Page 152 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Gasch-Tomás has recently demonstrated that only a small quantity of the porcelain 114 Published in John Alexander Pope, Chinese
that reached New Spain was subsequently loaded onto the Spanish Treasure Fleet at Porcelains from the Ardebil Shrine, second edition,
London, 1981; and Krahl and Ayers, 1986, Vol.
Veracruz and shipped via the Atlantic to Seville in Spain in the late sixteenth and early II; respectively.
seventeenth centuries. Maritime and land archaeological finds in the Caribbean and 115 The earliest documentary reference to the existence
of embrechados in Portugal dates to the reign of
Spain provide material evidence of the variety and quality of the porcelain shipped to Sebastian I. In about 1575, the Valencian traveller
Bartholomé de Villalba y Estaña describes a fountain
Seville at this time. Recent research has brought to light important new evidence from decorated with embrechados as ‘… From there
the shipwreck San Pedro, which sank off the Island of Bermuda in 1595, while sailing went up the pilgrim to Our Lady of Pena, home of
geronimos friars, very high house in which are a
from Cartagena (present-day Colombia) to Spain. The porcelain recovered, all blue- dozen of friars … They also have a fountain, which
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may well be among the curious things of the house,
and-white and broken in pieces, formed part of about 20 bowls with sketchily painted very orbate artificially with shells, scallop shells,
chi-dragons (Fig. 3.1.2.3) and of a plate decorated with a phoenix in profile within a snails, pebbles that shine and a hundred other
things’. The orgininal text in Spanish, translated by
border of alternating peach sprays and auspicious symbols, similar to those found in the author, reads: ‘…De ahi se subio el Peregrino
a Nuestra Señora de la Pena, casa de frailes
the shipwreck San Felipe (1576) and at Lagos in southern Portugal (Fig. 3.1.2.4), as geronimos, casa muy alta en que hay una dozena de
well as of finely potted Kraak plates with white cavettos and continuous naturalistic religiosos……Tienen además una fuente, que puede
muy bien entrar entre las cosas curiosas de la casa,
borders (Fig. 3.1.2.5). These finds demonstrate that by the end of the sixteenth muy adornada artificialmente con conchas, veneras,
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caracoles, piedrecillas que luzen y otras cien cosas’.
century, when the Crowns of Spain and Portugal were united, a small quantity of This work El peregrino curioso y grandezas de
various types of fine and coarser blue-and-white porcelain would have reached Spain España, por Bartholomé de Villalba y Estaña, donzel
vecino de Xérica was published in two volumes by
not only via Lisbon but also via Seville, where they were distributed to the court of the Sociedad de Bibliófilos Españoles in Madrid,
between 1886 and 1889. For the most recent and
Madrid and the rest of the country. comprehensive study of Portuguese embrechados,
It seems clear that a considerable amount of the porcelain imported at the time see André Lourenço e Silva, Conservação e
Valorização do Património. Os Embrechados do Paço
was destined to the royal court. A posthumous inventory taken between 1598 and 1607 das Alcáçovas, Lisbon, 2012. For the 1575 citation,
see Ibid., p. 65.
of Philip II’s possessions prior to their dispersal lists over 3,000 pieces of porcelain, 116 The royal Palace of Alcáçova was inhabited by
including many blue-and-white pieces, under the heading ‘Porcelains, Glazed Pottery, almost all of the Portuguese monarchs until the end Fig. 3.1.2.6 Kinrande wine ewer in
of the 1500s. The University of Coimbra purchased
Búcaros, Pottery and Vidriados (Glazes)’. According to the inventory, 3,181 pieces this Lisbon royal palace for 30,000 cruzados (which the form of a dancing girl
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included 15,000 cruzados lent to the Crown in 1584) Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
of porcelain were deposited in a large square room, the so-called pieza de la torre (also during the time António de Mendoça was rector Ming dynasty, probably Wanli reign (1573–1620)
called Tower Room II or New Tower), located in the south wing of the Alcázar. During (1594–1597). For a discussion on the embrechados in Height: 31.8cm
the chapel, sacristy and garden walls of the Palace,
the reign of Charles V the Alcázar was converted from a medieval residence into a royal see Ibid., pp. 103–194. British Museum, London
117 João de Mascarenhas was said to be one of the (museum no. PDF.704, AN382424)
palace, but it was during the subsequent reign of Philip II, after he moved his court bravest generals of the Wars of Restoration (ended
to Madrid in 1561, that the Alcázar became the principal residence of the Spanish 1668), where Portugal regained its independence
from Spanish rule, and was a member of the noblest
Habsburgs until its destruction in 1734. An inventory taken in 1603 lists only families of Portugal. The Palace was opened in 1671
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or 1672. It was only enlarged and transformed into
eleven pieces of porcelain kept in the so-called Casa del Tesoro (Treasury House), which a residence after the great earthquake of 1755. For Medieval Europe, Medieval Archaeology, Vol. 16, Krahe has noted, the ‘coloured’ bowls and ewers referred to polychrome porcelain,
was located outside the main building of the Alcázar. An addendum to the inventory, more information, see José Cassiano Neves, Jardins 1973, pp. 63–78; Jaume Coll Conesa, ‘Documented which could have been wucai (five colour) porcelain from the kilns of Jingdezhen or
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e Palácio dos Marqueses de Fronteira, second
Influence of China on Maiolica in Spain and New
dated 1608, mentions that 34 pieces of porcelain were added to the collection, but the edition, Lisbon, 1954. Although today the palace is Finds of Chinese Ceramics with Dates to the porcelain with overglaze enamels from the kilns of Zhangzhou (Appendix 2). Material
a National Monument, it remains privately owned Sixteenth Century’, in Stacey Pierson (ed.), Transfer:
precise location of them is not specified. Two further pieces of porcelain are listed in by the Fronteira family. Shallow blue-and-white the Influence of China on World Ceramics, Colloquies evidence of the Spanish trade in both wucai and Zhangzhou porcelains at the turn of
this same addendum. 148 bowls, dating to the early seventeenth century, with on Art & Archaeology in Asia, No. 24, 2007, the sixteenth century is provided by finds from the San Diego shipwreck, which sank
a similar spiral design to that seen on examples
pp. 123–127; and Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, pp. 81 and 173.
Most of the porcelain in Philip II’s posthumous inventory, which as noted above salvaged from a few shipwrecks, including the Dutch 121 From a letter dated 1314 we learn that the gifts near the Phillipines in 1600 (Appendix 3). These finds will be discussed in section
East Indiaman, the Witte Leeuw (1613), are inlaid on given by James II, King of Aragón (r. 1291–1327), to
began to be taken in 1598, was tableware. The porcelain included plates (platos), bowls the archway and pediment of the frontal façade of his third wife Marie of Cyprus (1273–1319), and his 3.3.1.1 of this Chapter.
(escudillas), larger bowls (albornias), sauceboats (salserillas), ewers (aguamaniles), jars the House of Water as well as on the Fountain of children for Christmas, included ‘two large bowls of The inventory also lists a few pieces of porcelain that appear to have had both
Carranquina. Vinhais and Welsh, 2008/2, pp. 53–55,
true porcelain’. Another piece is listed in the will of
(ollas, duernos, tinajas or calabazas), bottles (garrafas), and salt cellars. A single figs. 35–36; Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 138, fig. 16; and Jeanne d’Evreux, Queen of Navarre, as being made practical and ornamental functions. A few of them, as shown by Shulsky, seem to
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Canepa, 2012/1, pp. 264–265. of ‘a stone called porcelain’. Cited in Coll Conesa,
entry of an inventory of 1602 lists 912 plates ‘some gilded and coloured, and the rest 118 I am grateful to Jorge Welsh and Luísa Vinhais, Jorge 2007, p. 124; and Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, pp. 81-2. match extant porcelain pieces from public and private collections as well as from
blue and white, the size of a plate, appraised at three reales each’. Another lists 660 Welsh London-Lisbon, for providing me with images 122 The Catholic monarchs also received some shipwrecks. These include ‘Two figures of Chinese women, that are ewers, gilded
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of the embrechados of the Palace of the Marquises
pieces of porcelain as diplomatic gifts from the
bowls ‘the same size as the usual ones, some a little smaller, some gilded, some blue- of Fronteira for the paper ‘Ming Porcelain in 17th Venetian Ambassador. For a brief discussion on and coloured’, which most probably referred to Kinrande wine ewers in the form of
Century Portuguese Architecture: Santos Palace and the diplomatic and commercial relations between
and-white, others coloured, appraised at four reales each’. A group of 264 escudillas Palace of the Marquesses of Fronteira’, presented at the Venetian Doges and the Crown of Aragon and dancing girls made during the Jiajing or Wanli reigns (Fig. 3.1.2.6). Another entry
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‘some gilded and coloured, and some blue and white’, is also appraised at four reales the conference Ceramics on Show: Public and Private some of these porcelain gifts, see Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, lists ‘A figure of a Chinese woman white and gilded’, which as noted by Krahe, was
Displays held at the Victoria and Albert Museum,
pp. 86–86.
each. Another entry lists 35 ewers ‘some gilded and green, some gilded and blue, London on 24–25 September, 2010. 123 Archivo General de Simancas (Hereafter cited as appraised at 20 reales, which is double the price of the two figures gilded and coloured
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119 Pinto de Matos, 2011, p. 129. A similar jar is in the AGS), Patronato Real, Legajo 30–6, 68. 1503–11. The
and others coloured and blue and white, all with handles, spouts and lids, some smaller collection of Augustus the Strong in Dresden. I original text in Spanish reads: ‘Un taçon de porcelana together. Another item is ‘a blue and white porcelain jug with a long neck and an
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than the rest, all of different shapes, some without the lids, appraised at nine reales am grateful to my PhD supervisor, Professor Dr. blanca con un pie abierto de lima e filigrana de ley elephant head as a spout, appraised at six reales’. This certainly refers to an elephant-
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Christiaan J.A. Jörg, for bringing this porcelain piece
de veynte e dos quilates peso con el oro un marco
each’. It seems likely that the ‘gilded and coloured’ plates and bowls, as well as the to my attention. y tres onças y quarto ochavas’. Published in Krahe, shaped kendi from the group of Kraak zoomorphic kendi first made at private kilns
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120 For a discussion and images of these archaeological 2014, Vol. I, p. 84, note 304; and Vol. II, Document 5,
‘gilded and and green’ and ‘gilded and blue’ ewers referred to Kinrande porcelain. As finds, see David Waterhouse, ‘Chinese Porcelain in p. 25. Cited in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 24. of Jingdezhen during the Wanli reign discussed earlier. An extant example bearing
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150 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 151