Exotic consumption: the character and changes in significance of Chinese porcelain used in 18th-century Copenhagen.

Summary

The Danish Asiatic Company was founded in Copenhagen in 1732. Direct trade with China was now possible and Copenhageners gained easier access to exotic goods.

The Copenhageners could now see themselves as part of a globalized network of metropoles.  In their daily life, Copenhageners were able to express familiarity with other cultures and thus express a new kind of knowledge and status. How broadly did this fascination with exotic cultures extend within the population? New investigations indicate that a larger part of the population in 18th century Copenhagen used Chinese porcelain than previously thought.

Chinese porcelain can be seen as a mediator of Chinese and European cultural exchange. Porcelain expresses cultural interactions within a trade system that generally lacked cultural contact; it underwent a transformation from being a Chinese ware, to becoming a more hybrid, sometimes a purely European, ware – that for practical reasons was made in China.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Any Colour You Like: International Perspectives in Ceramic Analysis   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2013

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 254