Page 11 - Zhangzhou Or Swatow The Collection of Zhangzhou Ware at the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands

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Research on the Zhangzhou (Swatow) Collection at the
Princessehof Museum: Barbara Harrisson (1922-2015)

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There was not much interest in research on “Swatow” porcelain in the 20 century, not only in China proper,
but also among Western academic experts on Chinese ceramics and museum people. John Pope, with his
fascination for the Princessehof collection, was the exception.

In the year 1955, Aga-Oglu for the first time summarized what was known about “Swatow” in the West, and
established a first classification according to the techniques of production, referring to the collection of the
Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan.

However, the first to realize that “Swatow” wares were an important part of Chinese export ceramics, was
Nanne Ottema, who had acquired it for the collection of the Princessehof Museum from Reinier D. Verbeek.
Ottema died in 1955, the year Aga-Ogly raised the Western interest for “Swatow”.

In 1964, Hessel Miedema (1929-2015), at that time curator at the Princessehof Museum, published a first
catalogue of the Princessehof collection of “Swatow” ware and suggested for the first time a typology.
In the year 1977, Barbara Harrisson (1922- 2015), a pioneer in the Western world for the appreciation of
Chinese trade ceramics, became director of the Princessehof Museum. In her book Swatow in het Princessehof,
published in 1979, she catalogued and interpreted the “Swatow” collection, focussing on the questions of
technology and iconography for the first time in a systematic way. In her book Later Chinese Ceramics in
Southeast Asia, published in 1995, she was summing up and modifying some aspects of the results of her former
research.

Ref.: Aga-Oglu 1955; Miedema 1964; Harrisson 1979; Harrisson 1995

Cover of the “Swatow”catalogue by Barbara Harrisson, 1979

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