Page 12 - Bonhams Roy David's Collection Nov 2014 London
P. 12
Export v Domestic
Roy Davids
Purely ‘Export Porcelain’ supplied to the West is, in large 1894. That the Dutch are known to have asked specifically for
part, as the term is widely used, relatively easily defined: it such pieces demonstrates that they were not the norm of the
has its own category and nomenclature; its history is known Export trade. As in other ways, the Transitional period appears
and largely written; and its sources are pretty clear. General, to have been something of an exception, for not only was the
mostly low-quality, tableware (crockery) was transported by the quality of general production raised at that time, presumably
thousands of pieces and by the shipload most years from the because Imperial potters were more available to the literati
seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. In earlier days it was because of the closure of the Imperial kilns, but, as Volker
mostly supplied by the VOC and the various European East noted, as though it was an aberration from the norm: ‘One of
Indian companies. When better-quality goods were required in the characteristics of the transition ware is that to the purely
the West, including Armorial and crested porcelain and goods Chinese decoration is added a tulip-like, un-Chinese, ornament
with Western designs and in Western taste, it was largely appearing on the necks of flasks and jugs on the bodies of
supplied by Private Traders employing supercargoes. No dishes … so we find transitional and carrack [Kraak] ware
doubt pieces made for the Chinese domestic market, low level, overlap …’ In his recent article in Arts of Asia about Transitional
average and above average (to adopt Mudge’s necessarily wares, Colin Sheaf reinforces the ‘uniqueness’ of the
loose categories), found their way into the slipstreams already Transitional period, both in terms of its quality and innovation,
mentioned, what has been called the ‘China Trade’. Doubtless, made at a time of Imperial weakness, to satisfy the needs and
also, some fine, even exceptional, even a few Imperial high- tastes of the emergent late Ming ‘scholar/professional man’ –
quality wares also came early on by the same routes. Certainly soldiers, merchants and officials. The fact that some pieces of
Queen Mary II had some very fine pieces in her Porcelain Kraak ware have been found in Beijing could indicate no more
Room, for instance, though they do not seem to have been than a packing case was wrongly directed and not returned, or
accorded special status in such collections as far as we can that the Dutch gave them as gifts, or that a Chinese antiquarian
tell. It should be noted that David Howard himself expressed fancied their quirkiness and obtained some, though, of course,
some caution about this: ‘To what extent the Private Trade new evidence may change this view. Tom Lurie reports having
consisted of porcelain is not really clear, although as many as acquired a piece of Kraak porcelain incorporating a Chinese
five of the supercargoes in 1722 are known to have ordered inscription. Roy Davids owns a large blue and white bowl with
armorial dinner services for their families and probably obtained typical Transitional Chinese decoration of the exterior and
a number of others for acquaintances’. Howard made no typical Kraak decoration on the interior.
suggestion that supercargoes brought back Chinese taste or
non-Export wares. Much of the ‘merely fine’, and sometimes In truth, the finer/exceptional pieces of non-Imperially-marked
better pieces are often loosely subsumed under the ‘Export Chinese domestic-market wares in the West loosely form a
Porcelain’ heading. The seventeenth-century distinction category that dealers rather wistfully claim ‘must have been
between ‘coarse’ and ‘fine’, largely undefined even then, is made for Chinese consumption’ and ‘can’t be Export’ – the
not precise enough to do the job that is now needed, and was triumph, to some extent, of hope and instinct over certainty.
probably fairly low, in any case, in terms of the quality it was There was no doubt a limited demand (since it was undeniably
intended to encompass. expensive) for some really finer/exceptional Chinese domestic-
market items in the West before the mid-nineteenth century,
Nor should it really surprise us that the sophisticated among some of those found in English country houses (also European
the Dutch, particular aficionados of blue and white wares, may princely collections, for instance, that of Augustus the Strong)
have developed a taste for the finest of their kind (the blue and the French appreciation of monochrome crackle wares which
white Transitional, some of it with decorative details included they liked to embellish with ormolu mounts, and the Dutch,
with the Dutch in mind such as tulips on the necks of those particularly in their case, for Transitional blue and white.
rolwagens with narrow necks and spreading mouths), without Doubtless, also, some Chinese dealers, always up for a trick,
understanding the very Chinese narrative scenes depicted on may have ordered and supplied such goods to meet this
the pots: this has after all been true in Britain and America as more/very sophisticated Western demand, or in hopes of
well, though at a later date; indeed it is only just recently that encouraging it. Such items were still ‘domestic-market’ wares
more interest in the content and meaning of the scenes has and, while ‘exported’, really cannot and need not be subsumed
begun to be taken in the West, though Chester Holcombe into the category of ‘Export Porcelain’, especially after the mid-
made a plea for it in his introduction to the Hearn catalogue in nineteenth century.
