Page 16 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

FIGURE i. Glass bowl of
Persian make with Byzantine
silver-gilt mounts, dating from
the eleventh century. Venice,
Treasury of Saint Mark's.
Photo: Osvaldo Bohm.

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with jewels, was long thought to be of Chinese porcelain 730. Item un pot de pourcellaine, a un ance d argent
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(fig. i). Today it is generally agreed to be glass of Persian blanc et le demourant avec le couvercle garni d argent
origin created under Chinese inspiration. dore; et dessous le couvercle a un esmail de pelit,
Those Far Eastern porcelains that occasionally pesant i marc v onces xv sterlins.
passed into secular hands during the late medieval and 731. Item un autre pot de pourcellaine, avec Vance de
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et
d'ore;
d argent
dessus
Renaissance periods were mounted and treasured as memes 3 garnie doree; pesant i marc i once. le fretelet un
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roze d argent
great rarities. Thus as early as 1365, Louis due d'Anjou
is known to have possessed a bowl of blue-and-white Perhaps of an even earlier date than these was a
porcelain of Yuan dynasty ware which was particularly ewer given the duke in November 1410 (as the inventory
richly mounted with silver-gilt and enamel. It was an tells us) by the anti-pope John xxm (of Gibbonian fame):
object of some size, for it is described in an inventory of "Item une aiguiere de pourcellaine ouvree, le pie, cou-
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1379-80 as an escuelle pour fruiterie. l4f The mount had vercle et biberon de laquelle sont d argent dore." 16 This
a distinctly ecclesiastical flavor, since the foot was sur- piece was evidently not of blue-and-white porcelain but
mounted by six busts of apostles. The silver rim, how- of the white Yuan ware with incised or applied reliefs,
ever, was secular and enameled with hunting scenes. which was exceedingly rare in Europe during this period.
From this rim depended three rings with enameled It may be compared with the Gaignieres-Beckford vase
shields displaying the duke's arms, which were attached mentioned below.
by gilt knobs set with pearls and garnets. Less than a A century later such things were still rare and highly
decade later we learn from the will of Jeanne d'Evreux, prized in France. Thus we find listed amongst Francois I's
queen of Navarre, that she possessed: "Un pot a eaux de possessions at the chateau de Fontainebleau: "Une petite
pierre de purcelleine a un couvercle d* argent et bordee vase de porcelaine avec son couvercle, avec le pied et le
d* argent pesant un marc iiii onces, prisiee iiij francs d'or." biberon d'argent dore." 17
Porcelain must have been becoming a little less rare, It was the same in Italy. Amongst the pieces men-
for a little later, the due d'Anjou's brother, the great tioned in the inventory of Piero de' Medici's Gioie e
Maecenas Jean due de Berry, possessed several pieces of Simile Cose, there are several pieces of Chinese porce-
both mounted and unmounted Chinese porcelain. In the lain including: "Una choppa de porcellana leghata in
inventories of his possessions drawn up between 1401 oro," ls although we do not know at what date this
and 1416, we find mention of: piece entered the Medici collection.

I N T R O D U C T I O N 3