CHINA
PORCELATN IDECORATED
that the factory at Shaou-king Fu to the west of Canton must have made still more. Abbé Raynal, in 1774, men- tions this factory, and states that the porcelain known in France under the name of “porcelaine des Indes” was made there.
It is probable, therefore, that from these two factories, and especially from the latter, proceeded the numerous ser- vices for dinner and tea, differing altogether from the appli- ances of the same kind used in China. Many of these services have on them the armorial bearings of the persons for whom they were made. Even royalty patronised Chi- nese porcelain; portions of services made for Frederic the Great, and the royal families of Denmark and France, are in the collection. There seems also to have been a large ser- vice made for the Palace of the Swedish Kings at Grips- holm, the name of which is inscribed on the various pieces. The arms of families of rank are often found, and naturally those of wealthy merchants both in England and abroad. There is such a similarity of style in the arrangement of the decoration of much of this armorial china that there must have been some agent, either in England or at Can- ton, who supplied the designs and superintended their execution.
M. Jacquemart has ascribed to Japan what Abbé Raynal calls ‘‘ porcelaine des Indes,” our “ India china,” as well as the armorial specimens; but he has come to this conclusion on the most slender grounds; he argues that the Dutch India Company was the only important company which could have caused such a name to be given to its imports, and that that company traded with Japan. He has, how- ever, quite overlooked the very important India companies of England, Sweden, and Denmark, which had a large trade with China, and that even the Dutch carried on a very con- siderable commerce with that country, using Batavia as their depot. In the elaborate sale catalogue of the collection of M. Angrand de Fonpertuis, prepared by Gersaint of Paris in 1747, the Chinese and Japanese are generally spoken of as “Indiens.”” Moreover, the porcelain with armorial bear- ings is probably far more common in England than in Hol- land, and our country had no direct communication with
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