Page 20 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain, The Getty Museum

England was by no means the only country to
mount Chinese porcelain enthusiastically during this pe-
riod. In the Museo Civico at Bologna, for example, there
is a Ming bowl with silver-gilt mounts, probably of Por-
26
tuguese origin ; other examples could be given. 27
After the founding in 1602 of the highly successful
Dutch East Indies Company, a great deal of the trade in
oriental materials of every sort gradually passed from
Portuguese hands into those of Hollanders, and Dutch
silversmiths began to practice the technique of mount-
ing porcelain. Dutch mounts were usually a good deal
simpler and less imaginative than contemporary English
designs. A typical bowl would be given a simple rim of
silver, linked to the plainly molded foot by means of
strapwork of a simple pierced design. A certain number
of blue-and-white pieces mounted in this way have sur-
vived, and more (and usually grander) examples can be
seen in still lifes by Dutch artists of the period such as
Willem Kalf. 28
It is thus clear that by the middle of the seventeenth
century, the setting of oriental porcelain in mounts of
FIGURE 9. Casket of blue-and-white Chinese porcelain of the Wanli metal of European design was practiced fairly widely.
period with English mounts of silver-gilt, dating from 1570-80. As early as 1611 oriental goods, including porcelain,
Photo courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum, © ROM.
began to appear at the popular Poire de Saint-Germain
in Paris. Soon after this, a contemporary versifier wrote:

Menez-moi chez les Portugais
sity's most prized treasures. Forty years later, a porcelain Nous y verrons a peu de frais
cup with a grayish-blue glaze came into the possession of Les marchandises de la Chine
a certain merchant, Samuel Lennard, and was mounted Nous y verrons Vambre gris
by him with silver-gilt bearing the London hallmark for De beaux ouvrages de vernis
1569-70 and the mark of an unidentified silversmith Et de la porcelaine fine
with the initials FR. Believed to be the earliest fully De cette contree divine
marked piece mounted in England (fig. 7), it is known as Ou plutot de ce paradis. 29
the Lennard cup, from the name of its original owner, and
is today in the collection of the Percival David Founda- Paradoxically, the greater accessibility of Chinese,
tion of the University of London. A particularly notable and later Japanese, porcelain increased rather than di-
group of blue-and-white porcelains of the Wanli period minished interest in this exotic material. It was collected
was mounted in London with silver-gilt for William widely. Well before the end of the seventeenth century,
Cecil, Lord Burghley, Queen Elizabeth's Lord Treasurer; almost every European prince or great nobleman wished
it remained in the possession of his descendants at to have his china cabinet, or Porzellanzimmer (as it was
Burghley House until the beginning of the twentieth cen- called in German lands where a number of them survive).
tury. The entire group was purchased by J. P. Morgan and In such rooms the walls were entirely decorated with
later acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Chinese and Japanese porcelains displayed on brackets
25
York (fig. 8). On New Year's Day 1587, Lord Burghley or overmantels, in cabinets, and along cornices and
presented his sovereign with a bowl of white Chinese shelves, even sometimes on the floor along the base-
porcelain mounted with gold, a rare reversion to medie- boards (fig. 10). At Hampton Court Palace visitors can
val practice. An unusual example of mounting is the still see the remains of such a decorative scheme designed
30
blue-and-white Ming porcelain mounted with silver-gilt by Daniel Marot for Queen Mary n's apartments. In
as a hinged box with a classical figure surmounting the 1978-79, just such an arrangement was shown in the
lid, which is in the Lee collection at the Royal Ontario United States when a replica of part of the Porzellanzim-
Museum (fig. 9). The mounts are of English work and mer of Augustus the Strong of Saxony was constructed
date from around 1570. at the exhibition of works of art from Dresden. 31

I N T R O D U C T I O N 7