Chinese order porcelain
As a Chinese order porcelain (fr. Chine de commande , Eng. Chinese export porcelain ) one from another country is Imperial China specially ordered, custom built there and consigned to the client Porzellangut referred. Usually the term refers to the mass export of Chinese porcelain to Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. For India and the Arab region, however, earlier pieces have been handed down and after gaining independence, the Americans also began to order their own decors in China.
history
Chinese porcelain for the European market in the 17th and 18th centuries
Due to the trading activities of the large European trading companies, articles of daily use and art made of porcelain had become a coveted article in Europe, which was sold in the second half of the 17th and 18th centuries (especially under the influence of ever increasing consumption from tea , coffee and chocolate ) to a real Chinese mania. Instead of limiting themselves to the production of their own decors and shapes, the Chinese began to work towards direct orders. In addition to pieces or plates with Koran inscriptions specially made for the Japanese tea ceremony for Islamic countries, the Chinese manufacturers produced porcelain items that were adapted to the special tastes of their European customers - usually based on drawings sent in for the decor, but also based on samples . Since the beginning of the 18th century in particular, the Chinese have been supplying everyday objects for the grand table, body care and furniture to all of the major rulers and noble families in Europe. These were mostly decorated with the coat of arms of the customer, for which colored preliminary drawings were sent to China when the order was placed. Such coat of arms services are still preserved in Germany today, for example the extensive service with the great coat of arms of the Prussian royal house, which reached Europe from Canton to Europe on ships of the Prussian-Asian Company around the middle of the 18th century . Problems could arise during order processing due to the long distance and the considerable cultural differences. A special curiosity is a plate with the coat of arms of the Andros de Guernsey family, which is marked with the words "green, blue, red" where the actual colors should be used. In the course of the increased establishment of porcelain factories in Europe, the porcelain trade with China declined sharply, so that the heyday of Chinese custom-made porcelain can be considered over towards the end of the 18th century.
Exports to non-European countries
- India and the Arab world
For India, whose Mughals of the 16th and 17th centuries obviously valued Chinese porcelain very much, vessels in the “Mughal style” have been handed down. The Chinese also ran a lively china trade with Persia and the Arab countries and there are many pieces with calligraphic inscriptions and verses from the Koran.
- Exports to the USA
After the end of the American War of Independence , the Americans began to build up their own trade in China . While the import of Chinese porcelain was mainly handled through Europe before the war, the first American ships reached the port of Canton in 1784 . Among the decors ordered by the Americans, the eagle motif and the coats of arms of the individual American states were particularly popular. In the early 19th century, Europe was replaced by the United States as the most important market for Chinese porcelain.
See also
Web links
literature
- Michel Beurdeley: Porcelain from China "Compagnie des Indes" . Munich 1962.
- Sook Hi Park: Chinese made-to-order porcelain from the East Asian trading company in Emden . Aurich 1973.
- Geoffrey Godden: Chinese export porcelain , in: David Battie (ed.): Sotheby's Grosser Antiquitäten-Führer Porcelain: From Chinese Origins to the Manufactories of the 20th Century , Munich 1995, pp. 49-67.