Page 27 - Metropolitan Museum Collection September 2016

FAMILLE VERTE PORCELAIN Lot 903
25
Rose Kerr

The evocative name “famille verte” is used to describe refned porcelain
decorated in translucent enamels, in which tones of green predominate. It is
a purely Western term, not used in China, where the palette is commonly
called yingcai 硬彩 “hard colours” (contrasting with the “soft colours” 軟
彩 of famille rose).1 The description “famille verte” was coined in 1862
by a French clerk and amateur painter called Albert Jacquemart, and a
French archaeologist named Edmond Le Blant. They wrote a book called
Histoire artistique, industrielle et commerciale de la porcelaine, published in Paris
and illustrated with etchings.2 In that era many Europeans and North
Americans collected famille verte porcelains, which were highly regarded.
This is demonstrated by a group of wares in this catalogue, that were
purchased by subscription for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1879,
from the collection of Samuel Putnam Avery (1822–1904). Mr Avery was a
renowned American connoisseur and art dealer, who in 1867 was appointed
commissioner in charge of the American art department of the Exposition
Universelle in Paris. He was a founder, and for a long time a Trustee, of
the Metropolitan Museum. Thus his predeliction for famille verte perfectly
exemplifes the collecting habits of a wealthy and well-connected man,
conversant with the requirements of taste established by French connoisseurs.

Famille verte porcelains had frst entered Europe as items of trade in the late
17th century and early 18th centuries. Large objects acted as display pieces,
for example as garnitures to place above doorways and on mantelpieces.
Decorative items such as lanterns and ewers were placed around the rooms
of the well-to-do, while multiple runs of objects such as plates and teacups
with saucers were made for dining and drinking. Starting in the early 19th
century, export porcelains started to become collectable items, so that by
1860 many objects had risen above the designation of household furnishings.
Aesthetes and arbiters of taste including William Morris, Dante Gabriel
Rossetti and James Abbott McNeill Whistler collected and admired the best
Kangxi period wares.3 This was long before the time when ceramics were
dug up and exported from China. The famille verte palette (and related famille
jaune and famille noire) was revived in the nineteenth century, when Western
taste for the porcelains was at its height.

Their predilection is easy to understand when one studies the subtle, intricate
painting on larger pieces such as lot 907 in the present sale.

The painter’s brush was deployed with calligraphic dexterity for nuanced
outlines, flled with jewel-like colours. Four distinct tones of green can be
seen in the patterns, which are exquisite in their detail. The dishes belonged
to the antiquarian W.B. Osgood Field, who collected books, coins, ceramics
and other treasures.