Chapter Fifteen
Selling India and China in Eighteenth-Century Paris
Natacha Coquery
In this chapter, I endeavour to show how Parisian shopkeepers played a crucial role in the diffusion of ‘oriental’ goods on the domestic market. This means understanding how productive innovation, consumption and distribution were connected. One way of understanding this is to examine how shopkeepers advertised their ‘new’ products (which sometimes were neither new nor genuine) to a broad range of clients. Another way is to track goods in their account books.
Shopkeepers, as intermediaries between producers and consumers, were perhaps centre-stage among market actors—as important as large trading companies, such as the Company of the Indies.[1] And Paris was quite a good stage. Since the Middle Ages, the French capital has been one of the major centres of economic activity in Europe. It was, in the Eighteenth Century, a key place in the world luxury market, producing and marketing silverware and jewellery, fine timepieces, bookbindings, textiles and so on.[2] Like London, Paris was celebrated for its high concentration of artists and craftsmen.
Trade in Paris consists particularly of useful, fashionable and pleasant objects, such as furniture, jewellery, timepieces, bronzes, gilding, porcelain, and a mass of other precious objects that we shall describe as accurately as possible[3]
Carolyn Sargentson and Guillaume Glorieux have shown how diverse suppliers for individual consumers were, and how hundreds of objects were piled up in the most famous haberdasheries, such as Gersaint, Lazare Duvaux, Granchez, and Poirier & Daguerre.[4] Their commercial success depended on their ability to meet different customers’ expectations or needs, and to react quickly and flexibly to changing market requirements. They were on the lookout for novelty and fashion. Gersaint, for example, began his commercial career in 1718 as an art dealer on the Pont Notre-Dame, derisively known as ‘The Bridge of Bad Paintings’ (‘Le Pont aux croutes’). Beginning in the mid-1730s, Gersaint shifted its commercial activities towards exotic products and curios, particularly Chinese ones; in the 1730s, the Chinese trend was well under way. Like others, Geraint changed his shop sign in 1740, from the conventional ‘Au Grand Monarque’ (‘The Great Monarch’) to the more attractive ‘À La Pagode’ (‘The Pagoda’).[5] Gersaint’s inventory included about 3,000 pieces of porcelain, amounting to approximately 30 types of objects, both functional and decorative. Among Chinese articles, some were rather cheap consumer goods (costing on average six livres each), such as Chinese figurines and pagodas, and utility chinaware: sugar boxes, milk jugs, vases or chamber pots. There were also high-price items, such as porcelain, tea, coffee or chocolate sets presented on a lacquered tray (100 livres), lacquered furniture (150 livres) and so on. Without being an expert in this sector, the goldsmith and jeweller Agard, another well-known dealer, also sold Chinese and Indian goods.[6] His inventory lists four types of items: paintings; vases and terracotta figurines; prints, drawings, natural-history objects, including some ‘Chinese clothes’; porcelain and curios, such as Chinese or Indian dragons, cups and saucers, teapots, urns and so on.
Many nameless individuals—shopkeepers, peddlers, dealers, stallholders and so on—worked alongside celebrities, not to mention parallel networks.[7] Such anonymous tradesmen were less well-know and less talented, but they nevertheless had a powerful impact in spreading new behaviours and consumer patterns, because they were numerous and active.[8] Indeed, what is striking is how many shopkeepers sold Chinese and Indian goods: these products were not reserved for the few. Haberdashers and cloth dealers, as well as upholsterers, fan makers, jewellers, mechanics, wigmakers, perfumers, confectioners, grocers, papermakers, gilders, painters, founders, ‘tabletiers’ and ivory workers, and wallpaper makers sold exotic goods. Numerous sources enable us to trace this contagious ‘attraction’ with great accuracy. Like guidebooks and newspapers, almanacs became increasingly common throughout the second half of the Eighteenth Century.[9] Almanacs were an old literary genre, dating back to medieval times. What was new was that a number of them became dedicated to craft, industrial and commercial activities; trade almanacs appeared in the late 1760s. At the same time, another medium began to flourish, published in Paris and in approximately 50 provincial towns, entitled ‘Affiches, Annonces et Avis Divers’.[10] These newspapers were no more than plain information lists, similar to classified ads and lacking in drafting quality. The local editor juxtaposed real estate advertisements, proceedings (of books, performances, scientific experiences, and so on), market prices, the latest inventions, and so on. A large part of the ‘Affiches’ was devoted to business and trade, particularly in the ‘Avis Divers’, an advertising list included in the last section. Even the guidebooks began to explore craft, industrial and commercial activities. Promoting economic information was a new phenomenon for guidebooks, which until then had focused on an archaeological and historical overview of cities. In the 1780s, guidebooks became interested in business information. All these sorts of media—almanacs, newspapers and guidebooks—contained many advertisements that made both shopkeepers and products visible. This feature reflected the expanding market and especially the growing impact of small trade and consumption. Shopkeepers quickly understood the growing broadcast role of media, since consumers might fear novelty. Indeed, new items struggled to find a market.[11] It takes time and persuasive power to change the status of an object from a rare to an everyday purchase. Moreover, this process differs among different social levels. Therefore, production, trade adjustment measures, and the flow of information between producers, retailers and consumers are significant. For these reasons, advertising exemplifies how the market for Chinese and Indian goods moved and expanded.
The frequency of terms such as ‘des Indes’ (from India), ‘Indiennes’ (Indian cloth), ‘de la Chine’ (from China), ‘à la chinoise’ (Chinese), and more rarely ‘japonais’ (from Japan), reveals the commercial success and the demand for these products. Names of exotic fabrics are often quoted: ‘Peking’, ‘Nanking’, ‘Persian’, ‘circaka’ or ‘canadaris’, as shown on an invoice by the mercier Thibaud, owner of ‘A l’empereur’ (Figure 14.1), and arrack or tea is often mentioned. Shopkeepers hurriedly adopted the exotic market trend, thereby contributing to its increased diffusion. Gersaint was not the only one to change his shop sign, because such signs were a powerful advertising tool. Others included ‘À la Flotte des Indes’ (‘The Indian Fleet’), a grocer, and a jeweller; ‘Au Roi des Indes’ (‘The King of India’); ‘Au Port de L’Orient’ (‘The Port of Lorient’, with a play on the French word ‘Orient’ and the French town of Lorient), a haberdashery; ‘Au Corail des Indes’ (‘Indian Coral’), a ‘rocailleur’ or stone carver; and ‘Au roi de Perse’ (‘The King of Persia’), a cloth merchant (See Figure 14.2). Advertisements highlighted grades of quality; premium products and lower-quality varieties were apparently available. Here are a few examples taken from a long list in the clothing sector:
Indian muslins of all grades[12]
Indian fabrics of all grades and types[13]
Shop selling Indian handkerchiefs of the rarest quality[14]
One of the most famous and best-stocked Shops dealing in Chinese and Indian fabrics for suits, dresses and upholstery for furniture […]; Peking, […], printed [and] Persian gauze, […], muslins[15]
Indian fabric was in demand and more accessible, but remained prestigious. Most of the 11 shops specializing in Indian and other precious fabrics (‘Marchands d’étoffes de soie des Indes et autres Étoffes précieuses’) quoted by the Almanach du Dauphin in 1777, chose to focus on their foreign origin:
Dealing, for wholesale or retail, in foreign fabrics, Persian, painted canvas, Indian […], fabrics from India for dresses …[16]
Very well-stocked shop dealing in new embroidered wares from China, of very good taste.[17]
Fabrics were far from the only wares lauded as Indian or Chinese: gourmet food, wallpapers, porcelain [Figure 14.3], and more, were also advertised as such:
Dealing, for wholesale or retail, in all sorts of spices or druggists’ merchandise […] and generally anything involving trade with the Indies and China.[18]
Excellent arrack from the Indies …[19]
Indian tea…[20]
Porcelain ware: pagodas from China, vases, flowerpots […] Nothing is less settled than the price of these sorts of things; generally, they are expensive.[21]
Porcelain, and generally, all sorts of porcelain from China and the Indies.[22]
What was the exact meaning of the terms ‘from India and China’? These terms gave no guarantee of a product’s origin. First, geographic boundaries were quite vague. Second, the terms were mainly used as a selling point. From a commercial point of view, the dictionary definitions of ‘India’ covered not only India, but also China and Japan. Thus, in his trade dictionary, Savary des Bruslons wrote:
East India, or rather the East Indies. This large portion of Asia comprises not only Hindustan, or India proper, but also the two peninsulas on either side of the Ganges, all the islands of the Indian Ocean, Ceylon, the Maldives, the Sunda Islands, the Maluku Islands, even China and Japan; lastly, everything to the East of Persia, to the South of Great Tartary all the way to the South Sea.[23]
Diderot and d’Alembert’s Encyclopaedia did the same thing, despite the author’s complaint:
[The Indies] comprise four large parts of Asia, to wit, Hindustan, the peninsula within the River Ganges, the peninsula beyond the River Ganges, & the islands of the Indian Ocean […] When speaking only of trade, the name East Indies also comprises Tonkin, China, & Japan; but properly speaking, these vast countries, the Philippines, or even less so the Mariana Islands, should not belong to the East Indies, as they go well beyond[24]
In dictionaries, the term ‘from India’ came to mean ‘in the Indian style’, and nothing more. For the Académie Française dictionary, ‘The name [indienne] became appellative, being the word for all kinds of coloured cotton fabrics [toiles peintes]’.[25] Therefore, the word meant both genuine and imitated products. Antoine Furetière and Savary des Bruslons clearly expressed the dual meaning in the entry ‘Indienne’:
Dressing gown in the Indian fashion, which has become fashionable, either because it is simply tailored in the Indian fashion with very broad sleeves, or because it is made of fabrics from the Indies, printed or varied in colours or motifs, as are the fabrics also known as Indian, & which are copied in France, which are made of very fine wool, or fine cotton thread.[26]
Dressing gown for men or women, made out of these cotton fabrics painted in various colours and motifs, which come from the East Indies. Also called Indian are the very fabrics that these dressing gowns are made of, either because they were made and printed in the Indies, or because they were imitated and made in Europe[27]
What is most striking about these advertisements is how they make no effort to hide the fact that these objects are imitations; rather, they emphasise the skill used in making fakes. Advertising reveals that many products claiming to be ‘Indian’ or ‘Chinese’ were mere imitations. This thereby reveals both the rapid expansion in the domestic production of calico and printed fabrics, porcelain or wallpapers, and a new role assumed by shopkeepers, stimulating demand in order to develop nascent markets. The famous Réveillon was not the only wallpaper maker who adapted his production to consumers’ demand:
Shop dealing in Paper, wholesale, printed and Chinese[28]
Wallpaper shop imitating Chinese wallpapers[29]
Merchant Manufacturer of Paper for Walls […] imitating the Damask, Moires, Peking, Persian, Indian, Gros-de-Tours, and all possible Fabrics in the most novel designs, where one can also find a wide assortment of Chinese Papers with figures, and hand-painted flowers[30]
printed [in] all sorts of silk fabrics, in the Peking fashion, with gold and silver appliqué edging, leafing, imitation embroidery[31]
Apart from these ‘classic’ exotic goods, advertising inventiveness extended to a large variety of sometimes unlikely products, such as ‘Chinese’ razors or mills. One may ask just how Chinese these were. Such is the strength of fashion.
Razor straps from China, designed by Sir Lami[32]
has just invented a Chinese Mill that, by way of its shape, can catch the wind in any direction.[33]
Imitation and invention were closely connected in luxury and semi-luxury production, as Maxine Berg has shown.[34] Shopkeepers and craftsmen used advertising to proclaim skill, especially when creating imitations that were indistinguishable from the original, or even better: ‘[she] paints designs on silk and gauze much better than articles from China’.[35] The porcelain and china sectors were particularly well-developed:
Manufacture of porcelains. Located in the town of Sèvres; the wares that are produced perfectly imitate Chinese porcelain.[36]
runs a sizeable factory for platters, plates and other vases in Japanned faience, a sort of porcelain …[37]
Advertisements emphasised the links between dexterity, imitation, fakes and inventiveness. This reflected the thinking of both consumers and shopkeepers:
runs a Royal Manufacture for Varnishes, on metals, to [...] embellish and give vases in tole and tin the appearance of precious furnishings from China[38]
owns a Chinese varnish that imitates moulded gold, which resists the harm of air and even acid, and which lasts over twenty years without changing[39]
Quite on the contrary, other dealers chose to emphasise a product’s authenticity, using words like ‘true’ or ‘genuine’, as did this haberdasher: ‘Sells […] genuine Persians from the Indies and England in pieces’.[40] (Figure 14.4, ‘The Golden Apple’).
Genuine yellow tea from China[41]
Shop deals in genuine Papers from the Indies in all sizes, with Landscapes, Figures, Flowers and Birds to decorate Dessert trays, Door coverings, Windscreens and Screens[42]
In fact, for the most part, what they actually meant was to insist upon was true invention, like this ‘true English varnish […] that perfectly imitates the most beautiful gilding […] and the most beautiful China black’. This was as fake as most ‘exotic’ products:
True English Varnish from Sir Torogood […] that perfectly imitates the most beautiful metal gilding, and the most beautiful China black.[43]
Sells the true and perfect Indian Crimson, whose Indian father gave him the secret before his death[44]
For craftsmen, repairs were an important part of their business activity, particularly for the use of porcelain from India and furniture from China.[45] The same goes for second-hand goods (known as ‘hazard’):