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CHINA ON A PLATE
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Friday,Ìý11:00-11:30 |
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China on a PlateÌýpresented by Lars Tharp |
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Programme details |
FridayÌý7 & 14 September 2007 |
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In Jingdezhen there’s a bridge covered in blue and white plates - just like the ones on Granny’s dresser. Thomas Minton invented Willow Pattern in 1790, imitating Chinese designs imported from the world’s porcelain capital, Jingdezhen. Minton’s imitation was in turn copied there and exported back to Britain in their thousands. Lars Tharp follows the trail linking Jingdezhen to Britain.
For over 1000 years they’ve been making porcelain in Jingdezhen. And for over 400 years they’ve been exporting it to Britain. At one time the town employed over 500,000, serving the domestic and Imperial markets as well as the Foreign Devils (us). By the beginning of the 18th century Europeans were ordering porcelain made in European shapes and styles, which the workers copied from models, drawings and engravings sent out to China. This is how Thomas Minton’s Willow Pattern design made the journey from Staffordshire to Jingdezhen and back again.
Today about 80,000 workers produce the wide range of Jingdezhen’s continuing exports. While cheap and cheerful is now more likely to come from Guangdong province to the south, Jingdezhen remains the key producer of art ceramics, as well as the capital for the fake antique porcelain trade; 80% of the fake emperors’ mark porcelain in circulation was made in Jingdezhen. But the journey by which it is exported is very different…
Lars retraces the pre-Industrial journey of these millions of pieces, crossing a large inland lake requiring traditional firecracker appeasement of the water spirits, and crossing a 25-mile long, humid, mountain pass. Can it still be done in modern China? Lars embarks on an epic and contemporary journey. |
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