Chinese dish. India Company. Qing Dynasty, 18th century.

Chinese dish. India Company. Qing Dynasty, 18th century.
Hand painted porcelain.
Presents red seal on the back.
Measurements: 26 cm. diameter.

Porcelain dish of Chinese invoice, from the period of the Qing reign, decorated in the eaves with nested borders forming foliated chains based on vegetal and geometric decorations. A European heraldic coat of arms is depicted in the center of the seat.

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 export porcelain, vulgar, 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.