I was very interested in the golden age of Dutch art and trade as impacted by Asia. Now it's time to examine fine Jingdezhen porcelain as it was adapted by the French.
Chinese potters identified the essential clay ingredient for porcelain, kaolin, the best sources being in Tibet and the Gobi Desert. The Chinese took this natural material and honed their craft over hundreds of years. By 1250 AD potters in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province (see map below) had perfected the method.
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In Feb 1603 Dutch East India Co. intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship carrying tons of Chinese porcelain near Singapore. The goods were so valuable that, when they were auctioned in Amsterdam, the Company stock boomed. Chinese porcelain affected regional trends in table settings, trade and art! By 1615 Chinese porcelain appeared in still-life paintings of Dutch artists eg Jan Steen, Rembrandt, Willem Kalf, Pieter Claesz and Clara Peeters.
The dishes were mostly bowls and cups in standard Chinese shapes, but Europeans soon wanted their own shapes: butter dishes, mustard pots, tankards, salt cellars and candlesticks. Chinese manufacturers were prepared to make any form to fit Western lifestyles! And Jingdezhen artisans soon began decorating their own vessels with European images.
The Qing dynasty was established in 1636 and ruled China for 3 centuries. The Kangxi Emperor (1654–1722) was the 4th emperor of his dynasty and it was during his long reign that China's famous blue and white porcelain peaked. Powdered Blue enamel was a specialty of Kangxi’s era, adored by prestigious French collectors.
European demand for Jingdezhen porcelain quickly grew because Europe did not yet possess the technical knowledge required to make porcelain. In fact 3+ million pieces were exported to Europe between 1604-57; the Dutch alone imported 1,000,000+ pieces per year. The Chinese trade was so lucrative that the porcelain-making processes were closely guarded - Jingdezhen actively excluded Europeans!
In the 1680s Kangxi Emperor reasserted imperial control over the Jingdezhen kilns, and the export of Chinese porcelain to Europe slowed down for a time. This interruption in supply led in part to renewed attempts at European ceramic centres to unlock the secret Chinese ingredient.
70+ million pieces of Chinese export porcelain had entered Europe in the C17th & C18th and buyers were desperate for more. The most passionate were royals & aristocrats who coated their palace walls, floors and ceilings in White Gold.
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In a pair of Chinese powder blue porcelain ewers with dragons (1745-9), each ewer had a neck with scrolled acanthus and a side handle surmounted by a winged dragon. The dragon was a mythical creature which the French imitated and applied three dimensionally to the imported Chinese porcelains. Clearly these finely decorated and mounted porcelains were meant for classy European tables.
When the Europeans eventually developed their own porcelain factories, they often directly imitated Chinese porcelain, and also mounted the objects with gilt bronze. So how do we know if the porcelain was Chinese? See a pair of early Louis XV ormolu-mounted porcelain cache pots made in the Meissen factory, although the porcelain clearly imitated Asian patterns. 11 cm. high. The mounts had a C tax mark applied in France on copper alloys during 1745–9, dating and locating the materials precisely.
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Chinese potters identified the essential clay ingredient for porcelain, kaolin, the best sources being in Tibet and the Gobi Desert. The Chinese took this natural material and honed their craft over hundreds of years. By 1250 AD potters in Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province (see map below) had perfected the method.
Chinese porcelain cache pot, C17th
decorated in Wucai strong reds, greens and blues.
Elegant regency ormolu-mounts, c1725
Christie's
Persian cobalt oxide became fine blue paint in China. So Jingdezhen kilns imported tons of cobalt ore across 6,000 kms to decorate their wares, which were then sold and shipped. The large-scale process used the blue-white decoration that adorned much of Jingdezhen’s export porcelain.
In Feb 1603 Dutch East India Co. intercepted a Portuguese merchant ship carrying tons of Chinese porcelain near Singapore. The goods were so valuable that, when they were auctioned in Amsterdam, the Company stock boomed. Chinese porcelain affected regional trends in table settings, trade and art! By 1615 Chinese porcelain appeared in still-life paintings of Dutch artists eg Jan Steen, Rembrandt, Willem Kalf, Pieter Claesz and Clara Peeters.
The dishes were mostly bowls and cups in standard Chinese shapes, but Europeans soon wanted their own shapes: butter dishes, mustard pots, tankards, salt cellars and candlesticks. Chinese manufacturers were prepared to make any form to fit Western lifestyles! And Jingdezhen artisans soon began decorating their own vessels with European images.
The Qing dynasty was established in 1636 and ruled China for 3 centuries. The Kangxi Emperor (1654–1722) was the 4th emperor of his dynasty and it was during his long reign that China's famous blue and white porcelain peaked. Powdered Blue enamel was a specialty of Kangxi’s era, adored by prestigious French collectors.
European demand for Jingdezhen porcelain quickly grew because Europe did not yet possess the technical knowledge required to make porcelain. In fact 3+ million pieces were exported to Europe between 1604-57; the Dutch alone imported 1,000,000+ pieces per year. The Chinese trade was so lucrative that the porcelain-making processes were closely guarded - Jingdezhen actively excluded Europeans!
In the 1680s Kangxi Emperor reasserted imperial control over the Jingdezhen kilns, and the export of Chinese porcelain to Europe slowed down for a time. This interruption in supply led in part to renewed attempts at European ceramic centres to unlock the secret Chinese ingredient.
70+ million pieces of Chinese export porcelain had entered Europe in the C17th & C18th and buyers were desperate for more. The most passionate were royals & aristocrats who coated their palace walls, floors and ceilings in White Gold.
Of course Europeans made vigorous efforts to learn the secrets of Chinese porcelain. A French Jesuit missionary moved to China in 1698, secretly entered Jingdezhen and described porcelain-making in letters he sent home. He said that in its peak, Jingzhen’s 3,000 kilns used thousands of locals in an manufacturing process that looked very modern.
In Germany Augustus the Strong(1670–1733), King of Poland, Elector of Saxony and a Chinese porcelain fanatic, was desperate to crack the ancient Chinese secret. Augustus had been spending too much of his annual royal budget on importing 30,000 pieces of porcelain, and he wanted to create porcelain at home. So desperate was the Elector that he imprisoned alchemist Johann Böttger until the poor sod discovered porcelain’s secret ingredient. Finally large-scale European porcelain production began in Meissen in 1710.
Turquoise porcelain cache pot
from Emperor Kangxi’s reign
Christie's
Mounted porcelain referred to pieces of unpretentious Chinese porcelain, later embellished in precious or semi-precious European metal mounts to make them more appealing to Western collectors. See a colourful turquoise porcelain cache pot from Emperor Kangxi’s reign (late C17th) with French regency ormolu-mounts (gold coloured copper-zinc alloy c1725).
As the trend became more widespread from the early C18th, the mounts were increasingly made of gilt bronze, not silver. Clearly the C18th French rulers adored the most exquisite Kangxi specialties, using the original C17th Chinese centre-pieces and vases. They too converted them to French treasure by adding gold, bronze or ormolu mounts in the reigns of King Louis XV (1715–74) and King Louis XVI (1774-93).
As the trend became more widespread from the early C18th, the mounts were increasingly made of gilt bronze, not silver. Clearly the C18th French rulers adored the most exquisite Kangxi specialties, using the original C17th Chinese centre-pieces and vases. They too converted them to French treasure by adding gold, bronze or ormolu mounts in the reigns of King Louis XV (1715–74) and King Louis XVI (1774-93).
Kangxi trumpet vases
Ormolu mounted
Lundgrens
A Chinese Powder Blue porcelain centrepiece from the Kangxi period (late C17th), mounted with very fine antique French transitional Louis XV style ormolu mounts, mid 1800s. A fine pair of Powder Blue Trumpet Vases was made in China during the Kangxi era (late C17th) . The antique ormolu mounting was added in Paris in the late C18th.
Ewers with dragons
48 cm high; 28 cm. wide
When the Europeans eventually developed their own porcelain factories, they often directly imitated Chinese porcelain, and also mounted the objects with gilt bronze. So how do we know if the porcelain was Chinese? See a pair of early Louis XV ormolu-mounted porcelain cache pots made in the Meissen factory, although the porcelain clearly imitated Asian patterns. 11 cm. high. The mounts had a C tax mark applied in France on copper alloys during 1745–9, dating and locating the materials precisely.
Jingdezhen in Jiangxi Province, China