Page 205 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

for that purpose in the Stadholders’ palaces, which served not only as symbols of their
high status, but at the same time represented their political and dynastic interests.
Visual souces also indicate that by this time, porcelain had gained a prominent
decorative function in the interior of the households of middle class residents. By the
1620s and 1630s, pieces of porcelain were displayed in small hanging cupboards with
glass doors, on the ledge of wooden wall panelling, on the lintel above the door, and
others of larger size were arranged symmetrically on top of a cupboard. It is important
to remember that the display of porcelain in separate rooms was first used in Portugal
in the early 1560s, and that the manner of displaying porcelain in cupboards was used
in the Southern Netherlands by the late 1610s.

Trade to England [3.2.2]

Fig. 3.2.2.1 White-glazed bowl with
English silver-gilt mounts
A small amount of porcelain arrived in Tudor England through indirect trade routes
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
before 1600, when ships of the newly established East India Company (hereafter EIC) Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566)
began to sail regularly to Asia. Documentary and material evidence of the presence Mounts: England (London),
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hallmarked 1569–1570
of porcelain at this time is scarce. A few references to ‘purslane’, ‘purslaine’, ‘porselin’, Diameter: 12cm
‘china’ or ‘chyna’ can be found in English written sources related to the royal court, British Museum, London (museum no. PDF.695)
nobility and affluent individuals, but as mentioned earlier, some may have referred to
a different material.
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red, listed as item 1582: ‘one Cvp of Pursseline thoneysde paynted Red the foute and
Evidence of porcelain in England before the establishment of the EIC in 1600 Cover sylver guilt poiz all xiiij oz. quarter’. The pieces described as ‘garnisshid’ were
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The earliest recorded piece of porcelain to arrive in Tudor England is the celadon- presumably fitted with gold or silver mounts.
glazed stoneware ‘Warham’ bowl fitted with silver-gilt mounts, listed in the inventory As Kerr has noted, only a few extant pieces of porcelain are documented as having
of New College of Oxford of c.1532, discussed earlier (Fig. 3.1.2.2). Thus it is possible arrived in Tudor England in the second half of the sixteenth century. The high
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that the two ‘faire Laires [small jugs] of Purslane’ listed in an inventory of the Jewel appreciation of such rare and costly pieces of porcelain at the time is attested by the
House taken in 1547 after the death of King Henry VIII (r. 1509–1547), as Pierson elaborate mounts of silver-gilt fitted to the porcelain by renowned English silversmiths,
466
has convincingly argued, may refer to celadon-glazed stoneware ewers of a type made which as noted earlier, further enhanced their status as rare objects. In England, like it
at the Longquan kilns after Near Eastern metalwork in the fourteenth century. The had occurred earlier in Portugal and Spain, mounted pieces of porcelain were regarded
467
inventory of the Jewels and Plate of Queen Elizabeth I, taken in 1574, lists seven pieces as suitable for royal or diplomatic gifts, as well as for the furnishing of royal palaces
of porcelain. These include item 349: ‘oone Cup of Purslaine glasse fation with two and aristocratic houses. Sometimes, as will be shown in the following pages, the
handles garnisshid with siluer and guilt the Couer garnished with iiij Camewe heddes mounts fitted transformed the porcelain piece into a different type of object. One such
and thre garnettes’; item 1080: ‘oone faire Laire of Purslaine garnisshid with silver 464 Bracken, 2001, pp. 8–10; and Pierson, 2007, p. 22. example is a bowl decorated with incised scrolling lotus beneath a white monochrome
I
and guilt beign a Griffens hed with a Chaine of silver guilt’; item 1099: ‘oone Laire 465 bid., p. 20; and Pierson, 2013, p. 55. glaze of the Jiajing reign fitted with silver-gilt mounts bearing London hallmarks for
466 David Starkey (ed.), The Inventory of King Henry VIII: 470 Collins, 1955, pp. 590, 591 and 592, respectively.
of Purslaine garnisshid with siluer and guilt and furnisshid with sundry stones sett in The Transcript, vol. I, London, 1998. 471 Kerr, 2004, p. 50. 1569–1570 in the Percival David Collection, now housed at the British Museum in
collettes of golde having in the toppe thereof an Amatest pointed’; and item 1363: 467 Pierson, 2007, pp. 19–20. 472 The centre interior of the bowl is decorated with a London (Fig. 3.2.2.1). This bowl, one of a number of bowls of this type made at
472
468 A. Jefferies Collins, Jewels and Plate of Queen
white hare reserved on a cobalt blue rock with pine
‘oone lie potte of siluer and guilt with a purslaine hedde in the fore parte’. Elizabeth I: the inventory of 1574, edited from and bamboo, and its base bears a commendatory Jingdezhen for export to Japan and the Near East, was transformed into a Renaissance
468
Harley MS 1650 and Stowe MS 555 in the British mark that reads changming fu gui (long life, riches
Elizabeth received three pieces of porcelain as New Year’s gifts in 1587–1588. Museum, London, 1955, pp. 349, 487, 491, and 536, and honours). The bowl without its silver-gilt lid is tazza with the addition of a silver-gilt high foot and domed cover in Elizabethan style
respectively. Mentioned in Pierson, 2007, p. 25.
Lord Treasurer, William Cecil, 1st Baron of Burghley (1520–1598), gave her a 469 Mentioned in John Gough Nichols, The Unton published in Glanville, 1984, p. 251, fig. 5. The bowl made by the goldsmith Roger Flynt (active 1568–1588). Known as the ‘Lennard
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with its lid was more recently published in Stacey
porcelain porringer, listed as item 1577: ‘one Porrynger of white Pvrselyn garnisshid Inventories: relating to Wadley and Faringdon, Pierson, Percival David Foundation of Chinese Art. A Cup’, it belonged to the Devon merchant named Samuel Lennard (1553–1618), who
co. Berks., in the years 1596 and 1620, from the Guide to the Collection, London, 2002, p. 71, no. 58;
with golde the Cover of golde with a Lyon on the Toppe thereof poiz all xxxviij oz.’; 469 originals in the possession of Earl Ferrers. With a and Kerr, 2004, pp. 50–51, pl. 4.7. was Lord of the Manor at Wickham Court, West Wickham in Kent. The fact that
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his youngest son, Robert Cecil, gave the Queen a green cup, listed as item 1580: memoir of the family of Unton, Berkshire Asmolean 473 Glanville, 1984, p. 249. Lennard was not a member of the English royal court, suggests that although porcelain
Society, Reading, 1841, p. 45 under Purslen stuffe;
474 Published in Ibid., p. 251, fig. 5; Pierson, 2002, p. 71;
‘one Cvp of Greene Pursselyne the Foute Shanke and Cover Sylver gylte Chased Lyke Philippa Glanville, ‘Chinese Porcelain and English Kerr, 2004, p. 50, pl. 4.7; and Pierson, 2007, pp. 20 was still rare at that time, it was available to those who could afford it. It is likely
475
Goldsmiths c. 1560 to c. 1660’, The V&A Album 3, and 233, pl. 1.
Droppes poiz all xv oz. quarter’; and Mr Lychfelde gave the Queen a cup painted in London, 1984, p. 249; and Pierson, 2007, p. 26. 475 Pierson, 2013, p. 45. that the bowl arrived in England via the Near East, where English merchants traded
204 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 205