Page 231 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

voyage to Luzon of 1570, which mentions ‘gilded porcelain bowls’, ‘gilded water-jugs’
and ‘some fine porcelain jars, which they call sinoratas…’ among the valuable goods
confiscated by the Spanish when they captured two Chinese junks near Mindoro.
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Porcelain with gilded decoration, as shown earlier, appears mentioned frequently in
inventories of the royalty, nobility and wealthy merchants of Spain.
Further marine archaeological evidence of the trans-Pacific trade in porcelain
to New Spain is provided by four Manila Galleons, which shipwrecked at the end of
the sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries: the San Agustín, which sank in 1595 in
Drake’s Bay, Alta California; the San Diego, which sank in 1600 off Fortune Island; the
Santa Margarita, which sank in 1601 near the island of Rota; and the Nuestra Señora
de la Concepción, which sank in 1638 off the southwest coast of Saipan, both in the
Northern Mariana Islands (Appendix 3). Porcelain finds from these shipwrecks will
Fig. 3.3.1.1.7 Zhangzhou blue-and-white
be briefly discussed in the following pages to visualize the variety and quality of the dishes and plates from the shipwreck
porcelain imported into New Spain at the time. San Diego (1600)
Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province
The 200-ton galleon San Agustín, like the San Felipe, would have been in a Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620)
distressful condition when she reached the shores of New Spain, beaten by winter © Franck Goddio, Institut Européen
d’Archéologie Sous-Marine (IEASM)
storms of the north Pacific, and her surviving crew suffering scurvy and famine. She
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was driven ashore and sank during a storm at tamál-húye in 1595. The survivors,
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after having interacted for over a month with the indigenous Coast Miwok-speaking
Tamal hunter-gatherers (inhabitants of present-day coastal Marin County), abandoned 614 For a discussion and sketch-drawings of the as the site where Sir Francis Drake landed in 1579 and claimed California for Queen
Zhangzhou porcelain, see Von der Porten, 2011, p.
the San Agustín and its cargo and sailed to Mexico in a small boat. Even before the 71, pp. 72–73, Type XII, figs. XXII–1, XXII–2, XXII–3; Elizabeth I. If Francis Drake left some porcelain behind or gave it to the Tamal
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Spaniards departed, the Tamal people may have begun collecting ship’s timber, p. 76, Type XXIII, fig. XXIII-1; and p. 77, Type XXIV, people, it would most likely have been part of loot captured from a Spanish galleon. It
fig. XXIV–1. The Zhangzhou shards relate to
porcelain (intact or in fragments) and other cargo materials. The origin of a large archaeological finds made at the Erlong kiln site seems unlikely, however, that Francis Drake would have left and/or given away many
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in Wuzhai township, Pinghe county. Published
quantity of porcelain fragments and shards, mostly blue-and-white from Jingdezhen, in Fujian Provincial Museum, Zhangzhou yao: pieces of porcelain, which then would have been considered very rare and valuable
Fig. 3.3.1.1.2 Fragment of a Kraak plate Fujian Zhangzhou diqu Ming Qing yaozhi diaocha
found at Tamal village sites in Drake’s Bay has been much debated (Appendix 3). excavated at Tamal village, Drake’s Bay fajue baogao zhiji [First excavation report of the in England as well as in continental Europe. Furthermore, the wide variety of Kraak
They formed part of finely painted Kraak saucer dishes with star-shaped medallions Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province discoveries at the Zhangzhou kiln sites in Fujian], porcelain shards found at Drake’s Bay in comparison with those recovered from the
Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620) Fuzhou, 1997, pl. 10, fig. 2. Mentioned in Teresa
(Fig. 3.3.1.1.2), of plates with a white cavetto and continuous naturalistic rim Point Reyes National Seashore Museum Canepa, ‘The Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch Trade San Felipe (1576), suggests a later dating for the porcelain.
border (Fig. 3.3.1.1.3), of plates with panelled rim borders divided by single lines (PORE 876) in Zhangzhou Porcelain (Part II)’, Fujian Wenbo, No. The San Diego, a merchant galleon of about 300-tons armed to fight the Dutch
73, March 2011, pp. 59–60.
(Fig. 3.3.1.1.4), of plates with a border of bracket-lobed or I-wedge panels (Fig. 615 Von der Porten, 2011, pp. 38–39, VI–1 and p. 48, IX–2. fleet sank after its first exchange of fire off Fortune Islands in 1600. The cargo of this
Fig. 3.3.1.1.3 Shard of a Kraak plate 616 The junk’s cabins are said to have contained
3.3.1.1.5), and of bowls with deer panels separated by single lines. In addition, excavated at Tamal village, Drake’s Bay valuable goods, including ‘silk, both woven and in shipwreck is well documented, and yielded more than 500 intact pieces or fragments
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many shards of Zhangzhou blue-and-white porcelain were found, remains of 15 Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province skeins; gold thread, musk, gilded porcelain bowls, of blue-and-white porcelain (Appendix 3). Most of them are Kraak, including dishes
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Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620) pieces of cotton cloth, gilded water-jugs, and other
large dishes almost identically decorated with deer in a landscape, a cavetto with Point Reyes National Seashore Museum curious articles – although – not in large quantity, and plates with continuous, panelled or white moulded lotus-petal rim borders and a
flowering branches and a flat, up-turned rim border with floral bracket-lobed panels (PORE 6394) considering the size of the ships’ and ‘the decks of few small bowls with a bird painted on the interior. As noted by Rinaldi, this is the first
both vessels were full of earthen jars and crockery;
reserved on alternating diaper grounds. There were also shards of blue-and-white Fig. 3.3.1.1.4 Shard of a Kraak plate large porcelain vases, plates, and bowls…’. Blair and time that a shipwreck includes a variety of Kraak porcelain of closed shapes: covered
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Robertson, 1903, Vol. III: 1569–1576, pp. 59–60.
dishes with a phoenix in profile within a diamond and trigram border, showing a excavated at Tamal village, Drake’s Bay 617 This was a reality to all the Manila Galleons that boxes, pear-shaped bottles, jars, pomegranate-shaped ewers and globular or elephant-
somewhat simpler design to that of the Jingdezhen phoenix plates recovered from the Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province reached safely the western shores of New Spain after shaped kendis (Figs. 3.1.3.3 and 3.1.2.7). The shipwreck also yielded a considerable
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crossing the Pacific. For this opinion, see William
Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620)
San Felipe (1576) (Fig. 3.3.1.1.6). 622 Fragments of two Zhangzhou dishes with related Point Reyes National Seashore Museum Lytle Schurz, ‘The Manila Galleon and California’, quantity of Zhangzhou blue-and-white porcelain, consisting mainly of dishes and plates
The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2
decoration were recovered from a Chinese junk shipwreck, known as Beijiao no. 3, (PORE 877) (October, 1917), p. 111. (Fig. 3.3.1.1.7), bowls, large jars, jarlets, covered boxes and some pieces modelled after
618 The shipwreck has never been located. Tamál-húye
which sank in the Xisha Islands in the late Ming dynasty. A recent study by Russell Fig. 3.3.1.1.5 Fragment of a Kraak plate is the Coast Miwok name for what is today Drake’s Western shapes such as albarello jars and a flowerpot, which will be discussed in section
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based on anthropological assessment of historical accounts and archaeological finds excavated at Tamal village, Drake’s Bay Bay in Point Reyes National Seashore, northern 3.4.1.2 of this Chapter. Their decoration is mostly executed in outline and washes of
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California. Matthew A. Russell, Encounters at tamál-
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
has concluded that all the shards, whether showing signs of water and sand abrasion Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620) húye: An Archaeology of Intercultural Engagement blue, with the exception of the large jars, the albarello jars and some bowls that show
or not, were those carried on board the San Agustín. However, Von der Porten still Point Reyes National Seashore Museum in Sixteenth-Century Northern California, PhD floral motifs painted with broad blue brushstrokes (Fig. 3.4.1.2.12). Only one plate,
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Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley, 2011,
postulates that the non-waterworn shards come from porcelain abandoned or given to (PORE 878) pp. 1 and 6. Mentioned in Canepa, 2012/1, p. 265, an oblong box and one bowl recovered from the shipwreck show traces of overglaze
note 27.
the Tamal people by the English privateer Sir Francis Drake (1540–1596) sixteenth Fig. 3.3.1.1.6 Fragment of a Zhangzhou 619 For more information on the shipwreck and the red and green enamel decoration. This latter bowl is also decorated with parts of
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years earlier, when the explorer stopped in this area for thirty-six days while his ship, blue-and-white plate excavated at Tamal Tamal people’s incorporation of porcelain from the outline of two dragons in underglaze cobalt blue, and thus can be identified as
the San Agustín into their daily lives, see Marco
village, Drake’s Bay Meniketti, ‘Searching for a Safe Harbor on a
the Golden Hind, was being repaired for the return voyage to England. This latter Zhangzhou kilns, Fujian province Treacherous Coast: The Wreck of the Manila Galleon porcelain of the wucai type. It is not clear whether the Spanish had a preference
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possibility cannot be ruled out considering the fact that a cove near Point Reyes in Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620) San Agustin’, Conference for the Society of Historical for blue-and-white porcelain, or if porcelain decorated with colour overglaze enamel
Point Reyes National Seashore Museum Archaeology, Corpus Cristi, Texas, 1997; Matthew
what is now Marin County, north of San Francisco, has been now officially recognized (PORE 1034) A. Russell, ‘The Tamál-Huye Archaeological was not brought in large quantities to Manila. Two saucer dishes are decorated with
230 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 231