Page 203 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

the Jiajing reign, which relate closely to porcelain traded by the Portuguese in the
Visual sources depicting interiors also attest to the presence of considerable Fig. 3.2.1.25 Family in interior
quantities of porcelain in the Dutch Republic at this time giving us an insight on the Oil on panel, 86cm x 118cm
Anonymous, Dutch Republic, c.1630
variety of porcelain available and the manner in which porcelain was displayed in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire, Geneva
domestic sphere. An anonymous painting dating to c.1630–1635, possibly depicting (inv. no. BASZ 5)
a West Frisian interior, shows the top ledge of a wooden wall panelling filled with
a row of 15 Kraak dishes, and another in front of 20 Kraak bowls and cups, some
of which appear to be decorated in the so-called Transitional style (Fig. 3.2.1.25). 462 Published in Van Campen, 2002, p. 26, fig. 3; Sargent,
462
Small porcelain pieces with similar blue-and-white decoration could also be placed on 2012, p. 12, fig. 8; and Van Campen, 2014, p. 194,
fig. 3. Kraak dishes with panelled rim borders and
top of the lintel above the door, while others of larger size were arranged symmetrically small bowls with continuous scenes in the so-called
on top of a cupboard. This is clear in an inventory drawn up after the death of Jan Transitional style continued to appear depicted,
usually arranged symmetrically on shelves, in group
Bassé (1571/76–1636), a painter, dealer and art collector, which mentions that he portraits of the 1650s, as evidenced by the painting
Interior with a Dordrecht Family dated 1656 by the
had two collector’s cabinets, with porcelain both on top and inside the cupboard, as artist Nicolaes Maes (1634–1693), who worked in his
well as pieces of porcelain in various drawers. This manner to display porcelain had native city Dordrecht and in Amsterdam, housed in
463
the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena. Published
been used earlier in the Southern Netherlands, as demonstrated by the Sense of Sight, in Berger Hochstrasser, 2007, p. 146, fig. 80.
463 Published in A. Bredius, Künstler-inventare, The
one of a cycle of five paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder and Peter Paul Rubens made Hague, 1915–1922, Part I, pp. 129–147. Mentioned
for Archduke Albert VII and Isabella Clara Eugenia in 1617–1618, discussed earlier in C. W. Fock, ‘Kunst en rariteiten in het Hollandse
interieur’, in E. Bergvelt and R. Kistemaker (eds.),
(Fig. 3.1.3.1a and b). De Wereld binner Handbereik; Nederlandse kunst-
en rariteitenverzamelingen, 1585–1735, exhibition
To sum up, written sources have shown that porcelain began to be imported into catalogue, Amsterdams Historisch Museum, Zwolle
the Northern Netherlands before the foundation of the VOC, in 1602. Only a few and Amsterdam, 1992, p. 79; and Van Campen, 2014,
p. 194. Visual evidence is provided by an anonymous
well-to-do residents, however, owned a small quantity of porcelain. Archaeological painting, possibly by Christiaen Coeuershof
(c.1596–1659), Portrait of an Enkhuizen family in
excavations have yielded shards of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain dating to interior, c.1635, published in Ibid., p. 195, fig. 4.
202 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
1550s. Other shards with blue-and-white and Kinrande decoration, dating to the early
Wanli reign, are similar to those traded by the Spanish in the mid 1570s. Thus the
porcelain may have been brought as booty taken from the Portuguese or Spanish,
or by the Early Companies that preceded the VOC. These finds confirm that
porcelain was incidentally found in Dutch households as early as the second half of the
sixteenth century.
By the turn of the century, porcelain was being imported into the Northern
Netherlands in a more structured way as part of private consignments. Porcelain, both
fine and coarse, was also being brought as booty seized from Portuguese ships trading
in Asia. The Directors of the newly established VOC immediately began to instruct
the Company servants in Bantam and Patani to purchase porcelain of various specific
types to satisfy the taste and demand not only of the Dutch domestic market but
also the international markets in Europe. The range of porcelain that according to
the Directors could be sold in Amsterdam was both fine and coarse, and included
Kraak. Visual sources attest to the importation of Kraak klapmutsen, saucer dishes,
dishes and ‘crow cups’ as early as 1603. Textual sources indicate that by 1617 the
enourmous quantities of porcelain imported into the now Dutch Republic governed
by the States General also included porcelain made at the private kilns of Zhangzhou.
The supply and demand, however, was difficult to regulate at this time. Trade was
not only conducted by the VOC but also by Dutch private individuals. Although
the VOC tried to limit the private porcelain imports because they affected not only
the purchase price in Asia but also the types available for sale in the Dutch Republic,
the Company employees despite the menace of punishement and confiscations clearly
ignored the limits imposed. Surviving bills of lading, maritime archaeological finds
from VOC ships, and various Dutch visual sources have shown that the Dutch
imported smilar types of Jingdezhen, Zhangzhou and Dehua porcelain to those traded
by the Portuguese and Spanish. Most of the porcelain imported was blue-and-white
of the Kraak and so-called Transitional types, but it also included small quantities of
Kinrande, Linglong, Blanc de chine and porcelain decorated with overglaze enamels.
A few types of blue-and-white porcelain made for the Chinese domestic market were
also imported in small quantities. The Dutch acquired the porcelain from Chinese
junk traders who initially brought trade goods to Bantam, and then to Batavia (VOC
headquarters in Asia) and for a brief period also to Formosa. To maintain a regular
supply of porcelain to the Dutch Republic, the Company employees in these Asian
settlements were forced to acquire any porcelain brought by the junks, even if not
entirely satisfied in terms of quality. The VOC was greatly concerned with making
choices that offered the higest possible profits when purchasing or ordering porcelain,
as they knew that high quality porcelain was preferred in the Dutch Republic.
By the early seventeenth century, as Dutch visual sources have demonstrated,
there was a great appreciation for porcelain in the Dutch Republic. Porcelain pieces,
mostly of the Kraak type, appear depicted in great detail alongside other imported and/
or local objects in paintings of laid tables. Other paintings indicate that porcelain was
already incorporated in the daily life of middle class residents by the 1620s, being used
as tableware. Porcelain, however, had also an ornamental function. Textual and visual
sources have shown that formal arrangements of porcelain were adopted for interior
decoration by this time. Considerable numbers of pieces were arranged in groups and
displayed in separate rooms or cabinets especially created by the princesses of Orange
Trade in Chinese Porcelain 203