Pair of Chinese dishes. Qing Dynasty, India Company, Rose Family, 18th century.

Pair of Chinese dishes. Qing Dynasty, Rose Family, 18th century.
Hand painted porcelain.
Measurements: 3 x 22 x 22 cm. each.

Pair of Chinese dishes exported in the context of the East India Company. The dishes are decorated with sensual floral bouquets that adorn the eaves and seats. The polychromy is framed within the Pink Family style, based on the introduction of new glazes, the most famous of which is pink, which will give its name to the style. Other new colors were also added, such as opaque yellow, white and black, which were already independent, since until then, in order to fix the black enamel, it had to be covered with a different color enamel, usually translucent green.

The East India Company was a generic term for companies that managed trade between a European metropolis and its colonies. The Chinese manufacturers soon realized that Europeans were not experts in porcelain and produced a vulgar export porcelain, even with flaws, but which in the eyes of Westerners turned out to be authentic works of art. Once the trade was regularly organized, 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.