Dish; India Company, China, Qing dynasty, second half of the 18th century.

Dish; India Company, China, Qing dynasty, second half of the 18th century.
Porcelain.
With reeded restorations.
Measurements: 3.5 x 26 cm (diameter).
Porcelain dish designed for European export. The East India Company was a generic term for companies that managed trade between a European metropolis and its colonies. Chinese manufacturers soon realised that Europeans were not connoisseurs of porcelain, and produced export porcelain that was vulgar, even flawed, but which in the eyes of Westerners turned out to be true works of art. Once the trade was regularly organised, the India Companies supplied Chinese artists with European models, both for forms and decoration. Throughout the 18th century, the blue-and-white series persisted, but of inferior quality, which was then called Nanjing porcelain.