Page 147 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

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porcelain used as an architectural feature in a number of aristocratic residences. These 94 t is important to note that a considerable quantity
of Kraak and other blue-and-white shards dating to
include the intact pieces displayed in the ceiling of a drawing room in the Santos the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries
have been found in Mozambique Island, but not
Palace, and the fragments used in the complex inlaid murals or embrechados of the in archaeological contexts. Local residents have
former royal Palace of Alcáçovas and the Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira, and of incorporated them into architectural displays of
blue-and white porcelain at both private houses and
other residences. restaurants. The author had the opportunity to study
some of them during a research trip to the island in
Porcelain finds from archaeological excavations at Portuguese clandestine trading August 2013. Four blue-and-white shards dating to
posts in China, at secular and religious sites in settlements in Asia and Africa, and in the late sixteenth/early seventeenth century were
excavated in the historic centre of Funchal in Madeira,
Portugal, as well as from datable shipwrecks and survivor campsites, have shown that from the cistern of the houses of João Esmeraldo,
demolished in 1877. According to the archaeologists
the majority of the porcelain imported into Portugal was blue-and-white porcelain this well was abandoned in the mid-seventeenth
from Jingdezhen. The porcelain imported also included a small quantity of Jingdezhen century, when it was being used as a cesspit. Sketch
drawings are published in Mario Varela Gomes and
yellow-glazed, white-glazed, Kinrande and porcelain with overglaze enamel decoration. Rosa Varela Gomes, ‘Cerâmicas, dos séculos XV a
XVII da Traça Cristóvão Colombo no Funchal’, Actas
Some of these pieces, such as the yellow-glazed bowls excavated at the former convent das 2.as Jornadas de Cerâmica Medieval e Pós-
Medieval, 1995, p. 335, fig. 15, P1/C2–16 to P1/C2–19.
Santa Clara-a-Velha in Coimbra and the blue-and-white pieces recovered from the 95 Many of the excavated pieces are exhibited at the
São João (1552), São Bento (1554) and Espadarte (1558), were originally intended Macao Museum. See, Armando J.G. Sabrosa, De
Macau a Lisboa – Na Rota das Porcelanas Ming,
for the Chinese imperial court as they bear Jiajing reign marks. Initially, most of research project, Instituto Cultural da Ream, Lisbon,
the blue-and-white porcelain imported was of the ordinary trade type but marine 2003; Canepa, 2008–2009, p. 62; and Canepa, 2012/1,
pp. 263–264.
archaeological finds indicate that by the early 1590s it was mainly of the Kraak type. 96 A large number of the Kraak shards from the collection
of Mr Pan Guoxing were included in the exhibition
Thicker and more crudely finished blue-and-white porcelain made at private kilns China Westward: Early Sino-Portuguese Trade of
of Zhangzhou was also imported, but only in small quantities. The quality of the Chinese Ceramics held at the City University of Hong
Kong in 2009; and the Exhibition of Pak Van Shards of
Jingdezhen and Zhangzhou porcelain imported in each shipment was quite varied, Export Porcelain in Macao held at the Macao Museum
of Art in 2011. For a discussion on these finds, see Liu
ranging from high to rather low. In the early years of Portuguese trade in Asia, some Zhaohiu, ‘Kraak Porcelain Found in Macao’, in Cheng,
of the porcelain was acquired via the Chinese junk traders that frequented Malacca 2009, pp. 13–32; and Liu Zhaohiu, ‘The Excavation
of Kraak Porcelain in Macao and Related Issues’, in
and their clandestine trading post in Shangchuan, but after they settled themselves in Cheng, 2012, pp. 34–52. Also see Canepa, 2012/1, pp.
263–264.
Macao in 1557 porcelain was mostly acquired there. Numerous finds at religious sites 97 These archaeological finds were discussed by Liu
in Portuguese settlements in Asia and in Portugal have shown that the clergy was an Zhaohui, Department of Museology & Cultural Relics,
Fudan University, Shanghai, in a paper entitled
important consumer of porcelain, as it was of Chinese silk, not only for use during ‘Changes in Jingdezhen Export Porcelain from
15th to 17th Century: A Study on Archaeological
religious services but also in their daily life as tableware. Furthermore, written sources discoveries in Hong Kong and Macau’, presented
indicate that the Jesuits participated in the trade of porcelain. at the conference Cultures of Ceramics in Global
History, 1300 to 1800 held at Warwick University,
22–24 April, 2010.
98 I am indebted to Nizammudin Taher, Rohini Pande
and Abhijit Ambekar, Archaeological Survey of India
(ASI), Goa, for providing me with images of porcelain
found at the St. Augustine complex for research
purposes. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 24 and
Trade to Spain [3.1.2] 251, note 50. It is interesting to note that a small
quantity of blue-and-white porcelain was recovered
from the Sunchi wreck, an unidentified Portuguese
shipwreck that sank at the Sunchi Reef (between
Mormugao harbour and the promontories of Cabo
headland) in the shallow waters off Goa in the mid-
Evidence of porcelain in Spain before the settlement of Manila in 1571 seventeenth century. The wreck site yielded the bases
Porcelain began to be imported into Spain earlier than into Portugal, long before the of six medium sized jars, shards of saucer dishes and
a circular lid, which were probably kept on board for
Spanish settled themselves in Manila, in 1571. Spanish textual sources and shards the daily use. Published in Sila Tripati, A. S. Gaur and
Sundaresh, ‘Exploration of a portuguese shipwreck
excavated at different archaeological sites demonstrate that a few pieces of porcelain in Goa waters, western coast of India’, Bulletin of
reached Spain in the late Middle Ages, most probably as diplomatic gifts, via Eastern Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology, 30
(2006), p. 131, figs. 8a, 8b and 9.
Andalusia (Sharq Al-Andalus), the Valencian territory during the period of Muslim 99 Pyrard de Laval, Voyages de Pyrard de Laval aux Indes
orientales (1601–1611), Paris, 1998, p. 532. Cited in
rule. The earliest textual references to the presence of porcelain in Spain, however, Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 128.
120
date to the fourteenth century. 121 100 For sketch drawings of some of the Kraak shards, see
Caroline Sassoon, Chinese Porcelain in Fort Jesus,
The next known references to porcelain are found in royal inventories of Mombasa, 1975.
101 The convent, founded in 1562, was partly destroyed
the beginning of the sixteenth century. The following references, taken from the by the earthquake of 1755 (the remaining structures
transcription of the original documents recently studied by Krahe, serve to illustrate are now part of the Faculty of Medicine of Lisbon
University). Cesspits 6 and 7 also yielded a large
the types of porcelain that reached Spain at the time, mostly via Lisbon. In an quantity of Portuguese, Spanish and Italian tin-
122
glazed earthenware, as well as German stoneware.
inventory of the collection of artistic objects in the treasury of the Alcázar (fortress) Porcelain amounting only to about 24 percent of
146 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
Fig. 3.1.2.1 Blue-and-white ‘Trenchard Bowl’ Fig. 3.1.2.2 Celadon-glazed stoneware bowl
with English silver-gilt mounts with English gold mounts
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Probably Longquan kilns
Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) Ming dynasty, c.1500
Mounts: England (London), Mounts: England, c.1500–1530
Height: 12.3cm; diam: 16.6cm
hallmarked 1599–1600
Height: 13.9cm; diameter: 23.6cm Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (acc. no. LI1086.1)
Victoria and Albert Museum, London Lent by New College, University of Oxford
(museum no. M.945–1983)
of Segovia, taken in 1503 by order of Queen Isabella I of Castile (r. 1474–1504)
the total ceramic finds, including some pieces (hereafter Isabella I), is listed ‘A bowl of white porcelain with an open filigree foot of
dating to the eighteenth century. For a discussion
and images of the porcelain, excavated between twenty-two carats that together with the gold weigh one mark, three ounces and four-
2002–2010, see Mário Varela Gomes and Rosa Varela eighths’. This porcelain bowl, as noted by Krahe, would be the earliest documented
123
Gomes, ‘Escavações Arqueológicas no Convento
de Santana, en Lisboa. Resultados Preliminares’, piece of porcelain fitted with precious metal mounts (gold and silver) in Spain, a
Olisipo. Boletim do Grupo “Amigos de Lisboa’, II
Série, No. 27, July/September 2007, pp. 76, 79, and practice in Europe that not only highlighted the rarity and value of the imported
85–86, figs. 5–7; and Rosa Varela Gomes, Mário object but also provided some protection to it. An inventory taken in 1503–1504
Varela Gomes, Mariana Almeida, Carlos Boavida,
Dário Neves, Kierstin Hamilton and Carolina Santos, mentions a gift sent from Lisbon to Isabella I by her daughter María of Portugal, which
‘Convento de Santana (Lisboa). Estudo Preliminar do
Espólio da Fossa 7’, Arqueologia em Portugal. 150 consisted of ‘a large blue-and-white Ottoman porcelain resembling a basin (bacía)
anos, Associação dos Arqueólogos Portugueses, that was given by the Queen of Portugal to our Queen in a white wooden box’. This
Lisbon, 2013, p. 1059 and 1064, Fig. 1 A. I am grateful
to Mário Varela Gomes for granting me permission was given to Violante de Albion, the Queen’s lady-in-waiting, in Medina del Campo
to include images of the excavated porcelain in this
124
doctoral dissertation. on April 28, 1504. The fact that this piece is described as Ottoman, argues Krahe,
102 The Franciscan friars also used Portuguese tin- may indicate that it was imported through Turkey or that it was an early example of
glazed earthenware. Only 17 of a total of 4.000
fragments recovered from the water cistern were Iznik blue-and-white pottery. Although it is impossible to ascertain if this piece was
125
identified as porcelain. For more information, see made of porcelain or not, this is the first documented use of the term ‘blue-and-white’.
Joana Bento Torres, Quotidianos no Convento de
São Francisco de Lisboa: uma análise da ceramic Several pieces described as ‘porcelain’ appear in inventories of the Queen’s chamber
vidrada, faiança portuguesa e porcelana chinesa,
unpublished MA dissertation, Universidade Nova taken after her death, but the use of the term is ambiguous. For instance, pieces such
de Lisboa, September 2011, pp. 78–83, 98 and
Appendix E, pp. 417–421. as ‘a goblet made of a glass called porcelain, with black and blue leaves of the same
103 See note 14. [material], without a lid, …’ may have been made of porcelain or glass, as white glass
104 For a discussion on these finds and images, see
Santos, 2002, p. 55; and Santos, 2003/2004, pp. imitating porcelain was manufactured in Europe as early as the end of the fifteenth
29–30, figs. 21–24a.
105 The convent was founded in 1471 by Catarina, century. The pieces described in an unpublished document of 1505 dealing with
126
Countess of Loulé, daughter of Fernando, 2nd duke Isabel I’s accounts, held in the archive of Simancas, as ‘Three porcelains that are ewers
of Braganza (1430–1483), in the area of Rossio by the
river Lis. The nun community was extinguished in of the four, [that they had] each with a spout, blue and gilded, with lids, worth one
1880, after the death of the last nun, Sor Joaquina
do Rósario. The convent was demolished in 1916, thousand, six hundred and eighty-seven and a half maravedies’, may have referred to
and the Santana market was built on its site. From Kinrande porcelain ewers dating to the early sixteenth century, such as those in the
a total of 86 porcelain shards found at the site,
there are 4 dating to the Kangxi and Qianlong Topkapi Saray in Istanbul. Porcelain appears to have been sought after by the high-
127
reigns of the Qing dynasty. It is worth mentioning
the site also yielded shards of Portuguese tin- ranking nobility at the time, as male and female nobles purchased some of the pieces
glazed earthenware plates and bowls with designs of porcelain that belonged to the Queen sold to repay debts. 128
imitating Kraak porcelain. Nuns from wealthy
noble families, include the daughters of the D. A Jiajing blue-and-white bowl, known as the ‘Trenchard Bowl’, is said to have
Manuel de Meneses, 5th Marquis of Vila Real, 1st
Duke of Vila Real, Governor of Ceuta (1537–1590). been a gift from Philip I of Castile (hereafter Philip I) and Joanna of Castile to Sir
Trade in Chinese Porcelain 147