Page 12 - Chinese Export Porcelain Art, MET MUSEUM 2003

at the time, the wood models would have
copied examples in other materials, most
likely pewter or silver. Wood models are
referred to intermittently by the Dutch as late

as 1757 (and once, in 1710, by the English),
but none is known to have survived and
evidence of their use can only be inferred
(figs. 5, 6). Other materials also came into

play: plates with flat, wide rims in imitation of
a Dutch pewter model were requested by the
VOC in 1634, and earthenware forms were
supplied for the Japan trade in 1661. Several
later shapes have been traced directly or
indirectly to glass (figs. 6, 7). With the rise of
European ceramics factories, export shapes
were increasingly drawn from the pottery
repertoire, in a practice of trading up from
a lesser material that would be followed
through the eighteenth century (figs. 34, 37).
With the issue of utility in hand, the Dutch
turned to the matter of decoration. European
customers may have demanded Western
shapes to suit their domestic customs, but at
the same time they clung to the unfamiliar
charm of Chinese decorative style. In 1635
and again in 1637 the VOC insisted on orna-
ment "in the Chinese manner and in the

custom of their country," further observing
that "Dutch paintings, flower or leafwork ...

should be excused entirely, because the Dutch
paintings on porcelain are not considered
strange nor rare." This injunction notwith-
standing, Western motifs began to infiltrate 7. Bottle. Chinese (Continental market), ca. I7I5-25. Hard paste. H. 9'/2 in.
Chinese decorative schemes without disturb- (24.I cm). Helena Woolworth McCann Collection, Purchase, Winfield
Foundation Gift, 1982 (1982.27)
ing their rhythm: tulips stretched up the long
necks of bottles, Western gabled buildings
The serene rhythm of the spiraling bands imitates the opaque white threads of
were set in landscapes with Chinese figures Venetian latticino glass of the late sixteenth century. This decorative
technique
(fig. 4), friezes were punctuated by grotesque was well known in the Netherlands in the early i6oos through Italian emigre
and Dutch
masks. These and other decorative incursions glassworkers copies and continued in practice into the eighteenth
make it clear that a mechanism for receiving century. Thepoint of departurefor this example is likely to have been a
model.
contemporaneous
and employing Western images was well
established by the VOC by the mid-1630s.

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