Enterprise as a Carrier of Culture by Hirochika Nakamaki & Koichiro Hioki & Noriya Sumihara & Izumi Mitsui

Author:Hirochika Nakamaki & Koichiro Hioki & Noriya Sumihara & Izumi Mitsui
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9789811371936
Publisher: Springer Singapore

5.5.2 The Process of Identification as Family Porcelain

As Kopytoff argues, family porcelain also has its own social biography. Writing the biography of object is an investigation not of the identity of the object but of social relations. According to the results of my research shown in Tables 5.2, 5.3, 5.4 and 5.5 and Tables 5.7, 5.8 and 5.9, people are given porcelain for their 21st birthday, as an engagement or wedding present, on retirement and on the death of relatives. The birth of family porcelain is thus often related to family rituals or ceremonies. It may include tea sets, cups and saucers, dinner services, plates and figurines. Some informants purchased royal commemorative mugs and plates or Staffordshire figurines themselves in order to make their own collections, and some purchased new dinner services to hand down to their children in the future. This is also a way of beginning a collection of family porcelain.

Family porcelain continues its existence for several generations within one family. Although McCracken claims that each family is free to choose its consumer goods and that items like plates rarely survive for three generations nowadays, there were quite a number of items of family porcelain in this case study which were described as being passed on from grandparents. Family porcelain has participated in important rituals in the past of the family and also concerns the present owner’s household. A tea set, for example, given to PT, a 68-year-old woman, by her grandmother (Table 5.2), was originally given to PT’s grandmother as her wedding present over 100 years ago. It is now on display in a glass cabinet and was used for PT’s grandchildren’s christening by PT. This shows that the tea set has survived for at least three generations and has links with five generations in the family.

At the end of its life, unless it is broken, lost or stolen, family porcelain is sold into antique markets as a “terminal commodity” or is again given to another person who is not a member of the family. Then, it may or may not have an afterlife as family porcelain in a different family.

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