Oxen Treading China Stone in Pits

This painting is from a set of 24 depicting the porcelain industry in China. It shows men using oxen to tread on china stone, one of the two major ingredients for porcelain. The other ingredient was china clay. Europe could not produce true porcelain before the 18th century. Artists targeted paintings such as this at Europeans eager to find out the secrets of porcelain manufacture in China.