Page 310 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Discussion [3.5] Prince Philip William of Orange, lists 199 pieces of porcelain displayed in the ‘Princess’

Cabinet’, which was located next to her bedchamber. It was almost thirteen years later,
in 1632, that the custom of displaying porcelain in a separate room was adopted in
the Dutch Republic. That year, Amalia van Solms-Braunfels, the wife of the third
Stadholder of the States General, created a ‘groote porceleyn-cabinet’, and around
1632–1634 a gallery, to display porcelain along with other curiosities at Noordeinde
Palace. What has become apparent is that members of the high-ranking noble
families, whether in Portugal, England or the Dutch Republic, exclusively enjoyed the
privilege of acquiring and displaying a large quantity of porcelain pieces in separate
architectural spaces or rooms, which undoubtedly reflected their interest in imported
Asian goods, sophisticated taste, vast wealth and social standing at the time. Although
there is a serious lack of detailed knowledge on the use of such porcelain displays,
and specifically the exact quantity and types of porcelain, and way in which they
were displayed, we can now confidently say that this custom began much earlier that
previously acknowledged, and definitely not in the Dutch Republic. The forthcoming
publication of the research project ‘All his worldly possessions. The estate of the 5th
Duke of Bragança, D. Teodósio I’ may bring to light further information on the earliest
architectural space created to display porcelain thus far documented.
This study has also shown that the custom of displaying a number of porcelain
pieces alongside small objects of various materials in credenzas, cupboards, cabinets or
other furniture of that sort placed against the walls of a private room was adopted in
Western Europe as early as the late 1580s. Interestingly, this way of displaying porcelain
appears to have first occurred in Italy, but not in the residence of an Italian nobleman.
New and important information found through the concurrent study of textual sources It was in the stately house of the Portuguese New Christian merchant banker, António
concerning the trade in porcelain by the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English in da Fonseca, in Rome. The 1588 inventory compiled a few months before his death lists
the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries relates to its use in ornamental displays 526 porcelain pieces displayed alongside majolica and Portuguese earthenware objects
adopted for interior decoration in Western Europe. It has been shown that the custom in wooden credenzas. The display of a large number of porcelain pieces in specially
of displaying a large quantity of porcelain in a separate architectural space or room made built-in cupboards or cabinets appear to have been simultaneously adopted in
specially created for that purpose began much earlier than previously thought, and that the Southern Netherlands and in Spain in the late 1610s. The Sense of Sight, one of
it first occurred in Portugal in the early 1560s, and then in England in the early 1600s. five paintings of the cabinet of curiosities of the Archduke Albert of Austria and his
This new information is important because it puts an end to the long-lasting general wife Isabella Clara, dating to 1617–1618, depicts a large number of porcelain pieces
assumption that such ornamental displays of porcelain first appeared in the Dutch displayed on a table, a cabinet and a sideboard; and the 1619 inventory of the home
Republic and then spread throughout Europe. of the VI Duke of Béjar, Alonso Diego López de Zúñiga Sotomayor, lists porcelain
Thus far the earliest reference to this custom of displaying porcelain is found in and other ceramic objects displayed together on an ‘architrave’ and ‘on top of a larder’.
the 1563 unpublished post-mortem inventory of Teodósio I, 5th Duke of Braganza, Here, again, we lack detailed information on how exactly the porcelain and other
the most important nobleman after the King of Portugal. The inventory lists more objects mentioned in the inventories were displayed, and we do not know if these were
than 100 pieces of porcelain displayed alongside glass objects in the dowager Duchess’s formal arrangements or not. The Sense of Sight painting suggests that the pieces of
‘House of glass and porcelain’ at the ducal palace of Vila Viçosa in central Portugal. porcelain were not purposely arranged in groups. Thus, if one takes into consideration
The next reference is found in another unpublished inventory taken in 1605 of the Dutch textual and visual sources depicting interiors discussed and illustrated earlier,
furnishings of Wardour Castle in Wiltshire, South West England, which belonged one can conclude that it was only the custom of displaying porcelain arranged in
to Sir Mathew Arundell. In the ‘possylen house’ are listed 154 pieces of porcelain groups (sometimes symmetrically) on wooden shelves, on the lintel above the doors
displayed alongside earthenware, brass, marble, wicker and Venetian glass objects. It or on top of cupboards that was first adopted in the Dutch Republic for interior
is clear from the designations given by the individuals who drew up these inventories decoration in the 1630s.
that these architectural spaces were used specifically to display porcelain. In addition,
these inventories indicate that in both Portugal and England porcelain was displayed
alongside imported glass objects. It is not until the following decade that this custom
of displaying porcelain is recorded in the Southern Netherlands. The inventory of
Breda Castle taken in 1619 after the death of Eleanora of Bourbon-Condé, wife of

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