Page 44 - Sothebys Fine Japanese Art London, November 2018

JAPANESE PORCELAIN
AT THE ENGLISH COURT

The Dutch East India Company had already begun Stadtholder, William of Orange, in 1677. She became
the importation of Japanese porcelain shortly a fanatical gardener and patron of the Delft facto-
before Charles II ascended the English throne. His ries. It was from these factories that many pieces
astute marriage to Catherine of Braganza ensured were sent to Japan for copying.
safe harbour for the English trading posts and his In 1688 William III and Mary II ascended the
royal patronage enabled the English East India English throne, which led to an avalanche of porce-
Company to flourish. lain descending on the English interior. Fashionable
Increasing trade to the Far East led to Javanese ladies, who mimicked the Queen’s mania for China
ambassadors arriving at court in 1682. They were were said to have ruined their families and estates
entertained by the minister, John Maitland, Duke of with the expense of it.
Lauderdale. Lauderdale’s apartments at Ham were In 1703 the émigré Huguenot, Daniel Marot
designed by William Samwell, the King’s architect (d. 1732), architect to William of Orange, published
and were furnished in the Oriental manner with lac- ‘Oeuvres’ or Works in Architecture, which helped to
quered and ‘Japanned’ cabinets, screens, tables and popularise the William and Mary style and the fash-
mirrors and were richly embellished with porcelain, ion of furnishing with porcelain.
including Japanese (see lot 56). Mary, with the assistance of Hans William
In 1685 Charles was succeeded by James II, a Bentinck, pursued this passion at Kensington Palace.
monarch at the centre of porcelain collecting. He In 1697 and 1699 inventories of Kensington Palace,
was said to have astounded the court at Versailles drawn up by William III’s valet de chambre, list the
with his knowledge of Asian ceramics. After cen- display of almost a thousand pieces of Asian ceramics
turies of blue and white, the Kakiemon wares, and Delft. These included Kakiemon and Kakiemon
enamelled with brightly coloured flowers caused related pieces. There were 193 pieces in one bed-
considerable delight and it contrasted well against chamber, arranged in pyramidical schemes above the
the black ebonised or ‘Japanned’ furnishings. James doors, including ‘basins of 8 square each, with branch-
II’s interest in porcelain was fostered by his daugh- es and birds on them of red, green and blue’ (possibly,
ter, Mary Stuart, through her marriage to the Dutch similar to the octagonal bowl, see lot 64)

50
AN ARITA DISH For similar examples in the Ashmolean Museum Oxford
EDO PERIOD, LATE 17TH CENTURY see John Ayers, Oliver Impey and J.V.G. Mallet, Porcelain
for Palaces, the Fashion for Japan in Europe, 1650-1750, an
伊万里 染付芙蓉手VOC大皿、江戸時代、17世紀後期
exhibition organised with the British Museum, (London, 1991),
the circular dish with wide rim decorated in underglaze blue no.32 p.94; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art see Martin
with a central roundel depicting the initials of the Dutch East Lerner, Blue and White, Early Japanese Export Ware (New York,
India Company VOC (Vereeigde Oostindische Compagnie), 1979), no.59, and see Oliver Impey, The Early Porcelain Kilns of
surrounded by birds among foliage, bordered by six panels of Japan (New York, 1996), p.11.
flowers For further discussion on this style of dish see Dr C. J. A. Jörg,
39 cm, 15⅜ in. Interaction in Ceramics, Oriental Porcelain and Delftware (Hong
Dishes with the VOC monogram demonstrate the role of the Kong, 1984), pl.63, p.108
East India Company trade in East-West relations. The dishes £ 8,000-10,000
are not mentioned in trade documents but were probably
specially ordered for use by company staff at the factory on € 9,100-11,300 US$ 10,600-13,200
Deshima and other factories in Asia including Batavia.

42 SOTHEBY’S