Page 256 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

This shard, as recently noted by Gardiner, relates closely to a plate of c.1575–1600 blue-and-white shard, possibly from a Kraak plate, excavated from the remains of
displayed in the ceiling of the Santos Palace in Lisbon. This porcelain may have the house of the subsequent proprietor of the settlement, Sir David Kirke (d. 1654),
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belonged to William Claiborne, who patented Baldrup plantation on the Warwick who renamed it the Pool Plantation. It is likely that the small quantity of early
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River in 1625; to Captain Samuel Stevens who acquired the estate in 1632; or to seventeenth century porcelain found at Ferryland was brought over from England
Richard Stephens and his wife Elizabeth Percy, who married Governor John Harvey when the wealthy Calvert and Kirke colonists arrived to this small and isolated fishing
(d. 1646) in 1638. 793 colony, perhaps as symbols of their elite social status in the motherland.
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Shards of a Kraak saucer dish were also found at Flowerdew Hundred, another To sum up, the information from English written sources as well as porcelain
plantation founded in 1619 by George Yeardley, Virginia’s first Royal Governor, on recovered from English shipwrecks that sank while en route from England to Virginia,
the south side of the James River. As noted by McCartney, porcelain is listed in and from various sites at the colonies of Virginia and of Avalon, indicate that only
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an inventory of the belongings of George Thorpe taken after his death in 1622 at small quantities of porcelain reached the earliest English settlements in the New World
a private plantation called Berkeley Hundred on the north side of the James River, in the early seventeenth century. Most of the porcelain, as it also occurred in the
which was also founded in 1619. This inventory, taken in April 1634, lists ‘6 litle Fig. 3.3.3.2.1 Fragment of a blue-and-white Spanish and Dutch colonies in the New World, was blue-and-white from Jingdezhen
pursline dishes’ along a considerable quantity of silver, pewter and wooden objects, wine cup excavated at the Ferryland site, ranging from fine to rather low quality. The porcelain excavated not only shows close
Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland
as well as household furnishings and clothing. Thorpe, an Episcopal priest, was a Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province similarities to finds made in England, but also to finds from two Dutch shipwrecks
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member of the VC and one of the owners of the plantation. Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627) which sank in the early 1610s, the Witte Leeuw (1613) and the Banda (1615). There
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© Aaron Miller
As mentioned earlier, the English colonists may have acquired some of the is some porcelain that relates to finds from the Hatcher junk (c.1643). It seems clear
porcelain discussed above through trade with ships of private Dutch traders that visited 792 For an image of this plate, see Rinaldi, 1989, p. 79, Fig. 3.3.3.2.2 Shards of a blue-and-white that some of the porcelain was imported into the English colonies via England, most
pl. 54. bowl excavated at the Ferryland site, Avalon
Virginia from as early as 1611, just a year before Virginia began growing tobacco in 793 The information on the inhabitants of Boldrup Peninsula in Newfoundland probably brought among the personal belongings of the early colonists, but other may
sizable quantities for commercial export, which came to be the colony’s most important Plantation is taken from Calder Loth (ed.), The Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province have come from trade with private Dutch merchants that traded mainly in slaves and
Virginia Landmarks Register, fourth edition, Virginia,
source of income. We know that after the establishment of the WIC in 1621 with 1999, p. 337. Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627) tobacco in Virginia. The porcelain that was brought to the colonies from England
794 Mentioned in Curtis, 1998, p. 24. For more © Aaron Miller
its monopoly on trade, the Dutch continued to trade in tobacco with the colony of information on this colonial plantation, see James would in turn have been acquired via the Dutch Republic or as booty taken from
Virginia and supply it with a greater variety of consumer goods than their own English Deetz, Flowerdew Hundred: The Archaeology of a Fig. 3.3.3.2.3 Fragment of a blue-and-white Spanish ships and shipwrecks. The porcelain finds are associated with households of
Virginia Plantation, 1619–1864, Charlottesville and
ships, and at a more favorable exchange. When the civil war between Charles I and London, 1993. bowl excavated at the Ferryland site, Avalon well-to-do English colonists, and thus would probably have served as symbols of their
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Peninsula in Newfoundland
795 McCartney, 2011, pp. 77–78. For a transcription
Parliament broke out in 1642, disrupting shipping between London and Virginia, the of the original inventory, see Eric Gethyn-Jones, Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province elite social status.
Dutch took advantage of the situation not only by establishing permanent trading George Thorpe and the Berkeley Company: A Ming dynasty, Wanli/Tianqi reign (1573–1627)
© Aaron Miller
Gloucestershire Enterprise in Virginia, Gloucester,
posts in the colony and associating themselves with Virginia’s governing class, but also 1982, pp. 208–210.
796 Robert Brenner, Merchants and Revolution: 801 Calvert purchased a portion of the grant of land of
by becoming major tobacco exporters. Commercial Change, Political Conflict, and London’s the Avalon Peninsula from Sir William Vaughan, who
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Overseas Traders, 1550–1653, London, 2003, p. 146. had founded and settled two English colonies near
797 Wilcoxen, 1987, pp. 19–20. As Pagan has noted, the the present location of Ferryland in 1617. Calvert
Colony of Avalon [3.3.3.2] Dutch retained a commercial foothold in Virginia sought to benefit from the rich fishing off the coast of
during the 1620s and 1630s despite opposition Newfoundland and the inter-Atlantic trade between
Porcelain has also been found at another early English permanent settlement in present- from the English government and merchants Europe, the New World and the West Indies. In 1621,
day Canada. Archaeological excavations at the Ferryland site, on the east coast of the from London. For more information, see John R. he dispatched Captain Edward Wynne and eleven
Pagan, ‘Dutch Maritime and Commercial Activity
other men to begin construction of the settlement.
Avalon Peninsula in Newfoundland, yielded a fragment of the base and two body in Mid-Seventeenth Century Virginia’, The Virginia A large ‘Mansion House’ was built a year later, which
Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 90, No. 4 came to be the home of the Calvert family. Miller,
shards from a small blue-and-white wine cup with flame and scroll bands identical (1982), pp. 485–501. 2005, pp. 11–12.
to those found at other English sites in Virginia discussed above (Fig. 3.3.3.2.1). 799 798 The Dutch had ample opportunity to import 802 Excavated in Area F, Event 367. Ibid., p. 112, fig. 10.5;
porcelain into Virginia in the early 1640s, as in March
and Appendix 3, p. 172, fig. 3.28.
According to Miller, the wine cup probably belonged to the founder of the fishing 1643 the assembly proclaimed that ‘It shall be free 803 Excavated in Area F, Events 363, 432, and 481. Ibid.,
and lawfull for any merchant, factors or others of p. 113, fig. 10.6; and Appendix 3, p. 198.
colony Sir George Calvert, 1st Lord Baltimore (1579/80–1632), who was shareholder the Dutch nation to import wares and merchandizes 804 Excavated in Area G, Event 545. Ibid., pp. 114–115,
fig. 10.8; and Appendix 3, p. 171, fig. 3.25.
in both the VC and EIC from 1609, and Secretary of State in England under James and to trade or traffique for the commoditys of 805 Van der Pijl-Ketel, 1982, pp. 161–162, no. 3.10.1.
the colony in any ship or shipps of their owne or
I until 1625. 800 Calvert first reached Ferryland or the Colony of Avalon, as he called belonging to the Netherlands’. Cited in Pagan, 1982, 806 Excavated in Area F, Event 464. Miller, 2005,
pp. 491–492. Also see pp. 486–487. Appendix 3, p. 213, fig. 3.86. After the harsh winter
his settlement, in 1627, and the following year he returned to reside there with his 799 The shards were excavated in Area F, Event 334, in of 1628–1629, Calvert wrote a letter to King Charles
family and forty other settlers. Although Calvert and his family only lived briefly in a refuse disposal located at the base of the 1622 I informing his intentions to leave Ferryland and
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defensive ditch to the east of the primary settlement.
establish himself in Virginia. The Calvert family
Ferryland, a few other porcelain shards of the Wanli reign found in an early seventeenth Aaron Miller, The far East in the northeast: an continued to own the Avalon Colony until 1637, when
analysis of the Chinese export porcelain excavated Charles I granted the Island of Newfoundland to Sir
century midden have been associated with the family household. These include a base at Ferryland, Newfoundland, unpublished MA David Kirke. The following year, Kirke dispossessed
fragment of another blue-and-white cup with a shallow, wide foot ring 802 and four Thesis, Department of Anthropology, Memorial Calvert’s governor and established Ferryland
University of Newfoundland, 2005, p. 10; p. 90, fig.
as the principal settlement of Newfoundland. A
shards of a small blue-and-white bowl decorated with ruyi-heads (Fig. 3.3.3.2.2). 9.2; pp. 108–109; and Appendix 3, p. 170, fig. 3.23. dispute for its ownership between the Calvert and
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I am greatly indebted to Aaron Miller for providing Kirke families lasted until the third quarter of the
In addition, shards of a small blue-and-white wine cup sketchily painted with me with information and images of the porcelain seventeenth century. James A. Tuck, ‘Archaeology
excavated at the site.
stylized peach sprays were excavated from a context dating to the second half of the 800 Miller, 2005, pp. 110–111; and Stephen Hornsby, at Ferryland, Newfoundland’, Newfoundland
Studies 9, 2 (1993), pp. 294–295. Until now, the Kirke
seventeenth century (Fig. 3.3.3.2.3). Its form and decoration, however, relate closely British Atlantic, American Frontier: Spaces of Power house is the only dwelling that has had ownership
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in Early Modern British America, Hanover and attributed. Miller, 2005, p. 113.
to about 20 wine cups recovered from the Witte Leeuw (1613). There is also a tiny London, 2005, p. 89. 807 Ibid., p. 136.
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254 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 255