Trading Porcelain: Object of Global Desire
Strolling through one of the many galleries at SMK - Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen, I was captivated by one painting hanging silently in the small room. Moderately sized, it was a Dutch still life depicting a table adorned with luxurious tableware, fresh roses and exotic foodstuffs. At the centre of the scene, illuminated by an unknown light source beyond the picture frame, is an oddly shaped porcelain bowl decorated in a typical blue-and-white colour scheme recalling Chinese origin. The lovely dark blue swirls dancing on the pearly white surface were indeed a much-needed break from the countless muted portrayals of silverware and transparent glass goblets against grey backgrounds.
The Pronk Still Life, by the Dutch painter Pieter de Ring in the mid-17th century, is just one of the many still life pictures produced in Northern Europe at the time, seeking to celebrate the prosperous trade that made the Netherlands a vibrant, multicultural trading hub. The National Gallery in London also houses a number of similar works, such as Jan Jansz. Treck’s Still Life with a Pewter Flagon and Two Ming Bowls. Looking closer at the porcelain depicted in De Ring and Treck’s paintings, both exhibit very similar characteristics – individual panels consisting of circular frames with central decorative motifs, together forming a wide border. This marks them as kraak wares, one of the first types of Chinese porcelain that were designed and painted specifically for an export market. The strange-sounding name came from the Dutch word caracca, standing for the Portuguese merchant ships that brought these delicate wares to Europe, enabling an exchange of ideas and aesthetics.
In still life arrangements, the kraak wares serve to curate a lavish lifestyle. Their hand-painted images, usually revealing flowers, birds and traditional knots, were perceived as intricate, exotic objects worthy of admiration, contributing to the development of connoisseurship. Made using hard-paste porcelain, whose recipe was yet to be discovered in Europe at the time, such porcelain pieces were further prized for their strength alongside beauty. Merchants, wealthy families, and even monarchies endlessly commissioned and collected pieces. King Augustus II the Strong built an entire gallery to house his porcelain collection at his palace in Dresden. Chinese porcelain was treated as luxury commodities that could be employed to show taste and status, placed on equal status as citrus fruits, lobsters, and other finest edibles imported from the sunlit Mediterranean.
This European craze for porcelain is well recorded. Search through the collections of any major art museum in Europe today, and you will find countless examples of brilliant still life paintings, antique blue-and-white vases, and other works of art that made reference to porcelain. The resulting narrative seems to speak of a linear and straightforward cultural communication between China and Europe, and one that is perhaps amplified by the current worldwide porcelain market, where China remains the top producer and exporter.
Yet, this is a partial perspective. Co-existing with the familiar trajectory of China supplying the West with exquisite ceramics unleashing great cultural influence is another story of porcelain production and infatuation. This time, it is the other way around. Albeit a niche interest, many Chinese customers today are avidly collecting porcelain pieces crafted in European factories.
From the 1710s onwards, with the Meissen Manufactory in Germany becoming the first European factory succeeding in producing hard-paste porcelain, Western porcelain began to develop and flourish. Soon, this phenomenon was widespread across the continent, introducing many of the porcelain brands we know today: Royal Copenhagen in Denmark, Limoges in France, Coalport, Royal Worcester and Wedgwood in England… and the list continues. The fusion between the porcelain medium and various European cultures inevitably resulted in new pieces attracting a global audience.
To find out more about this growing trend of Chinese collectors seeking European wares, I visited Jing, a vintage tableware dealer, at her workshop in Shanghai, where she shared some insights about the current porcelain market.
Working between antique stores, collectors, and auction houses to build up a repertoire of European porcelain pieces which she then sells to Chinese customers, Jing reveals that ‘curiosity’ is the most prominent reason why her clients come to her. Western porcelain produced in later centuries is very much associated with their cultural heritage, she argues, pointing to a set of Coalport dishes from England – the central decorations consist of illustrated landscape views with industrial bridges, and the curvy edges are adorned with gold lace-like patterns recalling this European cultural craft.
Just as Europeans were fascinated by the clear white wares from the Far East since the 14th century, seeing them as lavish commodities suggesting the broad knowledge and fine taste of the owner, for Chinese buyers, the images on European plates and cups add fun and novelty to their daily lives. Moreover, as Jing explains, since ceramic wares are common Chinese household objects, these foreign porcelain blends easily into different homes, giving a much more subtle touch that quietly hints at refined personal aesthetics. Softly placing the dishes back into their boxes lined with velvety fabrics, Jing concludes: ‘For the Chinese, Western porcelain appears less jarring [amid other collectable objects used to flaunt taste and wealth] whilst maintaining desirable exotic features.’ This mutual enthusiasm for something unique, often characterised by a foreign manufacturer and design, reflects and relies upon the fluidity and globalisation of porcelain through the centuries, a legacy of the initial influx of Chinese wares into Europe.
However, Jing also tells me another reason for Chinese clients favouring Western porcelain over local products. Compared to the long history of porcelain making in China, which results in countless variants in material and style forming a colossal assemblage, the history of Western porcelain production is relatively short and more meticulously recorded. This means that often companies would have a specific system to identify all individual pieces, accompanied by published books documenting the various marks, styles and dates. In contrast, Chinese porcelain is too difficult to trace, with a lack of an established identification system, due to the impossible challenge of cataloguing every work spanning over thousands of years. As such, Western porcelain can be easily valued with clearer provenance, aiding a more systematic way of collecting while showing the collectors’ personal aesthetics and wealth in an accessible manner.
Looking down at the dainty teacup and saucer placed next to a plate of blueberries that Jing has prepared for me, I could not help but to compare the scene to Dutch still life paintings with similar arrangements of porcelain and fruits. Both appear sophisticated and elegant, suggestive of a specific, cultivated way of living.
The global porcelain trade simply highlights a single human truth – our desire. In paintings or used in real life, blue-and-white or lavishly decorated, porcelain wares represent the yearning for something new and special to create personalised lifestyle choices. In this perspective, porcelain is transformed from physical objects to a fluid motif of consumption and ambition.
