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This book follows Chinese porcelain through the commodity chain, from its production in China to trade with Spanish Merchants in Manila, and to its eventual adoption by colonial society in Mexico. As trade connections increased in the early modern period, porcelain became an immensely popular and global product. This study focuses on one of the most exported objects, the guan. It shows how this porcelain jar was produced, made accessible across vast distances and how designs were borrowed and transformed into new creations within different artistic cultures. While people had increased access to global markets and products, this book argues that this new connectivity could engender more local outlooks and even heightened isolation in some places. It looks beyond the guan to the broader context of transpacific trade during this period, highlighting the importance and impact of Asian commodities in Spanish America.
List of contents
1 Introduction: A Global Commodity in the Transpacific Trade.- 2 Crafting a Global Brand: Jingdezhen in the Early Modern World.- 3 From Junk to Galleon: Commercial Activity in Manila.- 4 A Parián in the Plaza Mayor: Making Space for Asia in Colonial Mexico.- 5 Blue-and-White Chocolateros: Crafting a Local Aesthetic in a Colonial Context.- 6 Conclusion: Themes from a Connected World.-
About the author
Meha Priyadarshini is Fellow at the Sciences Po Europe-Asia Programme in Le Havre, France. Her research and teaching interests include global history, material culture studies, colonial Latin American history and art history. She earned her PhD from Columbia University and has held fellowships at the Getty Research Institute, the European University Institute and the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florence.
Summary
This book follows Chinese porcelain through the commodity chain, from its production in China to trade with Spanish Merchants in Manila, and to its eventual adoption by colonial society in Mexico. As trade connections increased in the early modern period, porcelain became an immensely popular and global product. This study focuses on one of the most exported objects, the guan. It shows how this porcelain jar was produced, made accessible across vast distances and how designs were borrowed and transformed into new creations within different artistic cultures. While people had increased access to global markets and products, this book argues that this new connectivity could engender more local outlooks and even heightened isolation in some places. It looks beyond the guan to the broader context of transpacific trade during this period, highlighting the importance and impact of Asian commodities in Spanish America.
Additional text
“Meha Priyadarshini’s Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico is structured as a spatial-commercial journey, presenting a ‘typical biography’ … of the world’s first ‘global brand’ (to use Craig Clunas’s oft-cited phrase). … Priyadarshini offers a number of microhistorical anecdotes and interpretations, which are one of the book’s great pleasures.” (Byron Ellsworth Hamann, caareviews.org, October 28, 2020)
“This compact, beautifully written study addresses that neglect, examining every aspect of the trade in a way that makes it essential reading for those interested in art history, material culture, global trade, and the Spanish settlement of the Philippines and Mexico. … An important aspect of this book is that, while it delves into the local—clearly illustrating its incorporation into the global, it also highlights disconnects in the chain of production, transportation, and consumption.” (Heather Dalton, Parergon, Vol. 37 (2), 2020)
Report
"Meha Priyadarshini's Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico is structured as a spatial-commercial journey, presenting a 'typical biography' ... of the world's first 'global brand' (to use Craig Clunas's oft-cited phrase). ... Priyadarshini offers a number of microhistorical anecdotes and interpretations, which are one of the book's great pleasures." (Byron Ellsworth Hamann, caareviews.org, October 28, 2020)
"This compact, beautifully written study addresses that neglect, examining every aspect of the trade in a way that makes it essential reading for those interested in art history, material culture, global trade, and the Spanish settlement of the Philippines and Mexico. ... An important aspect of this book is that, while it delves into the local-clearly illustrating its incorporation into the global, it also highlights disconnects in the chain of production, transportation, and consumption." (Heather Dalton, Parergon, Vol. 37 (2), 2020)
