“As the wares of celadon porcelain were produced in the Longquan County, in the Zhejiang Province, it became the most valued, and became more generally known as longquan qingci. This is its Chinese name, and it means “greenish porcelain.” However, you might wonder why then, it is known as celadon porcelain in the West. Celadon, the person carrying the name, was the hero of a revered French writer Honore d”Urfe, in his romance L’Astrée, of 1610; Celadon was the lover of the heroine Astrée. Celadon was depicted as a young man who dresses all in green, and this fashion became the rage in most of Europe. It was just about this time that the Chinese porcelain qingci made its way into Paris, and won its first acclaims. Therefore, people began to compare the color of the qingci with the color of Celadon’s suit, and began calling the porcelain “celadon,” which spread to other countries.”
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Now, at last, I know...
European “chinoiserie” afficionados called it that. In this case I’ll give it to the western barbarians for being more grandiloquent in their dubbing.