Page 16 - Mounted Oriental Porcelain Getty Museum

FIGURE i. Glass bowlof
with jewels, was long thought to be of Chinese porcelain
(fig. i). Today it is generally agreed to be glass of Persian
origin created under Chinese inspiration.
Those Far Eastern porcelains that occasionally
passed into secular hands during the late medieval and
Renaissance periods were mounted and treasured as
great rarities. Thus as early as 1365, Louis due d'Anjou
is known to have possessed a bowl of blue-and-white
porcelain of Yuan dynasty ware which was particularly
richly mounted with silver-gilt and enamel. It was an
object of some size, for it is described in an inventory of
1379-80 as an escuelle pour fruiterie.l4f The mount had
a distinctly ecclesiastical flavor, since the foot was sur-
mounted by six busts of apostles. The silver rim, how-
ever, was secular and enameled with hunting scenes.
From this rim depended three rings with enameled
shields displaying the duke's arms, which were attached
by gilt knobs set with pearls and garnets. Less than a
decade later we learn from the will of Jeanne d'Evreux,
queen of Navarre, that she possessed: "Un pot a eaux de
pierre de purcelleine a un couvercle d*argent et bordee
d*argent pesant un marc iiii onces, prisiee iiij francs d'or."
Porcelain must have been becoming a little less rare,
for a little later, the due d'Anjou's brother, the great
Maecenas Jean due de Berry, possessed several pieces of
both mounted and unmounted Chinese porcelain. In the
inventories of his possessions drawn up between 1401
and 1416, we find mention of:
Persian make with Byzantine
silver-gilt mounts, dating from
the eleventh century. Venice,
Treasury of Saint Mark's.
Photo: Osvaldo Bohm.
730. Item un pot de pourcellaine,a un ance d3argent
blanc et le demourant avec le couvercle garni d3argent
dore; et dessous le couvercle a un esmail de pelit,
pesant i marc v onces xv sterlins.
731. Item un autre pot de pourcellaine, avec Vance de
memes garnie d3argent d'ore; et dessus le fretelet un
roze d3argent doree; pesant i marc i once.15
Perhaps of an even earlier date than these was a
ewer given the duke in November 1410 (as the inventory
tells us) by the anti-pope John xxm (of Gibbonian fame):
"Item une aiguiere de pourcellaine ouvree, le pie, cou-
vercle et biberon de laquelle sont d3argent dore."16 This
piece was evidently not of blue-and-white porcelain but
of the white Yuan ware with incised or applied reliefs,
which was exceedingly rare in Europe during this period.
It may be compared with the Gaignieres-Beckford vase
mentioned below.
A century later such things were still rare and highly
prized in France. Thus we find listed amongst Francois I's
possessions at the chateau de Fontainebleau: "Une petite
vase de porcelaine avec son couvercle, avec le pied et le
biberon d'argent dore."17
It was the same in Italy. Amongst the pieces men-
tioned in the inventory of Piero de' Medici's Gioie e
Simile Cose, there are several pieces of Chinese porce-
lain including: "Una choppa de porcellana leghata in
oro,"ls although we do not know at what date this
piece entered the Medici collection.
INTRODUCTION 3