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Abstract

After a long and elaborate production process, a ceramic or porcelain object comes into being as a finished work. Hence, any further handling of this finished work, especially to directly and physically alter it, would immediately arrest one’s attention. A number of research and catalogues are dedicated to the mounting, inscription, and reproduction of Chinese porcelain in different epochs and geographic locations. Such projects are principally committed to reconstructing the historical facts and presenting images of these objects and they provide immensely valuable material for this dissertation. However, scant research has explored the relation between the objects and their social and political contexts in a way that attends to the power system in which they operated. In establishing this relation, this dissertation studies the entrenchment of these artefacts in circuits of power, with a particular focus on the ownership of Chinese porcelain in eighteenth-century Europe and China. This power relation is highly complex, with the possessors discussed in this dissertation having diverse geographic and ethnic origins. By means of four case studies, this dissertation explores how possessors in Europe and China handled Chinese porcelain possession in both concrete and abstract terms. Through their handlings, the possessors intentionally asserted or emphasized their legitimate ownership, and at the same time utilized the porcelain pieces as a medium for the strategic achievement of their aims and functions.