Monsoon Winds and Ming Porcelains:
Collecting and Displaying
Chinese Ceramics at the Mughal Court
Denise-Marie Teece
Synopsis:
While the porcelain collection donated by the Safavid ruler Shah Abbas to Ardebil, and the massive Ottoman Chinese porcelain collection held in Istanbul’s Topkapı Palace, are well known and relatively well published, the East Asian ceramic collections of South Asia have received less scholarly attention. This talk aims to fill this gap by exploring the reception and display of Chinese porcelain collections at the Mughal courts of South Asia. It also contextualizes Mughal multi-generational ceramic collecting activities within the broader exchange networks of the Indian Ocean world along with the carefully crafted Mughal familial connections to earlier Persianate dynastic rulers.
References:
Chida-Razvi, Mehreen. “From Function to Form: Chini-khana in Safavid and Mughal Architecture.” South Asian Studies 35 (2019) 1: 82–106. 
Das, Asok Kumar. “Chinese Porcelain at the Mughal Court.” Silk Road Art and Archaeology 2 (1991-2): 381–409.
Koch, Ebba. “Jahangir’s Hazelnut and Shah Jahan’s Chini Khana: The Collections of the Mughal Emperors.” In Collecting and Empires: An Historical and Global Perspective, edited by Maia Wellington Gahtan and Eva-Maria Troelenberg, 135–161. London: Turnhout, 2019.
Krahl, Regina. “Porcelain Diplomacy.” In The Mahin Banu ‘Grape’ Dish, Sotheby’s: New York, 18 March 2015: 6–15.
Teece, Denise-Marie. “Monsoon Winds and Ming Porcelains: Chinese Ceramics and their Reception in Early Modern South Asia.” Muqarnas 40 (2024) Forthcoming.
Worksheet:
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Citation:
Denise-Marie Teece, “Monsoon Winds and Ming Porcelains: Collecting and Displaying Chinese Ceramics at the Mughal Court,” Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, published 10 March 2022.
Denise-Marie Teece is an art historian specializing in the art and architecture of the Islamic world and transregional artistic exchange. Assistant Professor of Art History at New York University Abu Dhabi since 2014, she also taught coursework at New York University in New York City. Prior to joining NYUAD, she worked for seven years in the Department of Islamic Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. She also has held positions at the Brooklyn Museum, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, and the Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, and she served as a curatorial consultant to the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. Her current projects include a study of the Gulf and Indian Ocean World reception of Chinese porcelains, and the preparation of a website dedicated to this theme.