Page 275 - Decorative Arts, Part II: Far Eastern Ceramics and Paintings, Persian and Indian Rugs and Carpets

Hungary in i38i. 4 Two Chinese celadon bowls have surviving mounts in the European style of the late
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which is quite restrained in comparison with the metalwork styles of
succeeding centuries. 5
The reasons for the widespread use of mounts varied according to time and place. In the fourteenth,
fifteenth, and part of the sixteenth centuries, imported vessels were displayed as rarities in silver, silver-gilt, and
even gold settings, much like precious gems. Curiosities, such as ostrich eggs and nautilus shells, were similarly
treated. The porcelain material itself was a wonder to Europeans, who did not yet know the technical nature of
its material and manufacture. Mounts also served as protection for these precious objects and could conceal
damage or reinforce restorations. In the early period of collecting, such objects were the treasures of royal and
noble families, possibly including the Elizabethan court. Five such pieces are in the Metropolitan Museum of
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Art, New York. Conversion of the vessels to practical use was not intended.
Chinese porcelain was still a rarity in Europe in the sixteenth century. At first it came to England indi-
rectly through the Red Sea and Persian Gulf, thence by caravan to the Mediterranean, where Venice controlled
the trade, distributing goods to England and other European countries. Eventually, England obtained trading
rights at Constantinople and so had a more direct connection to Asia. Beginning in the late fifteenth century
and continuing throughout the sixteenth, Portugal and later Spain—with the opening of sea routes around the
Cape of Good Hope—shipped large quantities of porcelain to Europe. Lisbon became an important trade cen-
ter for East Asian goods. By the seventeenth century the Dutch had entered the trade. They became successful
competitors, and Amsterdam superseded Lisbon as a market. From that time, availability of Far Eastern porce-
lain increased, as did demand. The Dutch mounted porcelain for practical rather than decorative purposes—to
enhance the usefulness of teapots and tankards. Dutch and Flemish seventeenth-century paintings of bourgeois
interiors frequently show mounted pieces, indicating that the expanding burgher class acquired these vessels,
and not only the wealthy elite.
By the eighteenth century, as more and more Chinese porcelain reached the West and a larger segment
of society could own it, the mounter-craftsman was required to modify the exotic appearance of these wares
with mounts that were integrated with the interior design of the time. The aim was to coordinate all the
lavish decoration of a room, and metal mounts for porcelains echo design elements in contemporary furni-
ture ormolu.
A variety of economic, social, and even religious factors entered into the evolution of taste and enthu-
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siasm for Chinese objects. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, all of Western Europe shared the taste
for imported Asian goods. Only some of the Chinese porcelain was destined for metal mounts, but England,
Holland, Germany, Italy, and especially France produced them extensively. What had previously been the taste
of royalty and nobility had by now become a European fashion, a prevailing decorative style. Asian imports
other than porcelain were also increasingly in demand, especially lacquer, tea, silk, and wallpaper. Chinoiserie,
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the exotic style influenced by these imports, extended to architecture, garden design, and entertainment. The
fanciful Western conception of remote Cathay as it never was, ephemeral and romantic, with small figures in
imaginary delicate settings of pagodas and parasols, permeated the arts and society. In France the fashion
reached its high point in the mid-eighteenth century, with the rococo style and the court of Louis XV. The style
of mounts changed from baroque to rococo as the style of other decorative arts evolved. The rococo style in
France, much influenced by the imported Asian art, was easily adaptable to the elaborate mounts, which found
a place not only in the royal cabinets but also in domestic decoration.
In the eighteenth century, gilt bronze became the usual metal for mounting. It was less costly than gold
or silver for the now readily available imported porcelains. Ormolu on furniture and other objects, gilding on
wall panels, and Asian porcelain in glittering metal mounts combined naturally in their settings.
Neoclassicism, which became popular after the French Revolution, contributed to the gradual decline
in popularity of imported Asian wares and mounted pieces in particular, although there are some examples of
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mounts that reflect the change in style. In addition, there were economic pressures to patronize the now well-
developed ceramic industry of Europe, rather than turning to imports. After a period of retrenchment and
despite some reaction against objects of French frivolity, it was collectors like Henry Clay Frick and Henry
Walters, especially in the late nineteenth century, who returned mounted porcelains to favor. 10

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