Chinese porcelain was known for its unique properties and aesthetic values, it was favored by the Europeans back in the days. However, a sustained trading of Chinese porcelain in the western market was never created until the establishment of the Dutch East India Company (VOC; Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie). In my part, I will focus on explaining how did the Chinese export porcelain market flourished under the establishment of the VOC and also the modification of Chinese porcelain when catering for the western market.
The significance of the Dutch East India Company (VOC)
The VOC is the initiator of the Chinese export porcelain market. The first trading between China and the West was a limited amount of Chinese porcelain, made by request
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After recognizing the form might not be suitable for the daily life usage of the westerner, the Chinese has made some changes based on the western taste. The Dutch started to send wooden models of the western utensil to china, so that the Chinese craftsmen can make changes according. Sometimes, picture will be send to Chinese craftsmen as well, so that they can mimic and recreate the western design and decorative motif on the Chinese export porcelain. In other words, chinse export porcelain started changes its traditional Chinese usage and decoration to fit in the western …show more content…
In the past, Chinese seldom use milk in their dining culture, let along to use a milk jug for serving at the dinning table. This jug is believed to be a copy from the European silver model. It has the central armorial with the motto PULCHRIOR EX ARDUIS. The coat of arms in armorial ware would provide identification of the user. (My groupmate would give a detailed explanation on the armorial ware in his part ). Besides the western decorative motif of the central armorial, the Chinese element in this milk jug is the lotus leaves around the pedestal. In this case, we can see the combination and the exchange in decorative motif of porcelain between China and the