Page 23 - Kraak Porcelain, Jorge Welsh

Name of ship Date of invoice Amount of porcelains
barrel with large dishes
Gouda large porcelain dishes, two broken
pieces
Bantam barrels, each with dishes
, pieces
Roode Leeuw met Pijlen
No porcelain on the cargo list
Wapen van Amsterdam ,
(from Patani)+ , (from Bantam)
Vlissingen ,

Witte Leeuw (sank ) ,

Gelderland (sank ) ,
,
Rotterdam

Mauritius

Dolphyn

Hart

Gouda

Leeuwinne van Jacarta

Mauritius

Walcheren

Generally, two types of Chinese porcelain have been found in the shipwrecks of the

first quarter of the th century. They are shapes used in China and shapes made for export.

In some cases the shapes made for export were slight modifications of ones already exist-

ing in China. Chinese every day shapes include rice and soup bowls, bowls with covers,

small cups, wine cups and small saucer dishes. The plates and dishes listed were usually

‘coarse’ ware (grof) which most likely would have been zhangzhou (Swatow) ware.

Orders by the for specific shapes intended for the western market started relatively

late from about . From onwards the archives show them regularly on order

lists. Due to high demand, mass production of kraak ware was started in Jingdezhen. Kraak

wares were made in shapes specifically ordered for the European market. In particular,

there was popular demand for butter-dishes, plates, mustard-pots, wine jugs and various

shapes of bowls and cups. These documents show that the amounts of porcelain imported

to the Netherlands increased dramatically over the course of the th century, particularly

a er the establishment of a post on the island of Formosa in . This new trading

post allowed the Dutch to order porcelain directly from China instead of depending on the

unreliable junk trade. The invoices of ‘return ships’ list vast amounts of porcelain, such as

, to , pieces. However, those figures diminished significantly in the mid- th

century due to the fall of the Ming dynasty. By internal struggles in China caused trade

with the Chinese to cease. At this point, traders switched to importing from Japan.

The Gelderland
The earliest documented evidence showing that kraak porcelain was brought back on
Dutch ships comes from the logbook of the Dutch vessel, the Gelderland. On its return
journey of – , an illustrator on board made numerous drawings not only of coast-
lines and vegetation but also of porcelain. Why the artist singled out porcelain to illustrate is
unclear. These wares may have been the private property of the captain or one of the o cers
on board. The drawings show a small saucer and a dish with a rounded cavetto and a foliated
rim (typical of early kraak ware), a small klapmuts with broad and narrow panels and a small
bowl (traditionally known as crow cup) (see Fig. ). These kraak porcelain wares are identical