Imports and Imitations: The Taste for Japanese Lacquer in Eighteenth-Century China and France

Although Japan was an enigma to most of the eighteenth- century world, imported Japanese lacquers and imitation Japanese- style lacquered objects played significant roles at the Chinese and French courts. In France, no collection surpassed that of Marie Antoinette (r. 1774–92), who inherited dozens of Japanese lacquered caskets from her mother, the Habsburg empress Maria Theresa (r. 1740–80), and subsequently began commissioning elaborate pieces of furniture that incorporated lacquer panels. In Qing dynasty (1644–1911) China, the Yongzheng (r. 1723–35) and Qianlong (r. 1736–95) emperors also collected imported caskets and commissioned imitation Japanese- style lacquers from their palace workshops. Whether in China or France during the eighteenth century, the rulers' shared fascination with Japanese lacquer demonstrates not only the political value of possessing such rare objects, but also the different ways in which the rulers' tastes were met. Investigating the simultaneous taste for and responses to Japanese and Japanese- style lacquers in eighteenth- century China and Europe complicates the binary relationship that often dominates studies of early modern global exchange. This article analyzes the different ways that Chinese and French subjects valued Japanese lacquered objects and, in doing so, shared an interest in a place neither truly understood.