Page 13 - Women Collectors and the Rise of the Porcelain Cabinet (Collecting history in Europe)

pyramid or tulip vase, which brought the scent of the same time. Not merely establishments for
fresh fl owers into the house, also began its triumphal consuming luxury drinks, they also helped suspend
advance. Mary II was particularly instrumental class distinctions by being open to every man and
in popularising this form of vase, which, like the developed into places for public political debate.
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concept behind the Trianon, combined porcelain or In parallel to this, women developed a similar type
faience with natural objects (see Suzanne Lambooy’s of institution with a comparable social function: the
Chapter 13 of this book). 86 coffee party. This type of female social gathering
usually took place in the (chinoiserie) cabinet (Fig.
The history of how rooms for the display of porcelain 8). Since the new hot drinks required suitable vessels
collections proliferated reveals that they quickly came for their preparation and consumption, it was logical
to be seen as an element of Dutch culture and were to use the containers produced in their countries of
therefore adopted in places where there was a desire origin. Asian porcelain, heat-resistant and neutral in
to live or build in a Dutch manner, or to demonstrate taste, therefore served not only as display items but
solidarity with the Netherlands. also as appropriate receptacles for these expensive
luxury drinks. As both the ingredients and the
Until about 1700, rooms housing porcelain and vessels were extremely costly, the ‘housewife’, i.e.
faience collections had female connotations. Even the princess or a lady-in-waiting, took personal
92
though Frederick I of Prussia had shown an interest responsibility for preparing the drinks. Small
in porcelain, in that he had fi nanced the conversion coffee or tea kitchens were often created within the
and expansion of the rooms of his female relatives, ladies’ apartments specifi cally for this purpose. The
the work was nevertheless done in the names of the luxurious character of the drinks and the setting,
women concerned. Only from the 1690s onwards did the intimate atmosphere and the privilege of being
men gradually begin to set up their own porcelain admitted to an illustrious circle and served by the
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cabinets, which, at least in France and England, was princess herself, elevated tea and coffee consumption
met with criticism: the attitude being that the Chinese to the status of a highly symbolic act of female
style was ‘effeminate’. 88 benefaction. Collecting porcelain and drinking tea
or coffee, in specifi cally designated rooms, were
This raises the question as to why porcelain in the considered marks of a highly prestigious lifestyle and
17 century was regarded as a status symbol and were regarded as explicitly female pastimes.
th
item for collection suitable only for women. There
are three possible mutually dependent explanations: This use of Asian porcelain led to a substantial
the growing consumption of tea and coffee; the increase in the amount of porcelain owned by women,
classifi cation of porcelain as kitchenware and hence facilitated in many places by the existing inheritance
th
an element of the female realm; and inheritance laws. laws. In the fi nal third of the 17 century considerably
more women than men possessed large porcelain
In the second half of the 17 century the drinking of collections. A women’s encyclopaedia entitled
th
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chocolate, tea and coffee spread widely throughout Frauenzimmer-Lexicon, published in 1715, lists the
Europe. After the English East India Company was objects that in German states were legally counted as
granted a monopoly on the tea trade in 1669, tea part of a woman’s personal property and therefore
quickly became the most popular drink in the British inherited by the female line. These objects made up
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Isles. Partly because of the Portuguese wife of what was known as the Gerade: 94
Charles II, Catherine of Braganza (1638–1705), who
Gerade is a collective term for all the personal
played a major role in popularising tea among the
possessions and objects that according to the Saxon laws
British aristocracy, tea drinking came to be associated are inherited by and belong to the deceased man’s wife,
95
with England, the nobility, the role of women and or his daughters, and thereafter the next female relative.
domesticity. The domestic ritual of the tea ceremony, Gerade objects are those items of female jewellery, < Fig. 7
celebrated by women, created a setting characterised clothing and equipment that are passed on in the female Johann Michael Döbel,
étagère from the porcelain
lineage prior to the division of the estate after the man’s
by refi ned manners, genteel conversation, composure cabinet at Oranienburg
death and which specifi cally belong to them.
96
90
and relaxation. On the Continent, too, tea was castle, c.1695. Carved,
lacquered and gilded
considered primarily a woman’s drink. The entry lists items such as clothing, jewellery, wood. Stiftung Preußische
books, certain items of furniture such as cupboards, Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-
Brandenburg, Schloss
In the rest of Europe, the new social institution candlesticks, mirrors, various textiles, table and
Oranienburg, inv. no. IV 2245.
of the coffee house came into being at around bed linen, as well as household and needlework Photo: Wolfgang Pfauder.

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