Old Blue Mania: Chinese Blue-and-White Porcelains in the Aesthetic ‘House Beautiful’ c. 1860 to 1900 – Cosmopolitanism and Appropriation

The aesthetic obsession with Chinese blue-and-white porcelain, commonly known as Old Blue, is framed within debates surrounding cosmopolitanism, connoisseurship, and interior décor. This was a fashion led by artists, primarily James McNeill Whistler and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. They transmitted their enthusiasm to their patrons and friends. By the 1870s the obsession for collecting antique porcelains had become a cult, lampooned by cartoonist George du Maurier as Chinamania in Punch. Old Blue was ultimately prized for its hue, both literally and metaphorically, providing a keynote in the House Beautiful, demonstrating the superior visual perception and taste of the aesthete. It connoted distinction and, it will be argued, manliness, despite porcelain’s longstanding feminine associations. The market was dominated by competitive men, mostly businessmen rather than aristocrats. Specific forms were fetichized, the Hawthorn jar becoming a highly prized trophy, while the humble teapot was targeted by satirists to deflate the appreciation of Asian porcelains.