production and Canton enamelled copperwares shared similar

materials. However, by focusing on the surviving objects and the fragmental records,

it is impossible to uncover the exact nature of the technical exchanges between these

two media, and further scientific examinations are necessary. Although for the

moment, my research cannot further illustrate the technological exchange between

Jingdezhen and Canton, it reveals a link that has been neglected for decades. As this

thesis will show, this link has played an important role in the porcelain trade in the

second half of the eighteenth century.

69 Paula Mills and Rose Kerr, ‘Zhongguo ciqi yanjiu he fenhong cailiao de yanjiu yu zhongguo
fenhong boli he ouzhou fenhongse youshangcai de bijiao’, [A comparative study of Chinese pink
enamel and European pink enamel] Gutaoci kexue jishu [The Technology of Chinese Ceramics],
4 (1999), pp.258-265. A more general report of this examination, see, Rose Kerr, ‘What were the
Origins of Chinese famille rose’ Orientations, 31, 5 (2000), pp.53-60.
70 Kerr, ‘the Origins of Chinese famille rose’, p.59.
71 Ibid.
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