Page 11 - Met Museum Export Porcelain 2003

What distinguishes many of the blue and 9. Ewer. Chinese (Dutch market),late I7th-early i8th century.Hard paste.
white porcelains dating from this first period H. 63/4in. (I7.Icm). Mark:yu. Helena Woolworth McCann Collection,
of Dutchtrade to the close of the Kangxi Purchase,Winfield Foundation Gift, I979 (I979.284)
period in 1722 is the exceptionally graceful
balance between Western shape and Chinese Blue and white Kangxiporcelainsof this lustrousclarityand vivacity ofpainting
decoration. This was an inadvertent harmony, inspired"chinamania"in the i86os, leading to suchtributesasJames McNeill
as the Europeans had little knowledge of-or Whistler'esvocationof theseventeenth-century"porcelairnoom,"hisPeacockRoomof
interest in-the iconography of the decora- i876-77, designedforFrederickLeylandand now in theFreerGallery,Washington,
tion. The literarysources of narrativescenes, D. C. Themark,yu ('jade"),is oneofseveralsymbolsusedinsteadof reignmarkson
the symbolism of motifs, emblems, even blueand white Kangxi exportporcelains.
flora,were attractivesimply because of their
exoticism. An allegiance to Chinese imagery
would provide the foundation of the com-
pany trade into the nineteenth century, as we
know from the recovered cargoes of such
ships as the Dutch Geldermalsen (1751), the
Swedish Gotheborg (1752), and the English
Diana (1817), witnesses to the regularship-
ment of unpretentious porcelains painted
with increasingly standardized Chinese land-
or riverscapes, fauna, and floral sprays. The
Europeanceramics production complemented
this attraction,artisticallyand at somewhat
comparable cost, through the chinoiseries of
the faience factories and the derivative blue

and white patterns produced by the German
and English porcelain firms.

Withthe fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644
and the onset of the Qing (1644-1911), the
export trade could well have come to an end.
Politicalunrest, which included the destruc-
tion of the Jingdezhen kilns in 1675-they
were rebuiltwithin five years-caused a sus-
pension of official trade after 1647. Butthe
VOC,determined to maintain its foothold and
to continue supplying an established market,
turned to Japan to fill the void. Tradewas
resumed with Chinaafter 1680 with signifi-
cant changes for both East and West. Support
by the Kangxiemperor (r. 1662-1722) occa-
sioned a reorganizationof the Jingdezhen
kilns, leading to improvements in materials

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