Porcelain, Power, and Identity: The Global Life of Chinese Armorial Ware in the Eighteenth Century

The eighteenth century marked a peak period of globalization, during which Chinese porcelain emerged as a pivotal commodity in global material culture. This study focuses on a distinctive category, Chinese armorial porcelain, as a transcultural and hybridity artefact exchanged between High Qing China and Britain. Drawing on a multidisciplinary approach that combines close visual analysis with theoretical insights from material culture studies, postcolonial theory and consumer sociology, this study examines the evolving design language of these hybrid wares. It offers, for the first time, a systematic typology of Chinese decorative patterns on armorial porcelain and traces their compositional shifts over time. The analysis reveals a gradual Europeanization of these objects, corresponding to changing European perceptions of China—from a space of cultural fascination to a subordinated Orientalist otherness. At the same time, these porcelains register significant shifts in British social values, taste hierarchies, and consumption practices. Crucially, this study foregrounds the role of Chinese patterns, long treated as peripheral, as active agents in visual and cultural negotiation.