Page 253 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

has yet come to light, Curtis has convincingly argued that the Dutch may have played
an important role in supplying porcelain to the English colonists who settled in
Virginia. The fact that private Dutch merchants were active in Virginia participating
in the slave trade from about 1620 and in the tobacco trade in the 1620s and 1630s,
that the porcelain excavated at the English colonial sites discussed in the following
pages is very similar to porcelain recovered from the VOC shipwreck Witte Leeuw
(1613), and finally that in a few cases porcelain was found alongside Dutch or Dutch
related artifacts, support this theory. Future research on Dutch textual sources and
770
archaeological finds may shed light on the Dutch trade in porcelain to Virginia.
Trade to the English colonies [3.3.3] Fig. 3.3.2.1.1 Two shards of a so-called
Transitional style mustard pot excavated at the
site of Fort Orange, near Albany
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
Ming dynasty, Chongzhen reign (1628–1644)
Recent research has shown that small quantities of porcelain reached the earliest © Paul Huey
English settlements in the New World. Evidence is provided by English textual sources
Fig. 3.3.2.1.2 Shards of a Kraak dish
as well as porcelain recovered from archaeological excavations at various sites in the excavated at the site of Fort Orange,
colony of Virginia and at the colony of Avalon, and English shipwrecks that sank while near Albany
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
en route from England to Virginia in the early seventeenth century.
771
Ming dynasty, Chongzhen reign (1628–1644)
Photo by Joe McEvoy
Colony of Virginia [3.3.3.1}
The earliest documentary reference to porcelain in the colony of Virginia dates to
1622. That year, the secretary for the Virginia Company (hereafter VC), Edward
Waterhouse, in a letter sent to James I noted that when Lieutenant Maramaduke
Parkinson and other English men visited an Indian chief up the River of Potomac,
north of the James River, they saw a ‘China Boxe’ in one of the chief’s houses. The 770 Julia B. Curtis, ‘Chinese Ceramics and the Dutch
letter continues saying that the Indian chief informed them ‘That it was sent to him Connection in Early Seventeenth Century Virginia’,
Vereninging van Vrienden der Aziatische Kunst,
from a King that dwelt in the West, over the great Hils, some tenne dayes journey, Mededelingenblad 15 (February 1985), pp. 6-13.
771 Beth Gardiner, ‘Nova Britannia: 17th Century
whose Countrey is neare a great Sea, hee having that Boxe, from a people as he said, Chinese Porcelain Found at English Settlements in
that came thither in ships, that weare cloaths, crooked swords, & somewhat like our the New World’, Bermuda Museum, forthcoming
2015.
men, dwelt in houses, and were called Acanack-China’. This account suggests that 772 Myra Jehlen and Michael Warner (eds.), The English
772
Literatures of America, 1500–1800, New York and
the box was sent to the Indian chief by a king who lived in a land that could be reached London, 1997, p. 134. Cited in Gardiner, forthcoming
in about ten days journey, but it seems more likely that the chief would have acquired 2015.
773 By 1600, according to Joseph Hall, the Oconee
the box through trade contacts with the Spanish colonists of La Florida. peoples in the Oconee Valey in what is now north
773
central Georgia were using Spanish goods. Thus
Archaeological excavations undertaken at the Jamestown fortified settlement in this implies trade contacts with the indigenous
the Chesapeake Bay since the year 1994, have yielded 574 shards of porcelain along population in the area. For a discussion on
Maramaduke Parkinson’s account and its relation
with thousands of shards of tin-glazed earthenware and stoneware from England, with the Spanish residents of La Florida, see Joseph
Hall, ‘Between Old World and New. Oconee Valey
the Dutch Republic, France, Germany and Spain. Only 167 porcelain shards can Residents and the Spanish Southeast, 1640–1621’,
774
be dated to the early seventeenth century, corresponding to the James Fort period in Peter C. Mancall (ed.), The Atlantic World and
Virginia, 1550–1624, Chapel Hill, 2007, pp. 66–70.
(1607–1624). Most of them are shards of Jingdezhen blue-and-white porcelain, both 774 Curtis, 1985, pp. 6–13; Beverly Straube, ‘European
Ceramics in the New World: The Jamestown
of fine and rather crude quality. Shards of a tiny finely potted blue-and-white wine Example’, in Robert Hunter (ed.), Ceramics in
cup decorated with a band of flame and scrolls was excavated at Pit 8 from a c.1610 America, Hanover and London, 2001, p. 47; and
Gardiner, forthcoming 2015.
context, which relates to those recovered from the VOC shipwrecks, the Witte Leeuw 775 Published in Kelso and Straube, 2008, p. 29, fig. 61.
For the Witte Leeuw bowls, see Van der Pijl-Ketel,
(1613) and Banda (1615) (Figs. 3.2.1.11 and 3.2.1.10). The wine cup along with 1982, pp. 156–157; and Straube, 2001, p. 52, fig. 7.
775
other imported finds from the cesspit reflects a certain status of its owner. Fragments Mentioned in Gardiner, forthcoming 2015.
776
776 Straube, 2001, p. 52; and Kelso and Straube, 2008,
of more than a dozen of such wine cups have been found on other seventeenth century p. 20.
252 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer
archaeological sites along the James River. Five were excavated at Jordan’s Point, the
remains of Jordan’s Journey, and the base of one other was excavated in 1996–
777
1997 from the Narrow Ditch III at the Reverend Richard Buck site. These were
778
two plantations established by the early English colonists. The first was a fortified
compound believed to have protected the home of the VC investor Samuel Jordan and
his wife Cisley, who settled there in 1621–1622. After becoming a widow in 1623,
Cisley married William Farrar, who was placed in command of the settlers at Jordan’s
Journey six year later, in 1629. Thus the porcelain cup and other imported finds
779
most probably belonged to the Jordan-Farrar household. The latter site, occupied from
Fig. 3.3.3.1.1 Fragment of a blue-and-white c.1630–1650, has been named after the area’s first documented land owner, Reverend
bowl from the shipwreck Sea Venture (1609) Richard Buck, an Anglican who served as minister at Jamestown from 1610 until his
Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
780
Ming dynasty, Wanli reign (1573–1620) death in 1624. Further examples have been found at other Virginia plantations,
National Museum of Bermuda (acc. no. 81:304) including Kingsmill, Governor’s Land and neighbouring areas. Those found in later
781
contexts, thicker and with the flame band further up from the foot, relate to finds from
782
the Hatcher junk (c.1643).
The fact that one cup of this type was recovered from the shipwreck Warwick, a
VC ship which sank during a hurricane at Castle Harbour in Bermuda while en route
from Plymouth to Jamestown in 1619, and that fragments of two other examples
783
have been excavated in London and Exeter, demonstrates that at least some of the wine
cups discussed above were imported into Virginia via England, where in turn they
would have arrived through trade with the Dutch Republic. The Warwick was both a
777 Only one is published in Martha W. McCartney, naval warship and a merchantman owned by Sir Robert Rich, 2nd Earl of Warwick.
Jordan’s Point, Virginia. Archaeology in Perspective, She was carrying the new Governor of Jamestown, Captain Nathaniel Butler, as well
Prehistoric to Modern Times, Virginia, 2011,
pp. 76–77, fig. d. Recent research by Gardiner has as settlers and supplies to the struggling colony. The Sea Venture, another English
784
shown that five of such wine cups were found at the ship that sank off Bermuda while en route from Plymouth to Virginia ten years
site. See Gardiner, forthcoming 2015.
778 Published in Seth Mallios, Archaeological earlier, in 1609, was also carrying porcelain. So far, the shipwreck has yielded only a
785
Excavations at 44JC568. The Reverend Richard Buck
Site, Richmond, 1999, p. 44, fig. 56. Jingdezhen blue-and-white bowl (now partially reconstructed) with sketchily painted
779 McCartney, 2011, p. 37. chi-dragons (Fig. 3.3.3.1.1), comparable to examples recovered from the Spanish
780 For more information on Reverend Buck, see Frank
E. Grizzard, Jr. and D. Boyd Smith, Jamestown shipwrecks San Felipe (1576) and San Pedro (1595) (Fig. 3.1.2.3), discussed earlier.
Colony: A Political, Social, and Cultural History, Santa
Barbara, 2007, pp. 32–33; and Gardiner, forthcoming Aboard the ship were the new Governor of Virginia, Sir Thomas Gates, the admiral of
2015.
781 Mentioned in Julia B. Curtis, ‘Perceptions of an the expedition, Sir George Somers, and Captain Christopher Newport. Thus it is
786
artifact: Chinese porcelain in colonial Tidewater likely that the aforementioned pieces of porcelain were personal possessions brought
Virginia’, in Mary C. Beaudry (ed.), Documentary
archaeology in the New World, Cambridge, 1988, by the Governor, by prominent gentlemen of the colony, or by the admirals or captains
p. 26.
782 Straube, 2001, p. 51. of the VC ships.
783 Published in Tucker, 2011, pp. 145–146; and Gardiner, A few other Jingdezhen finds at the James Fort area relate to porcelain recovered
forthcoming 2015.
784 Dr. Edward C. Harris and Jason Paterniti, ‘The from the Witte Leeuw shipwreck (1613) site. These include a fragment that formed
Explorers Club Flag 132 Report. The Warwick
Project, Bermuda, 11 June–17 July, 2011’, Global part of a blue-and-white stem cup with a winged dragon painted in pencilled-style
Exploration & Oceanographic Society, 2011, pp. 2-3; found in a stratum dating to 1610 of Pit 3, which is identical to an extant example
and Gardiner, forthcoming 2015.
785 David B. Quinn, ‘Bermuda in the Age of Exploration in the British Museum. Only one stem cup of this type was recovered from the
787
and Settlement’, in Dr. J. C. Arnell (ed.), Bermuda
Journal of Archaeology and Maritime History, Vol. 1, Witte Leeuw. Excavations at Pit 3 also yielded shards of the cruder Zhangzhou blue-
787
1989, pp. 14–20. and-white porcelain. There are also shards from a crudely potted bowl sketchily
789
786 Ibid., p. 14.
787 Published in Gardiner, forthcoming 2015. For the painted in watery cobalt blue with a scroll of stylized lotus and leaves found at Pit
British Museum example, see Harrison-Hall, 2001,
pp. 278–279, no. 11:6. 17, comparable to the three Witte Leeuw examples discussed earlier. Similar bowls
790
788 Published in Gardiner, forthcoming 2015. Van der were found at Flowerdew Hundred, Governor’s Land and Eppes Island, and a shard of
Pijl-Ketel, 1982, p. 180, no. 3.19.
789 Canepa, 2006, p. 39, fig. 23. another example was found at Jordan’s Point.
790 Published in Kelso and Straube, 2008, p. 29, fig.
61. For the Witte Leeuw bowls, see Van der Pijl- Archaeological excavations undertaken in the 1980s at the Boldrup Plantation
Ketel, 1982, pp. 156–157. Mentioned in Gardiner, in what is now the port city of Newport News, near Jamestown, yielded a shard of a
forthcoming 2015.
791 Published in Ibid. finely potted Kraak plate decorated with deer in a landscape within a white cavetto.
791
Trade in Chinese Porcelain 253