Page 193 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

decorated with four-clawed dragons chasing a flaming pearl, two dishes decorated
with a recumbent deer amongst grasses within a white up-turned rim, and two
bowls with a monochrome white glaze, were found in a cesspit next to the kitchen
of the former country house Rosendaal at Lisse, a small village near Amsterdam
(Fig. 3.2.1.16). From 1624, this house belonged to Adriaan Block (1581–1661),
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a private trader, navigator and prominent VOC employee who made several voyages
to Asia. A Zhangzhou blue-and-white saucer-dish with a related decoration to the
Lisse examples, showing two deer standing amongst bamboo within a white rim,
was excavated from a cesspit in Middelburg. Zhangzhou finds in Middleburg, also
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include a shard of a blue-and-white stem cup painted with winged dragons and horses
flying amidst waves excavated from a waste layer at Kinderdijk Street, which has a
context datable to c.1600. Small quantities of Zhangzhou porcelain have been found
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in two other cities that housed a chamber of the VOC, Enkhuizen and Hoorn. 432
Other finds in cities not related to the VOC like Zwolle and Zupthen, as convincingly
argued by Ostkamp, suggest that Zhangzhou porcelain was imported into the Dutch
Republic by both VOC employees and incidentally perhaps by the VOC itself as
trade goods.
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of plates (reconstructed) decorated with deer in landscape within a white cavetto and Fig. 3.2.1.15 Kraak and blue-and- Written sources indicate that porcelain made in other kilns of Fujian province
a continuous rim border with ducks and aquatic plants, similar to those on board the white porcelain excavated at Oudezijds was brought into the Dutch Republic as early as the 1630s. A ‘white lion’ is listed in
Voorburgwal, Amsterdam, in use between
Portuguese shipwreck Nossa Senhora dos Martires (1606). Finds from the Oudezijds 1600 and 1625 an inventory of the belongings of the deceased Dutch painter Jan Blasse, taken in
Voorburgwal cesspit and one other of a building on the Jodenbreestraat in use during Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province 1637, which in all probability refers to a Blanc de chine Buddhist Lion stick holder
Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627) 429 Published in Ostkamp, 2003, p. 22, fig. 10; and
this same period, demonstrate that different types of Jingdezhen porcelain, and of © Sebastiaan Ostkamp Canepa, 2012/2, pp. 16–17, fig. 6. The pieces made at the kilns of Dehua, such as that recovered from the Spanish shipwreck Nuestra
varying quality, were imported into Amsterdam. Besides Kraak plates with deer in a are individually illustrated in Ostkamp, 2009, Señora de la Limpia y Pura Concepción (1641) discussed earlier (Fig. 35.1.2.22). 434
landscape and a camel cup decorated with deer, the Jodenbreestraat cesspit yielded two Fig. 3.2.1.16 Zhangzhou blue-and-white pp. 31–2, figs. 47–49. These pieces have been Material evidence of Blanc de chine porcelain imported into the Dutch Republic at
recently discussed and some illustrated in Ostkamp,
porcelain excavated from the Rosendaal
blue-and-white bowls: one decorated with floral medallions and the other with a peony house, Lisse, in use between 1610–1630 2014, pp. 72–74, figs. 24 and 26. about this time is provided by a few pieces that have been excavated from cesspits. 435
430 Published in Ostkamp, 2009, p. 32, fig. 50; and
scroll interspersed by Chinese characters like those on board the Geünieerde Provinciën Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province Ostkamp, 2014, p. 64, fig. 9. These include a ‘puzzle cup’ found in a cesspit in Alkmaar (Figs. 3.2.1.17a and b).
Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627) 431 The decoration is similar to that of an intact example
(1615), which were most probably made for the Chinese domestic market. Such blue- © Sebastiaan Ostkamp in a private collection, which was collected in ‘Puzzle cups’ of similar form with a robed figure holding a fly-whisk standing at the
and-white bowls continued to be made in the following decades, as evidenced by the Indonesia. Published in Ibid., p. 21, fig. 9. centre were recovered from the Hatcher junk (c.1643). Almost a decade later, in
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432 For the Zhangzhou porcelain found in Enkhuizen,
shards recovered from the survivor’s campsite of the Portuguese shipwreck São Gonçãlo Opposite page see Ostkamp, 2009, p. 33, figs. 52 and 53; and 1655, a figure of Guanyin, the Goddess of Mercy worshipped by both Buddhists and
(1630). Both cesspits yielded a type of Jingdezhen plate with a flat, upturned rim Figs. 3.2.1.17a and b Blanc de chine ‘puzzle Canepa, 2012/2, pp. 16–17, figs. 9 and 10. The Hoorn Daoists, enthroned with her acolyte attendants, was depicted on the upper left section
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porcelain was discussed earlier in this section of
with a central medallion painted in cobalt blue within anhua and moulded decoration cup’ excavated at a cesspit in Alkmaar Chapter III. of a map of Yunnan province made by the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini (1614–1661)
Dehua kilns, Fujian province 433 Ostkamp, 2014, p. 73.
beneath a monochrome white glaze, which thus far has not appeared in marine Ming dynasty, Chongzhen reign (1628–1644) 434 Cited in Donnelly, 1969, p. 144. Donnelly illustrates for his Novus Atlas Sinensis (Fig. 3.2.1.18a and b). So far, this is the earliest known
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a pair of lions dated in accordance with 1645 from
archaeological excavations. It is worth mentioning that both these buildings were © Sebastiaan Ostkamp a private Hong Kong collection. Ibid., pl. 74A. VOC reference to Blanc de chine figure models in European literature. The figure depicted
located in one of the more expensive neighbourhoods of Amsterdam. The latter records indicate that Yue Gang (Moon Port) in on this map resembles closely one of the earliest known Blanc de chine figures of
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Zhangzhou prefecture was one of the ports from
plate relates closely to another Jingdezhen plate with incised and moulded decoration which Blanc de chine was exported. The Dutch Guanyin, but reversed (Fig. 3.2.1.19). Blanc de chine figure models, though not of
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bought ‘small figures’ and ‘figured white porcelain’
beneath a monochrome white glaze, which was excavated together with two pimpeltjes sporadically throughout the late seventeenth Guanyin, were also recovered from the Hatcher junk. The above mentioned finds
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like those from the Witte Leeuw, Banda and Geünieerde Provinciën shipwrecks, from a and early eighteenth centuries in Batavia. The provide textual, material and visual evidence of the trade in Blanc de chine porcelain
latter were probably part of shipments available
cesspit in Kasteel De Haar near Utrecht. A large fragment of an identical plate found at Amoy (present-day Xiamen), another port from to Europe as early as the third decade of the seventeenth, which makes one wonder
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where Blanc de chine was exported, situated about
at the VOC factory in Hirado indicates that this type of plate was not only shipped to seventy miles south of Dehua. Archaeological if other types of porcelain that we consider unusual today would have been more
the Dutch Republic but also to Japan. Jingdezhen porcelain of markedly low quality finds yielded from three VOC shipwrecks which frequently imported and much earlier than previously thought.
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sank in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
was excavated from the cesspit of a building on the Staalstraat, the centre of the cloth 421 I am grateful to Valerie Esterhuizen for providing centuries, the Oosterland (1697), Bennebroek (1713) A cesspit found on the Torenstraat in Enkhuizen, which belonged to the house
me with images of the porcelain recovered from the and Geldermalsen (1751), indicate that only a limited
industry at the time, in use between 1620 and 1630. This site yielded bowls decorated shipwreck for research purposes. quantity of Blanc de chine porcelain was imported of a Director of the VOC, doctor Zacheus de Jager (1599–1650), yielded 16 pieces
with butterflies and a plate crudely painted with deer in a landscape that had been 422 Published in Ostkamp, 2014, pp. 65–66, figs. 11-14. into the Dutch Republic. For a discussion on these of porcelain. These include three Jingdezhen blue-and-white saucer dishes with
423 Ibid., p. 66.
latter finds, which are out of the scope of this study,
misfired. Almost identical bowls were recovered from the Wanli shipwreck (c.1625), 424 Published in Ibid., pp. 71–72, fig. 23. see Canepa, 2012/3, pp. 2–3. sketchily painted fish, crabs and water weeds on the interior and an all over fishing
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425 Ostkamp, 2014, p. 71. 435 I would like to thank Sebastiaan Ostkamp for
which was, as mentioned earlier, probably owned by Portuguese merchants. 426 Published in Ibid., pp. 69–70, figs. 18 and 20. providing me with images of Blanc de chine porcelain net pattern on the exterior, which are similar to a saucer-dish found in a cesspit on the
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excavated in present-day The Netherlands.
Until now there have been only a few archaeological finds of early seventeenth 427 See Sjostrand and Lok Lok bt. Syed Idrus, 2007, 436 llustrated in Sheaf and Kilburn, 1988, p. 73, pl. 113. Leliegracht in Amsterdam, and to three examples found in the cesspit of a building
p. 130, serial no. 6085.
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century Zhangzhou porcelain. Shards of two Kraak plates and a Jingdezhen finely 428 I am greatly indebted to Sebastiaan Ostkamp 437 Martino Martini was sent to China as a missionary on the former Dokke in Vlissingen, near Middelburg, in use between 1600 and 1650
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for providing me with images of the Zhangzhou in 1638. He arrived to Macao in 1642 and from there
potted cup, together with fragments of two Zhangzhou blue-and-white saucer dishes porcelain excavated in The Netherlands. he travelled throughout China during the years (Fig. 3.2.1.20). 440 The fact that Zacheus de Jager lived in this house from about 1630
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