Page 313 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

incorporated it into their daily life by using porcelain not only as tableware, but also Although they imitated the models provided as close as possible, the decoration was
in formal arrangements for interior decoration. By the early 1610s even urban middle made in the free and painterly style characteristic of the production of these kilns.
class residents displayed porcelain in different ways in their interiors, for instance on It has become clear that the influence exerted on the Jingdezhen potters by the
hanging cupboards, on top of the lintel above the door or arranged symmetrically on Dutch, who are documented as having first ordered porcelain after European models
top of a cabinet. However, it was only in 1632 that the custom of displaying porcelain in 1634, 1017 was much more prominent than that of the Iberians, though still limited.
and other curiosities in a separate room is recorded as having been adopted at one of Although the Jingdezhen potters copied almost exactly the wooden, earthenware or
the Stadholder’s residences. pewter models provided by the VOC, they did not always fulfill the Dutch requests
Although only a small amount of porcelain was imported into England at the concerning the decoration of the porcelain. The first VOC orders of porcelain with
time, mostly as private trade via the Dutch Republic or through privateering, it seems specific European motifs were not delivered; and later were delivered despite repeated
clear that it was highly appreciated. Initially, porcelain was considered a valuable instructions given by the Dutch to omit those motifs. It appears that the European
curiosity and thus was sometimes fitted with silver-gilt mounts made by renowned influence on the Zhangzhou kilns was not limited to the Iberians, as Dutch printed
English silversmiths, or was collected by prominent men and women who displayed sources seem to have influenced the decoration of a group of dishes made by the
it along with other exotic imported objects in a Kunstkammer fashion for a selected potters there. These relate to European sea trade routes, reflecting both Portuguese and
audience. It was shown that in England, by 1605, porcelain was being displayed in Dutch influence. It has also become clear that porcelains from the Zhangzhou kilns
a separate architectural space, specially designed for that purpose, similar to what were far more widely traded and valued by the Europeans than previously thought.
had occurred in Portugal about forty years earlier. Porcelain remained for decades the The Dutch, unlike the Portuguese, were not interested in having European coat
privilege of the royalty, nobility and wealthy merchants, but then it gradually became of arms or monograms depicted on the porcelain made to order for them at the time. 1018
more available to different social groups. Instead, the Dutch desired to have porcelain for use in their daily life, especially for
From the analysis of a selected group of extant porcelains it has been possible to eating and drinking at the dinner table, as well as for use as decorative and showy
conclude that the European influence on the porcelain made to order at the private elements in their households, both in the Dutch Republic and in their colonies in
kilns of Jingdezhen and Zhangzhou in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century was Asia and the New World. Chinese motifs were much liked and were considered exotic,
quite limited. This is not surprising, as porcelain would have been always ordered via but preferably on shapes that suited their own material culture. Thus, contrary to
the Chinese junk traders who acted as middleman for the Europeans. The Portuguese what occurred with the Iberians, the Dutch influence on porcelain consisted mostly of
were the first Europeans to exert influence on porcelain made at Jingdezhen. The new shapes, rather than motifs. No evidence of any influence exerted by the English
pieces they ordered during the Zhengde and early Jiajing reigns were produced as in the porcelain made to order during this period was found during the research for
ordinary trade porcelain, sometimes after Middle Eastern shapes. They combined this study.
traditional Chinese motifs showing Buddhist, Daoist or Confucian connotations, The extant porcelain pieces discussed in section 3.4 of this Chapter provide
with motifs related to the Portuguese Crown, nobility and the Church, or taken from 1017 As noted by Viallé, the Governor-General Jacques tangible evidence of the complex but fascinating cultural interactions and material
the artistic repertoire of Renaissance Europe. It was during the Jiajing reign that the Specx in Batavia sent a letter to Hans Putmans in exchanges that occurred between the Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch merchants and
Tayouan on 27 June of that year, in 1634, requesting
Jingdezhen potters adapted more to the taste and requirements of the Portuguese porcelain in European shapes. It reads: ‘Your the Chinese junk merchants, who served as intermediaries for the porcelain potters
and began to make some new shapes that reflected European influence. Orders of Honour should procure rare porcelains like piringhs and painters at the kilns of Jingdezhen and Zhangzhou, in the sixteenth and early
with flat borders like the Dutch pewter tableplates,
porcelain, especially decorated with coat of arms of the nobility, and religious emblems jugs, mugs, …’. From the response sent from seventeenth centuries.
Tayouan to Batavia on 28 September of that same
or monograms increased considerably from the Wanli reign onwards. Some orders year we learn that ‘patterns’ had been given to the
were still produced as traditional trade porcelain of the previous reigns, only adapting Chinese junk traders to be copied more than two
years earlier. VOC 1111 and VOC 1116, respectively.
the decoration to the European demands, but the majority was made in the new mass- Viallé, 1992, pp. 8-9. However, it is important to
remember that the earliest textual evidence of
produced Kraak porcelain. The Chinese junk traders were most probably provided porcelain made after European models provided
with printed or drawn designs and inscriptions which the Portuguese desired to be by the Dutch, as discussed in section 3.4.2 of this
Chapter, dates to July 1635.
copied onto the porcelain. The multiple errors in the execution, however, reflect 1018 Dutch interest in ordering such porcelains appears
to have begun sometime after the mid-seventeenth
both the indirect nature of such orders and the porcelain decorators’ unfamiliarity century, when the production at the Jingdezhen
with such foreign motifs. Interestingly, only two Kraak pieces made to order with and Zhangzhou kilns had come to a halt due
to the Qing ban on foreign exports, imposed
armorials of the nobility of other European countries, i.e. Spain and Germany, have between 1645 and 1660. Thus the Dutch had to
turn to Japan to make porcelain to order for them.
so far been recorded. Thus far Dutch and English examples are absent. Besides, the Porcelain decorated in underglaze cobalt blue
rapid development of Kraak porcelain in Jingdezhen resulted in orders of porcelain with the monogram of the VOC or with subsidiary
monograms such as NVOC, some of them within
made in shapes modelled directly after European models for use in both secular and a Kraak style panelled border, were made at the
Arita kilns for Company use in the second half of
religious contexts. the seventeenth century. For two examples dating
Either the Portuguese or Spanish also exerted some influence on the porcelain to c.1660–1680, see Ayers, Impey and Mallet, 1990,
p. 94, nos. 32–33. The Dutch also ordered plates,
made at the southern kilns of Zhangzhou. At least two European shapes, both different dishes and shields made of Japanese lacquered
wood decorated with armorials in the late
from those ordered at Jingdezhen, were made to order in the late sixteenth century. seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

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