Porcelain on telly
On Monday I was flipping through the channels looking for a violent thriller to pass the last hour before bed, and came across a riveting programme by Lars Tharp (?), familiar from the Antiques Road Show, on the porcelain trade in C18th. He took the journey that the porcelain transporters would have travelled from the site of production in the heart of China, near the dangerous kaolin mines, to the port from where it was dispatched to Europe. Arduous! Over rivers with swiftly changing tides, across heavily wooded hills and valleys, even through a specially cut mountain pass. Europeans were forbidden to go inland, remaining for months at a time in a sort of ghetto-port, and the whole process of production and obtainment thus became even more mythical and mysterious.
I liked this ‘Scottish’ plate with its wonky drawing, the soldier looking nervously at the piper. The quality of photos is awful as they are from the TV screen.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b015sttj/
Also intriguing was this modern river-boat with its mysterious blue-tiled roof – I’d love to know what this is for! The roof seems so much more substantial than the boat beneath it.
