Page 237 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Fig. 3.3.1.1.13 Kraak shards excavated from Fig. 3.3.1.1.14 Fragment of a blue-and-white
the Donceles Street site and Metropolitan
Cathedral, Zócalo area, Mexico City
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627)
© Eladio Terreros and Álvaro Barrera, Museo
del Templo Mayor (INAH)
display. Although silverware objects were extremely expensive, they had an intrinsic
652
value as they could be melted down and made into coinage or recycled as different
objects. Anyhow, porcelain was integrated into the daily lives of the elites as objects
653
for household consumption, which were both displayed and used in gatherings to eat
and drink or other social-cultural practices. This is clearly reflected in inventories
654
of the belongings of members of the Consulado (Consulate) of Mexico City dating
from 1589 to 1645, studied by Ballesteros Flores, which list considerable quantities of
Asian goods including ‘loza de la China’ (pottery from China), most probably referring
to porcelain. One of these inventories, dating to 1645, is of particular interest to
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this study. It is the inventory of Lope de Osorio, which lists pieces that had both
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practical and ornamental functions. Most were large vases or jars with lids, some used
to store amber; barrel-shaped jars; and there were also a few little plates, salt cellars,
trays and flowerpots. Although the descriptions are vague, one cannot fail to wonder if
the pieces described as ‘Ten little lions of the said pottery from China, small’ may have
referred to Blanc de chine Buddhist Lion incense stick holders similar to that recovered
from the Nuestra Señora de la Limpia y Pura Concepción, which sank while en route to
Spain in 1641 (Fig. 3.1.2.22). If this were the case, other pieces described as ‘two little 652 Ibid., p. 162.
horses of pottery from China’ and ‘a small heron of pottery from China’ may also have 653 Krahe, 2014, Vol. I, p. 127.
654 Gasch-Tomás, 2014, p. 162.
been Blanc de chine animal models from the private kilns of Dehua (Appendix 2). 655 Ballesteros Flores, 2007. Only 5 inventories of a total
657
of 11 studied by Ballesteror Flores date to the late
In New Spain, unlike in Spain, the demand for porcelain was so great that it sixteenth and first four decades of the seventeenth
soon was consumed as a trade good, which could be acquired from street markets, century. Of the 5 inventories, only two include
porcelain.
from peddlers, second-hand markets, and even shops. The rise of a wealthy colonial 656 Tierras, vol. 3371, exp. 1, 1645. Inventario de los
658
bienes de mercader Lope de Osorio. Ballesteros
merchant class and its commercial networks with factors and agents stationed in key Flores also includes the inventory of Francisco
locations within New Spain, such as Veracruz, Mexico City and Puebla de los Angeles, Nieto, taken in 1644, but it only lists a few pieces
of porcelain: ‘Four plates from China and five
as well as in a variety of Caribbean port cities, facilitated the wholesale and retail trade bowls’ and ‘Two bowls and one plate from China,
[appraised] in 1 peso’. The original text in Spanish
of porcelain. These networks were built on pre-existing social networks based upon reads: ‘Cuatro platos de China y cinco escudillas’
nationality and kinship. In addition to the Spanish networks, there were succesfull and ‘Dos escudillas y un plato de China, en 1 peso’.
Real Fisco de la Inquisición, vol. 13, exp. 1, 1644.
networks comprised of Portuguese, Burgalese (from Burgos), Catalans, English and Inventario de bienes del mercader Francisco Nieto.
Ballesteros Flores, 2007, Appendix 7.
Genoese merchants operating in New Spain. This extensive retailing, as will be 657 The pieces discussed here are described in the
659
shown in the following pages, resulted in a wide distribution of porcelain throughout original text in Spanish as follows: ‘Diez leoncillos de
dicha loza de China, pequeños’, ‘Dos caballitos de
the viceroyalty. loza de China’, and ‘Una Garza pequeña de loza de
China’. Tierras, vol. 3371, exp. 1, 1645. Inventario de
los bienes de mercader Lope de Osorio. Ballesteros
Flores, 2007, Appendix 7.
Archaeological evidence of porcelain in New Spain 658 Gash-Tomás, 2012, p. 74.
Material evidence of the trade in various types of porcelain from Jingdezhen, Zhangzhou 659 G. Connell-Smith, ‘English Merchants Trading to the
New World in the Early Sixteenth Century’, Historical
and Dehua within the viceroyalty of New Spain, both by land and sea, is provided Research, vol. 23, Issue 67, May 1950, pp. 53–66.
236 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
plate excavated at Templo Mayor site,
Zócalo area, Mexico City
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627)
© Eladio Terreros, Museo del
Templo Mayor (INAH)
by a significant number of archaeological finds in what is now Mexico, the United
States and Guatemala. In present-day Mexico, excavations at various archaeological
sites have yielded a large quantity of porcelain dating to the late sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries. Until now, the urban and religious sites located in Mexico City
have yielded not only the largest quantity of porcelain but also the most varied in
terms of typology and decorative style. Considering the marine archaeological finds
discussed above it is not surprising that the majority of the porcelain is blue-and-white
of varying quality. In excavations at various sites located within the perimeter of the
first quarter of the Zócalo area, the administrative seat of the viceregal government,
the finds include intact Kraak pieces and shards of dishes, plates and small bowls (Fig.
3.3.1.1.13). Shards of plates decorated with deer in a landscape within a white
660
cavetto and a continuous naturalistic border excavated at the sites of Templo Mayor
and National Palace 661 are similar to those recovered from the San Diego (1600) 662
and Santa Margarita (1601), and the Portuguese shipwreck Nossa Senhora dos Mártires
(1606). Shards of cups of the type known as ‘crow cups’ excavated from Templo
Mayor 663 show similar decoration to those from the San Diego (1600). Shards of
664
dishes excavated at Donceles Street site show identical panelled borders as those found
at the survivor’s campsite of the Portuguese shipwreck São Gonçalo (1630); and shards
of saucer dishes show a similar border of teardrop-shaped panels as those recovered
660 The porcelain, recovered during excavations to
build a subway in the city, is now housed in the from the earlier Portuguese shipwreck Nossa Senhora da Luz (1615). Shards of plates
Museo del Templo Mayor. For information on the with naturalistic borders were also excavated at Donceles Street and the Metropolitan
porcelain and other ceramic material found, as well
as images of some of the porcelain excavated, see Cathedral sites. The Templo Mayor site also yielded shards of blue-and-white plates
Florence C. Lister and Robert H. Lister, ‘Non-Indian
Ceramics from The Mexico City Subway’, El Palacio, with the phoenix design within a diamond and trigram border (Fig. 3.3.1.1.14). In
665
Vol. 81, No. 2, Summer 1975, pp. 25–48, fig. 22. I am addition, the Donceles Street and Moneda Street sites yielded a few shards of blue-and-
greatly indebted to Eladio Terreros, archaeologist
professor at Museo del Templo Mayor (INAH), for white dishes of the coarser Zhangzhou porcelain, which relate to finds from the San
providing me with information and images of the
porcelain excavated from sites in the Zócalo area Diego (1600), the Portuguese Wanli shipwreck (c.1625) and the survivor’s campsite of
of Mexico City. For further images of the porcelain the São Gonçalo (1630) (Fig. 3.3.1.1.15), which relate to finds made at the Dongkou
excavated, see Canepa, 2011/1, p. 268, Figs. 19–21.
661 A reconstructed example is published in Kuwayama, kiln site in Pinghe county (Appendix 2). The Zhangzhou porcelain included only
666
1997, p. 53, no. 20; and Miyata Rodríguez, 2009, p.
49, fig. 13. one shard with overglaze enamel decoration, which probably formed part of a dish
662 Carré, Desroches and Goddio 1994, p. 315, cat. 75 (Fig. 3.3.1.1.16), as well as shards of bowls with white slip decoration on a brown
and pp. 242–43, cat. 111.
663 Miyata Rodríguez, 2009, p. 52, figs 22 and 23. glaze, all excavated from a site in Justo Sierra Street. All these porcelain finds date
664 Carré, Desroches and Goddio, 1994, pp. 340–341,
cat. 107. to the early seventeenth century, probably prior to a series of devastating floods that
665 Published in Miyata Rodríguez, 2009, p. 50, figs. occurred between 1629 and 1634. It is important to note that the Zócalo area sites
667
14–15.
666 Fujian Provincial Museum, 1997, pl. 15, fig. 4 and pl. also yielded Blanc de chine porcelain, including a fragment of the base of a Buddhist
36, fig. 1; and Canepa, 2010, p. 61, figs. 6 and 7.
667 Mentioned in Canepa, 2014/2, p. 111. Lion incense stick holder found in a stratigraphic pit of the street Lic. Verdad-Block
Trade in Chinese Porcelain 237