Page 130 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Porcelain trade to the

Iberian Peninsula and the

Southern Netherlands [3.1]

Fig. 3.1.1.1 Shards of a white-glazed bowl
excavated from a context dated prior to
1548 at Arca de Mijavelhas, Oporto
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)
© Iva Bothelo, GASQ – Metro do Porto, S.A.

practice is perhaps the reason why the inventory of Manuel I’s wardrobe, taken after his
death in 1522, lists only ‘four Chinese porcelains of white silver and coated with woven
cane’. These ‘porcelains of white silver’ may refer to fine porcelain with a monochrome
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white glaze made at the Jingdezhen kilns as early as the Xuande reign (1426–1435)
(Appendix 2). A finely potted white-glazed bowl (now partially reconstructed)
13
excavated from a context dated prior to 1548 at Arca de Mijavelhas in Oporto, serves
to illustrate the type of monochrome white porcelain imported into Portugal at around
this time (Fig. 3.1.1.1). A small quantity of white-glazed porcelain, as will be shown
14
in the following pages, continued to be shipped to Portugal in the 1550s.
As mentioned in Chapter I, a letter written in India in 1522, a year after John III
had ascended to the Portuguese throne, states that one-third of the cargoes of the giant
Trade to Portugal [3.1.1] Portuguese merchant ships returning from India contained ‘porcelains and damasks,

and iron nails and leather shields and necessary things for stock’. A letter sent to
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John III in 1527 by the Captain of Malacca, Jorge Cabral, documents another royal
Evidence of porcelain in Portugal before the settlement of Macao in 1557 order of porcelain. Cabral mentions that he ‘…also ordered some pieces of ware for
Portuguese textual references attest to the presence of porcelain in the royal court 6 Correia, 1858, vol. I, p. 141. Mentioned in Maria Antónia hierarchy and clergy of the church, and to finance your H[ighness]. If they arrive I will bring them’. In another letter sent the following
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Pinto de Matos, ‘Porcelana Chinesa. De presente
of Lisbon as early as the end of the fifteenth century. The inventories and payment region a produto commercial – Chinese Porcelain. church buildings and appointed bishops. For more year, in 1528, Cabral refers to the porcelain he had ordered for the King as ‘…last
From royal gifts to commercial products’, in Rodrigues information, see Isabel dos Guimarães Sá, ‘The uses
receipts of Manuel I document porcelain given to the King as gifts or purchased for Calvão, 1999, p. 109; and Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 124. of luxury: some examples from the Portuguese courts year I asked a captain of the chins that came here to have some pieces made there for
him following Vasco da Gama’s return from India in 1499. That year, Vasco da Gama 7 Pinto de Matos, 1999, p. 109. from 1480 to 1580’, Análise Social, vol. XLIV, 192, 2009, Y.H[ighness). He brought them but they are not as I had wished / which Y.H[ighness].
I
pp. 597–598.
8 ANTT, Cartas dos Vice-Reis da Índia, doc. 168. Cited
himself presented porcelain and other exotic goods to the King and Queen, which in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 124. 12 Braamcamp Freire, 1904, p. 392. Cited in Pinto de Will have. When I go from here it will be known that the chins in Malacca are reliable
9 The Casa da Índia was a royal trading firm entrusted Matos, 2002–2003, p. 38; and Canepa, 2014/1, p. 18.
he had purchased in Calicut. Three years later, Manuel I received several pieces of with managing overseas trade with Asia. It received, 13 Chinese textual sources indicate that porcelain for they can be trusted to make and come back with them’. These documents show
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porcelain from Pedro Álvares Cabral, who acquired them from a ship sailing from appraised and stored all merchandise, which was sold utensils with a white monochrome glaze were that the Portuguese continued trading and ordering porcelain, despite commercial
ordered in 1426 to honour both the Hongxi and
under the control of public workers. In an attempt to
Cambay to Mecca. The earliest reference to a royal order for porcelain dates to prevent contraband, the Casa da Índia also supervised Yongle emperors. For a few examples of white-glazed relations with China being prohibited from 1522 to 1554. Galeote Pereira, in the
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the loading and unloading of the ships, paid the crews bowls (some with Xuande mark and period), see
1507, when the King asked Francisco de Almeida (c.1450–1510), the first Viceroy of and inspected all vessels. Vieira de Castro, 2005, p. 13. Jessica Harrison-Hall, Ming Ceramics in The British account of his trading voyages along the China coast between 1539 and 1547, and
Museum, London, 2001, pp. 122–124, nos. 4:1–4:5.
Portuguese India, to send him ‘… the fine and good porcelains and in good quantity 10 A. Braamcamp Freire, ‘Cartas de Quitação del Rei D. 14 The porcelain was found during the construction of his capture and imprisonment in 1549, informs us that ‘The sixth shire beareth name
Manuel I’, Archivo histórico portugues, vol. 1, Lisbon,
and the best that can be found’. Considerably large quantities of porcelain were 1903, p. 75. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2002–2003, p. 37. 24 de Agosto Station (Line A of Metro do Porto). The Quianssi [Jiangxi], as also the principal city thereof, and it is that in which all the
8
11 For a discussion on these gifts and bibliographical archaeological record of the deposit has the year
imported into Lisbon in the following years. For instance, João de Sá, ‘Treasurer of references, see Ibid., pp. 37–38; Pinto de Matos, 1548 as terminus as quem, when it was sealed under fine porcelain is made from Culio upwards, without any being made elsewhere and
the Spices’ at the Casa da Índia, registered a total of 692 pieces of porcelain and other 2011, pp. 128–129; and Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 17–18, a granite floor. Personal communication with Iva from Culljo downwards in all the cities of China; and this city of Quiansi lieth nearer
9
and p. 250, notes 6–13. As recently noted by Krahe,
Botelho, GASQ – Metro do Porto, S.A., March 2013.
exotic goods between February 1511 and April 1514. 10 no porcelain is mentioned among the Asian pieces I am grateful to Iva Botelho for prodiving me with to Liampo [Ningbo], the Portugals being ignorant of this country, and finding great
listed in the inventory of Queen Maria in the article by images of the porcelain shards excavated at the site.
Manuel I enjoyed an excellent financial situation and thus supplied himself, his M. J. Redondo Cantera, ‘The inventories of Empress 15 ANTT, Corpo Chronológico, part 3, bundle 8, doc. 1. abundance of that fine porcelain to be sold at Liampo, and that very good cheap,
I
Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2002–2003, p. 38.
relatives, the clergy and many others with porcelain and other Asian luxury goods Isabella of Portugal’, in Fernando Checa Cremades 16 ANTT, Corpo Cronológico, part. 1, bundle 22, doc. thought at the first it had been made there, howbeit in fine, they perceived that the
(ed.), Los Inventarios de Carlos V y la Familia
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imported into Lisbon. Porcelain gifts made by the King between 1499 and 1517, were Imperial, Madrid, 2010, Vol. 2, p. 1246. The inventory 80. Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 126. standing of Quiansi more near unto Liampo than to Chincheo or Cantão [Canton],
is published in Giuseppe Bertini and Annemarie 17 ANTT, Corpo Cronológico, part. 1, bundle 41, doc. 29.
I
received by his mother Infanta Beatriz (1430–1506); his older sister (1458–1525); his Jordan Gschwend, Il guardaroba di una principesa Cited in Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 126. was the cause of so much fine porcelain at Liampo’. Material evidence of special
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second wife, Maria of Castile (1482–1517), Queen consort of Portugal, third daughter of del Rinascimento. L’inventario di Maria di Portogallo 18 Culio or Culljo has not yet been identified. Cited in C. orders still being fulfilled during this period of clandestine trade, or soon after Macao
R. Boxer (ed.), South China in the Sixteenth Century.
sposa di Alessandro Farnese, Parma, 1999. Manuel I’s
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile; the convents Madre de Deus, Santa Maria gifts to the clergy not only emphasised his generosity Being the narratives of Galeote Pereira, Fr. Gaspar da was established as a Portuguese enclave in 1557, is provided by a group of about
and devotion to the Christian faith, but were also Cruz, O.P., Fr. Martin De Rada, O.E.S.A., (1550–1575),
da Pena and Nossa Senhora de Belém; and also by António Salvago. This gift-giving intended to give the Crown greater control over the Bangkok, reprint 2004, p. 5, note 2. 50 porcelain ewers, bottles, dishes and bowls decorated in underglaze cobalt blue
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128 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 129