Page 238 - 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 plate excavated at Templo Mayor site,
Cathedral, Zócalo area, Mexico City Zócalo area, Mexico City
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627) Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627)
© Eladio Terreros and Álvaro Barrera, Museo © Eladio Terreros, Museo del
del Templo Mayor (INAH) Templo Mayor (INAH)

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