Well, it’s really no use our talking in the way we have been doing if the words we use mean something different to each of us . . . and nothing. (M. Bradbury, Eating People Is Wrong)
True today, true yesterday—and true back in the 1700s when people were ordering tea and teaware. Because back then, Westerners were crazy about tea and all the Porcelain paraphernalia that went along with it.
But it wasn’t enough to just have Chinese ware—they wanted it personalized, westernized, customized.
So they sent in their orders to China, complete with detailed instructions. Seems totally straightforward, even if these orders went via ship, taking months.
The problem?
Well, there was that whole language barrier thing, along with vastly different cultural norms.
The result?
Quite a few misunderstandings, documented by extant porcelain pieces. Which means we can not only get a smile out of some of this, but we can trace the evolution of design as China strived to produce what the Westerners wanted.
Why this was serious business—
I recently met up again with researcher Shirley Mueller, who studies the various ways in which China responded to 18th-century Western tastes and demands for porcelain, and who showed me some fascinating examples of mistakes that were made.
And while these seem quaint or innocuous or amusing to us now, they were anything but.
It took time, work, and money to order, create, and transport porcelain—and errors and breakage meant wasted months, unhappy customers, less profit.
Therefore—
Drawings and written directions stipulating dimensions and the type of decoration were sent to China’s porcelain factories.
However, the Chinese artisans were not familiar with Western coats of arms or religious symbols, for example. And when text appeared on the drawings, they didn’t necessarily know whether those words were simply decoration, or lines of poetry, or directions.
The results?
◊ Take this detail of a plate, made around 1755, that depicts the English arms of Dobree. The words “red” and “green” were mistaken as decoration rather than used as directions. Even worse, the wrong colors were applied!
Yeah, the recipient probably wasn’t so amused.
◊ Sometimes the text was supposed to appear, but was mistakenly written, such as an “N” written backwards in the word “INRI” (an acronym for a Latin religious phrase).
◊ Shirley Mueller also showed me one example where the reference drawing got wet and smudged somewhere en route. The artisans incorporated the stains into the final pattern, not realizing they weren’t supposed to be there.
◊ The concept of coats of arms and crests was unfamiliar. While the crest is to appear above the coat of arms and right side up, there are instances where the crest is upside down and below the coat of arms.
◊ In heraldic engravings, blue would be represented in the reference drawing by parallel lines. Well here’s what happened in one tea set:
The lines have been faithfully reproduced but, unfortunately, the field was rendered in red rather than blue!
The famille rose teapot bearing the Arms of Troutbeck in the wrong color was made in 1775. Due to the long voyage time, it wasn’t until 1780 that the replacement was made, as shown here, with the correct blue:
Now when I first looked at these two items, before Shirley explained the problem, I had no idea which one was wrong or why it was wrong (outside the very troubling iconography above the shield but that’s another story). And neither did the Chinese artisans!
And therein was the problem.
Words and drawings, instructions and guidelines. Yet what they mean depends entirely upon your perspective.
All photos used with permission from Shirley M. Mueller—and if you are anywhere near Indianapolis this summer, be sure to check out her lovely porcelain exhibit at the Museum of Art (details below).
Sources:
–Maldini, I. “Design history of European tea cups and saucers,” VU University Amsterdam, 2012.
–Mueller, S. M. Elegance from the East: New Insights from Old Porcelain, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana. May 26–October 22, 2017. Tap here for more information about the exhibit, which is ongoing.
–Mueller, S. M. Personal communication, June 2017.
Filed under: History Tagged: China, Europe, teaware
