Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Secondhand Chinoiserie And The Confucian Revolutionary: Colonial America's Decorative Arts "After The Chinese Taste", Kiersten Claire Davis
Secondhand Chinoiserie And The Confucian Revolutionary: Colonial America's Decorative Arts "After The Chinese Taste", Kiersten Claire Davis
Theses and Dissertations
This thesis explores the implications of chinoiserie, or Western creations of Chinese-style decorative arts, upon an eighteenth century colonial American audience. Chinese products such as tea, porcelain, and silk, and goods such as furniture and wallpaper displaying Chinese motifs of distant exotic lands, had become popular commodities in Europe by the eighteenth century. The American colonists, who were primarily culturally British, thus developed a taste for chinoiserie fashions and wares via their European heritage. While most European countries had direct access to the China trade, colonial Americans were banned from any direct contact with the Orient by the British East …