Precocious Consumption: The Career of Ming Porcelain in Renaissance Iberia

Most studies about Ming porcelain in sixteenth-century Europe maintain that these ceramics were extremely rare and expensive, an exotic luxury solely available to the elites and carefully preserved in cabinets of curiosities. This article challenges that view, drawing on a reassessment of sixteenth-century Portuguese and Spanish sources and archaeological evidence. It suggests that mass-produced Chinese blue and white porcelains became more accessible to urban populations in Renaissance Iberia much earlier than previously believed. This early “internalization” of Chinese porcelain in Europe’s material culture contradicts the dominant perspective, which relies heavily on Dutch and English sources from the seventeenth century. Iberian probate inventories and other written records reveal that porcelain prices were not exorbitant and did not rival prices for other Renaissance luxuries like silverware, tapestries, parade armor, jewels, and prized exotica such as Maldives coconuts, rhinoceros horns, or bezoar stones. Five key consumption patterns emerged in Renaissance Iberia: (1) porcelains as prized treasures, when mounted in silver; (2) porcelains as diplomatic or devotional gifts; (3) customized Chinese export porcelains; (4) porcelains as usable collectibles accumulated in large numbers in glass and porcelain chambers; and (5) porcelains as lavish everyday tableware for dining and drinking. Indeed, the initial awe surrounding these ceramics in the early 1500s was short-lived, as they gradually became more common thanks to a rise in imports and a growing familiarity with porcelain consumption cultures in Asia. Despite being the most luxurious ceramic in Europe, Chinese porcelain became relatively prevalent within one or two generations.