Page 259 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

3.4.1.1.2), copying the cross of the Portuguese Order of Christ depicted on gold coins
and the sails of ships during this period, were excavated from Huawanping site at
Shangchuan Island in Guangdong province, where the Portuguese regularly conducted
clandestine trade before 1557. A ten-cruzado gold coin with the cross of the Order
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of Christ dating to the reign of John III recovered from a Portuguese shipwreck that
sank near Oranjemund in Namibia during the second quarter of the sixteenth century,
proves that such coins were taken by the Portuguese to India and thus could have
found their way to Portuguese settlements in Asia to serve as models for the porcelain
dishes (Fig. 3.4.1.1.3). Another shard with the Order of Christ cross was excavated
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at Penny’s Bay, a site discovered in Lantau Island, Hong Kong, where merchants from
China and Southeast Asia traded clandestinely since the early Ming dynasty. A shard
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of a dish with similar decoration and cross motif excavated at Alfama, one of Lisbon’s
oldest districts, proves that this type of dish was shipped to Portugal. While these
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dishes were clearly intended for Portuguese consumers residing in their homeland or Fig. 3.4.1.1.5 Blue-and-white bottle Fig. 3.4.1.1.6 Blue-and-white armorial
bearing a Portuguese inscription ewer with Iranian silver mounts
overseas, some pieces bearing this cross motif were exported, together with ordinary Fig. 3.4.1.1.4 Shard of a blue-and-white and date 1552 with metal mounts Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province
trade porcelain, to the Middle East. This is evidenced by a fragment of the base of a bottle excavated from Huawanping site at Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Ming dynasty, Jiajing mark and of the
Shangchuan Island, Guangdong province Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) period (1522–1566)
bottle, bearing a similar cross motif, from the Ardebil Shrine in Iran. Other porcelain
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Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Height: 24.8cm Height: 33.5cm
orders of this period may still yet come to light. Ming dynasty, Jiajing reign (1522–1566) Victoria and Albert Museum, London Victoria and Albert Museum, London
A more recent excavation at the Huawanping site yielded a shard that formed Fig. 3.4.1.1.2 Shard of a blue-and-white © Huang Wei and Huang Qinghua (museum no. 237-1892) (museum no. C.222-1931)
dish excavated from Huawanping site at
part of a blue-and-white pear-shaped bottle bearing the Portuguese inscription ‘ISTO Shangchuan Island, Guangdong province
MANDOU FAZER JORGE ALVRZ N/A ERA DE 1552 REINA’ (JORGE ALVAREZ Jingdezhen kilns, Jiangxi province Of this reign are also known two blue-and-white ewers of a Middle Eastern
Ming dynasty, Zhengde reign (1506–1521) Vicente, Gonçalo Lopes and Cristina Nozes, ‘Largo
HAD THIS MADE AT THE TIME OF 1552) (Fig. 3.4.1.1.4). Nine extant bottles © Huang Wei and Huang Qinghua do Chafariz de Dentro-Alfama em Época Moderna’, metal shape, which bear a coat-of-arms attributed to the nobleman, navigator and
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bearing this inscription with the name of an individual person, all dating to the Jiajing Paper presented at Congresso Internacional de merchant Antonio Peixoto, who after being rejected entry to Canton in 1542 traded
Fig. 3.4.1.1.3 Ten-cruzado gold coin minted Arqueologia Moderna, Lisbon, 2011, pl. 2, no. 1.
reign, have been recorded so far. One of them is housed in the Victoria and Albert 815 A sketch-drawing of the cross motif is illustrated in off the south China coast and Japan (Fig. 3.4.1.1.6). The arms, depicted within a
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during the reign of King John III from the
Museum (Fig. 3.4.1.1.5). Jorge Álvarez, a naval captain and merchant, was the first shipwreck Oranjemund (second quarter of Pope, 1981, p. 162; where the author mentions that shield, fill each side of their pear-shaped bodies, and are shown in combination with
the bottle is similar to an intact bottle decorated
Portuguese to reach China, and a friend of the famous Jesuit missionary Francis the sixteenth century) with lotus scrolls, no. 29.451, shown on plate 74. Chinese supporting borders and motifs. These ewers, like two of the ewers of related
© Namibia Namdeb/De Beers, 816 The shard is discussed and illustrated in Huang and
Xavier, who died on Shangchuan Island that same year. Scholars have suggested that via Bloomberg News Huang, 2009, p. 59 and p. 79, fig. 22, respectively. form decorated with the ‘fountain motif’ discussed below, were made for export
the inscription (written upside down with several errors and arranged in two lines) is 817 The bottles are found in the Victoria and Albert and yet they all bear an imperial Jiajing reign mark. Thus they are the result of a
Museum in London (illustrated here), Museu do
incomplete and it may have ended with the text ‘REINANDO EM PORTUGAL EL Caramulo (Fundação Abel e João de Lacerda) in combination of direct Chinese, Middle Eastern and European influences. In addition,
China. 500 Years of Trade, Lisbon, 2007. Reprinted in Caramulo, Fundação Carmona e Costa in Lisbon,
REI D. JOÃO III’ (REIGNING IN PORTUGAL THE KING JOHN III). The a private edition, Haren, 2008, p. 30, fig. 2. Musée national des Arts asiatiques-Guimet in Paris, the contemporary Persian (Iranian) silver mounts of the ewer in the Victoria and
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shape and main decoration of the bottles are wholly Chinese, the latter varying from 810 The majority of the extant pieces are large dishes Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Bastan Museum Albert Museum illustrated here, led us to believe that it was exported to the Middle
and bowls, but there are also a few ewers and
in Teheran (formerly in the Ardebil Shrine), and three
one example to the next and depicting Chinese nature and aquatic scenes. bottles. For the most recent and comprehensive private collections. The examples in the Victoria East and later mounted there. This would suggest that porcelain made as special order
study on this subject and eight examples from a and Albert Museum and the Caramulo Museum
The earliest surviving porcelain bearing the coat-of-arms of a Portuguese private collection, see Pinto de Matos, 2011, pp. have both their necks broken and fitted with metal for Portuguese customers circulated to the Middle East more commonly than
129–133 and pp. 140–161, nos. 56–63, respectively.
individual is dated by inscription to the Jiajing reign. It is a blue-and-white bowl that 811 For a discussion and images of these shards, see mounts; and a bottle in a private collection has previously thought.
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its neck remade in white porcelain. Published in
has two small horizontal handles with lobed edges in the Museum Duca di Martina Huang and Huang, 2007, p. 85, figs. 28 and 30–31; Kerr, 2001, p. 36, fig. 2; Lion-Goldschmidt, 1978, About the same time, the Jingdezhen potters made blue-and-white porcelain
and p. 86, figs. 32–33; and Huang and Huang, 2009, pp. 142–143, figs. 134 and 134a; Pinto de Matos 1993,
in Naples, which bears a coat-of-arms of the Portuguese family Abreu in combination pp. 76–8, figs. 14-18. p. 42; Lion-Goldschmidt, 1998, p. 66; Pope, 1956, decorated with striking motifs taken from the artistic repertoire of Renaissance
with the Portuguese inscription ‘EM TEMPO DE PERO DE FARIA DE 1541’ (AT 812 Portuguese 10-cruzado gold coins with the cross pp. 57–58, pl. 6, fig. L; and Pinto de Matos, 2011, Europe. Fabulous grotesque masks, for instance, decorate the exterior of two extant
of the Order of Christ were minted between the
pp. 160–161, no. 63.
THE TIME OF PERO DE FARIA IN 1541) (Fig. 3.4.1.2.1), which will be discussed reigns of King Manuel I and King John III. The coin 818 Luis Keil, ‘Porcelanas chinesas do século XVI com bowls, which bear imperial Jiajing reign marks (Figs. 3.4.1.1.7a, b, c, d and e). The
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was first discussed and illustrated in Francisco J.S. insçriçoes em português’, Boletim da Academia
in the following pages. The arms have been attributed to Jõao Fernandes de Abreu, Alves, ‘The 16th century Portuguese shipwreck Nacional de Belas-artes, 1942, p. 15; and Pinto de desire to commission porcelain with grotesque imagery underlines the European taste
Matos, 2011, p. 160.
tutor of King John III and friend of Pero de Faria, who was in Malacca at the time of Oranjemund, Namibia. Report on the missions 819 For this opinion and a discussion on this bowl, for this novel and extravagant style, which by the early sixteenth century was widely
carried out by the Portuguese team in 2008 and
the latter was serving his second term as captain, from 1537 to 1543. Another 2009’, Trabalhos da DANS, 45, Lisbon, April 2011, pp. see Lucia Catherina, ‘Chinese “Blue-and-White” disseminated throughout Europe, usually by way of copying or adapting drawings and
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9–10. I am indebted to Francisco Alves for granting in the “Duca di Martina” Museum in Naples’, East
bowl of this shape, and one other with everted rim, bear the same inscription but me permission to illustrate an image of the coin in and West, Instituto Italiano per l’Africa e L’Oriente, prints. There is no firm evidence as to who commissioned these bowls. We have,
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this doctoral dissertation.
Vol. 26, No. 1/2 (March–June 1976), pp. 213–214.
lack the arms. All three bowls are decorated on the exterior with purely Chinese 813 Published in Peter Y. K. Lam, ‘Late 15th to Early 820 They are found in the Museu Regional (Museu Rainha however, graphic evidence of the use of similar grotesque ornamental designs both
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motifs, but an example in the Topkapi Saray bears also the armillary sphere and the 16th Century Blue and White Porcelain from Dona Leonor) in Beja and the Topkapi Saray in in secular and religious contexts in the Southern Netherlands (then ruled by Spain)
Penny’s Bay, Hong Kong’, Journal of the Hong Istanbul. All three bowls bear an apocryphal Xuande
Portuguese royal coat-of-arms (inverted), which is repeated on the centre interior. It Kong Archaeological Society, Vol. 12, 1986–1988, p. mark (1426–1435). For a detailed discussion on and Portugal at the time. The three grotesque masks (each repeated once) depicted
is still unclear who ordered these bowls or for whom they were made. Scholars believe 154, fig. 18. This archaeological find was recently these pieces and images of the Rainha Dona Leonor on each bowl, for example, are closely comparable to those seen on sets of prints
discussed by Liu, 2010.
example, see Jin Guo Ping and Wu Zhiliang, ‘Liampó
that the inscription states that the bowls were ordered during the second term Pero de 814 Sketch-drawings of the front and back of the shard nas Relações Sino-Portuguesas entre 1524 e 1541 e published in Antwerp in the 1550s (Fig. 3.4.1.1.8a, b and c). The grotesque border
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are illustrated in Rodrigo Banha da Silva, Pedro a Escudela de Pêro de Faria’, Revista de Cultura,
Faria was captain, but probably not by him personally. Miranda, Vasco Noronha Vieira, António Moreira Instituto Cultural do Governo da R.A.E. de Macau, chosen to decorate the rim, on the other hand, resembles stone reliefs of the Jerónimos
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258 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Porcelain 259