Page 179 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Porcelain trade to the
Northern Netherlands/Dutch
Republic and England [3.2]
Trade to the Northern
Netherlands/Dutch Republic [3.2.1] Jan van Campen, Rijksmuseum, for providing me
with the 1567 and 1619 inventories and an English
translation of the text listing porcelain.
289 Eleanora was the daughter of Henri I of Bourbon,
Prince of Condé (1552–1588) and his second wife
Charlotte Catherine de la Tremoille (1568–1629).
I
Information regarding porcelain and its production was first published in the 290 n the ‘Cabinet of the Prince’ are listed: ‘four large
porcelain dishes with ewers’, ‘25 porcelain butter
Northern Netherlands in 1596. That year, Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario was dishes, two of which broken’, ‘5 porcelain half grape
must dishes (mostschaelen)’, ‘2 porcelain saucer-
published in Amsterdam with a section explaining ‘How they make porcelain more dishes, one of which broken’, ‘a porcelain ewer with
exquisite than crystal’ in China. Linschoten, giving a remarkably accurate description silver gilt lid and foot’, ‘23 watered (gewaterde,
possibly refers to an undulating or waved rim)
of the material qualities and manufacturing process of porcelain, writes ‘To tell of porcelain saucers’ and ‘3 porcelain saucers’.
Drossaers and Scheurleer, 1974, p. 146. Cited in
the porcelains made there, is not to be believed, and those that are exported yearly Canepa, 2014/1, pp. 33–34.
to India, Portugal and Nova Hispania and elsewhere! But the finest are not allowed 291 The porcelain included ‘A large porcelain flowerpot
and four large saucers’, ‘a gilt porcelain saucer with
outside the country on penalty of corporal punishment, but serve solely for the Lords its pot’, ‘another 12 large porcelain saucer dishes’,
‘8 white porcelain saucers’ and ‘41 small porcelain
and Governors of the country and are so exquisite that no crystalline glass is to be saucers’. Nine pieces are described as ‘watered’
compared with them. These porcelains are made inland of a certain earth which is very (gewaterde): ‘5 large watered porcelain basins’
and ‘4 small watered porcelain cups’. Mentioned in
hard which is pounded to pieces or ground, and they leave it to soak in troughs cut out Canepa, 2014/1, p. 34.
292 Drossaers and Scheurleer, 1974, pp. 161–162. Cited
of stone, and when it is well soaked and frequently stirred as milk is churned to make in Canepa, 2014, p. 34.
butter they make of that which floats on top the finest work, and after that somewhat 293 This form of bowl was also made at the Zhangzhou
kilns. Zhangzhou examples have only been recovered
lower the coarser, and so on, and they paint them and make on them those figures and from the Binh Thuan wreck, a Chinese junk that sank
east of Phan Thiet in southern Vietnam in the first
likenesses they want, and then they are dried and baked in the kiln’. decade of the seventeenth century. Mentioned in
315
Canepa, 2014/1, p. 254, note 120.
294 The term ‘crow cup’ is often used in modern
Evidence of porcelain in the Northern Netherlands before the establishment of literature to refer to a type of cup with a bird,
mistakenly believed to represent a crow or magpie,
the VOC in 1602 depicted on the central medallion. Mentioned in
Recently examined probate inventories housed in the Rotterdam Weeskamer archive Canepa, 2014/1, p. 254, note 121. For a discussion on
this term, based on recent research in VOC records
indicate that only a few well-to-do residents of the Northern Netherlands owned and on Volker’s translations of those records, see
Cynthia Viallé, ‘Camel cups, parrot cups and other
a small quantity of porcelain prior to the foundation of the VOC, in 1602. For Chinese Kraak porcelain items in Dutch trade
316
178 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
Fig. 3.2.1.1 Fragments of two Kinrande bowls
excavated at the Oude Gracht, Alkmaar
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620)
© Sebastiaan Ostkamp
instance, an inventory of the estate of Joris Joosten de Vlaming drawn up in 1597, only
records, 1598–1623’, in Van Campen and Eliëns, a year after Linschoten’s Itinerario was published, lists ‘2 small porcelain plates’ and ‘3
2014, pp. 37–51.
295 The earliest documentary reference of the use of Eastern jars’. The latter, however, may not refer to porcelain as an Eastern glass bottle
this term is found in a VOC document dated Patani,
June 28th 1608, where ‘…1000 large fine bowls or is listed in another inventory. The 1601 inventory of the estate of Aeltje Cornelis, a
clapmutsen and some small ones’ are listed. Cited woman who owned a grocer’s shop, lists ‘two porcelain plates’, and another inventory
in Volker, 1954, p. 23.
296 For more information, see Carolien de Staelen, of 1602, lists ‘a porcelain dish’ and ‘a porcelain bowl’ among the belongings of the
Spulletjes en hun betekenis in een commerciële
317
metropool. Antwerpenaren en hun materiële cultuur silversmith Jan Jansz.
in de zestiende eeuw, unpublished PhD Thesis, Further evidence is provided by a few archaeological finds of porcelain made at
University of Antwerp, Antwerp, 2007, Table 5.11.
I am grateful to Bruno Blondé, University of Antwerp, private kilns in Jingdezhen from the reigns of Jiajing to early Wanli in Enkhuizen,
Centre for Urban History, for providing me with a
chapter on majolica and porcelain from Carolien de Arnemuiden, Amsterdam and Alkmaar. Jiajing finds include two shards of the base of
Staelen’s PhD Thesis. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1, a blue-and-white dish excavated in Enkhuizen, decorated with an Arabic inscription
p. 254, note 123.
297 E. Duvenger, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de within a ruyi border, which relate to that seen on two shards recovered from the
zeventiende eeuw, vol. 1, Brussels, 1984, pp. 11
318
and 144, respectively. Cited in Canepa, 2014/1, Portuguese shipwreck São João (1552). This plate, similar to an example in the
p. 34. With thanks to Prof. Dr. Christine Göttler,
University of Bern, for bringing these inventories to Topkapi Saray in Istanbul, could thus have circulated to the Northern Netherlands
my attention. via private trade contacts in the Middle East or Portugal, or even as booty taken from
298 Duvenger, 1984, pp. 224 and 353, respectively. Cited
319
in Canepa, 2014/1, p. 34. I am grateful to my PhD the Portuguese or Spanish, or by the Early Companies that preceded the VOC. A
supervisor, Professor Dr. Christiaan J.A. Jörg, for shard that formed part of the rim of a Jiajing blue-and-white fluted dish with foliate
translating texts from these inventories into English.
299 The Portuguese royal factory at Antwerp sold Asian rim excavated from the remains of a house in Arnemuiden, near Middelburg in the
spices and was responsible for acquiring south
German silver and copper in exchange for spices province of Zeeland, probably arrived there prior to or in 1572 because the town
until it closed down in 1549. Mentioned in Canepa, was destroyed that year by Spanish troops of the Duke of Alba. Shards of identical
320
2014/1, p. 254, note 126.
300 The city fell into a period of decline after the damage dishes were recovered from the Portuguese shipwreck São Bento (1554) and others
caused by pillaging Spanish troops in 1576 and the
conquest by the Duke of Parma in 1585. At the end were excavated at Shangchuan Island, where the Portuguese traded clandestinely
of the 1620s, during the reign of Philip IV, many before they settled in Macao. One other shard that formed part of a Jiajing blue-
321
members of the Portuguese community left the city.
A few wealthy merchant-banker families, committed and-white dish decorated with a Buddhist Lion playing with a brocaded ball excavated
to the financial services of the court in Brussels and
the Spanish army, stayed and were protected by in Amsterdam, relates to finds from the aforementioned São Bento and also from the
the Archdukes and the Spanish government from Portuguese shipwreck Espadarte, which sank four years later, in 1558.
322
further attacks. Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/1,
p. 254, note 127. Finds dating to the early Wanli reign include shards of two blue-and-white bowls
301 J. A. Goris, Étude sur les colonies marchandes
méridionales (Portugais, Espagnols, Italiens) with Kinrande decoration found in the cesspit of a building on the Oude Gracht in
à Anvers de 1488 à 1567, Louvain, 1925, p. 267. Alkmaar, in the province of Noord Holland, which belonged to urban middle class
Mentioned in Jörg, 1982, p. 15, note 7; and Canepa,
2014/1, p. 34. residents (Fig. 3.2.1.1). Although forty-four shards of bowls with similar Kinrande
323
302 I am greatly indebted to Christine Göttler for
providing me with information on Emmanuel decoration were recovered from the Spanish shipwreck San Felipe (1576), there are
324
Ximenes and this unpublished inventory, which was finds in the cesspit that suggest that the remains were deposited much later, between
translated and annotated by Sarah Joan Moran. The
original document is preserved at the Stadsarchief 1650 and 1690. There are also two fragments of a Kraak plate decorated with deer
325
of Antwerp, Notaris P. Fabri 1489 (1615–1617).
Recently Göttler conceived and edited a website, in landscape within a white cavetto and a continuous egret rim border, and one other
in collaboration with Sven Dupré (Max Planck of the base of a cup showing a bird on the interior, known as ‘crow cup’, which were
Institute for the History of Science/Freie Universität
Berlin), which provides a complete transcription excavated from a landfill layer with a context dating to 1595–1597 in what is now the
and translation of the 1617 probate inventory of the
movable goods belonging to Emmanuel Ximenez Waterlooplein in Amsterdam. The archaeological finds discussed thus far confirm
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Trade in Chinese Porcelain 179