THE IMPORTANCE OF PORCELAIN
Rise of Dutch Taste in Decorative Art—Influence of Foreign Trade in
the Dutch Home—Accounts of Porcelain by Mediaeval Travellers:
Edrisi, Ibn Batuta and Shah Rukh; Quotation from Pigapheta—A great
European Collection—Monopoly of Trade by the Portuguese—Quotation
from Pyrard de Laval—Portuguese Carracks—Voyages to Goa and Japan—
Porcelain and Cabinets—Mendoza’s Description of Earthenware—Dutch
and English Merchants—Presents to Queen Elizabeth—Dutch
Expeditions and Establishment of the Dutch East India Company—
Embassy to the Emperor of China in 1655—Descriptions of the
Manufacture of Porcelain—Manufacture and Potters of Delft—
Quotation from d’Entrecolles on Porcelain and Oriental Trade—
Prices—Tea; Tea-drinking—A Dutch Poet on the Tea-table—Chrestina
de Ridder’s Porcelain—Prices of Porcelain in 1653.
Until the middle of the seventeenth century, Flanders may be said to
have overshadowed Holland in the field of Decorative Art, although, as
we have seen, the two most important designers of domestic furniture—De
Vries and Crispin van de Passe—were Dutch. The reason of Flemish
preponderance was that the sovereigns and regents resided at Mechlin,
Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp, and to those courts the ablest men in the
arts and crafts naturally flocked. With the decay of Antwerp, we enter
the period of the Flemish Decadence, and Amsterdam rises to wealth and
power at her rival’s expense. After the death of Rubens, Dutch art is
supreme in the Low Countries; and Dutch taste undoubtedly influenced
France and England.
The Dutch home of the seventeenth century was profoundly affected by
foreign trade. The day of heavy carved furniture was over lightness and
brightness are now the prevailing notes. Broad surfaces are veneered and
inlaid with exotic woods; and the lathe is freely used in the
ornamentation of the supports of seats, cupboards, cabinets, etc. Above
all, we notice a predominance of native and Oriental ceramic ware.
The Dutch were as fond of earthenware as of tulips; and no study of a
Dutch interior could be adequate if it neglected to take into account
the part played by Delft and porcelain.
The three novelties that impressed the Dutch home of the seventeenth
century were tea, porcelain and lacquer. The importance of tea, with its
table and equipage as a domestic altar, can hardly be overestimated; but
its consideration may be deferred for the moment. Porcelain affected the
arrangement of furniture and the decoration of rooms. The cabinet
assumed new forms and proportions, as porcelain decorated its exterior.
Although Chinese porcelains had appeared in the cabinets of amateurs of
the sixteenth century, the comparative rarity of this ware confined its
enjoyment to the very wealthy. The magnificent ebony cabinets,
_armoires_, or _kasten_, with drawers and interior shelves in which
women delighted to set in beautiful order miniatures and jewels, enamels
and ivories, shells and rock-crystals, medals and coral, now had also to
find room for carved ivory and ebony, gods and monsters, jade,
porcelain, sandal-wood and lacquer boxes, and all the rarities that were
to be found in the stores of the Eastern traders.
Porcelain was early held in high esteem, and a vase was regarded as a
fit present from one potentate to another. It was very rare in Western
Europe until the Portuguese opened the Eastern gates. Mediaeval
travellers had frequently referred to its preciousness. Edrisi (1154)
says of Susah: “Here are made an unequalled kind of porcelain, the
Ghazar of China.” There was always a certain mystery attached to its
composition and qualities till the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Ibn Batuta, who travelled in Bengal and China about 1350, gives a more
or less fabulous account of its manufacture. He says: “Porcelain in
China is of about the same value as earthenware with us, or even less.
It is exported to India and elsewhere, passing from country to country
till it reaches us in Morocco. It is certainly the finest of all pottery
ware.” In 1420 the Embassy sent by Shah Rukh to the Chinese Court
mentions a buffet on which were arranged flagons, cups and goblets of
silver and porcelain. The scribe also bears witness to the fact that “in
the arts of stone-polishing, cabinet-making, pottery and brick-making,
there is nobody with us who can compare with the Chinese.”
Early in the sixteenth century, before 1520, A. Pigapheta made a voyage
to the East. He describes a visit to the house of the Queen of Mindanao:
“I sat down by the side of her; she was weaving a palm mat to sleep
upon. Throughout her house was seen porcelain vases suspended to the
walls and four metal timbals.” He tells us that in Borneo, at Bruni:
“For one cathil (a weight equal to two of our pounds) of quicksilver
they gave us six porcelain dishes; for a cathil of metal they gave one
small porcelain vase, and a large vase for three knives.... The
merchandise which is most esteemed here is bronze, quicksilver,
cinnabar, glass, woollen stuffs, linens; but above all they esteem iron
and spectacles.
“Since I saw such use made of porcelain I got some information
respecting it, and I learned that it is made with a kind of very white
earth, which is left underground for fully fifty years to refine it, so
that they are in the habit of saying that a father buries it for his
son. It is said that if poison is put into a vessel of fine porcelain it
breaks immediately.”
It is generally supposed that the table service, even among the rich,
was very limited during the sixteenth century. A careful search of the
inventories, however, shows that a complete service of faïence was to be
found on the tables of the opulent in the first half of the sixteenth
century. In 1532, we find that the widow of a minister of Francis I had
two complete services of beautiful faïence: one entirely white, and the
other “historied” with all kinds of coloured portraits. These two
services were composed each of four dozen large and three dozen small
plates, four _aiguières_, three round and one oval basin, three salts
(_sallières_), eight pots, twelve _tazzi_, and three dozen spoons, some
of ivory and some of wood and mother-of-pearl, “which we used in summer
and autumn in serving collations of confitures, junkets, custards,
syllabubs, fruits and cider to the great ladies who came to visit my
daughters and myself; and in addition I have also many other vessels of
the best pottery of Italy, Germany, Flanders, England and Spain.”
Besides the above, this lady possessed forty-two vases, pots, _tazzi_
and plaques of porcelain “of the earliest days when Europeans went to
China, which are of a beautiful white, and decorated with all kinds of
little paintings.” The owner, who had evidently read Pigapheta, adds
that the makers did not profit in their own lifetime by the manufacture
of this “_ravissante_” porcelain, because it had to be buried in the
earth for a century in order to come to perfection. Another reason why
it should be prized is that it is “so healthy that if it is soiled with
poison by evil doers who want to injure anybody, it will immediately
fall to pieces rather than suffer the vile draughts with which people
would ravage our entrails.”
At this date, the Oriental wares had not yet supplanted those that came
through Turkey, Asia Minor and Egypt by way of Venice and other Italian
ports. Among the lady’s possessions we find twenty-eight vases, pots,
cups and little earthenware bowls of Turkish work, decorated on the
necks and handles with little tufts resembling horses’ tails.
She also had four hundred beautiful glasses of all colours, and other
Venetian crystal vessels, “adorned with the gayest fancies that the
glass-blowers were capable of inventing, with which we delighted the
eyes of royalty and the great ministers of state at the great
entertainments we gave.”
After Portuguese navigators had found the route to the East around the
Cape of Good Hope, they were able to outstrip Venice as a sea-carrier
for Eastern merchandise. The Levant trade, with its costly loading and
unloading from caravan to ship, could not hope to compete with an
all-sea route, and therefore the Portuguese soon acquired a practical
monopoly of the traffic between Western Europe and Eastern Asia.[6]
Lisbon became the great mart whence lacquer, porcelain and other wares
were distributed throughout Europe. Dutch ships swarmed in the Tagus,
and transferred Oriental merchandise to Amsterdam and other European
ports.
Footnote 6:
We know that much porcelain was brought into Europe through Venice
from the Levant long after the Portuguese were dominant in the Eastern
seas. As late as 1623, in Minshen’s Spanish dialogues, _China metiall_
is defined as “the fine dishes of earth painted, such as are brought
from Venice.”
The Vicomte de Santarem assures us that from 1497 to 1521 from Lisbon
alone the Portuguese despatched thirty-three fleets, composed of 220
ships; and a fleet was despatched every year till the next century. The
fleet of 1604 even consisted of five ships. Two carvels also sailed the
same year.
We learn what these great ships were like from Pyrard de Laval (1601),
who wrote:
“Three or four Portuguese ships at most go out every year; these are the
carracks, called by them _naos de voyage_, which are sent out with the
intention that they shall return if they can....
“The carracks are all built at Lisbon ... they are ordinarily of 1,500
to 2,000 tons burden. Sometimes more, so that they are the largest
vessels in the world so far as I have been able to learn; they cannot
float in less than ten fathoms of water.
“These great carracks have four decks, on each of which a man, however
tall, can walk without touching his head against the deck above: indeed,
he comes not within two feet of it.
“The ships leaving Goa are laden not only with silver, but with divers
goods of Europe, such as wines, woollen fabrics, and among others red
scarlet; all sorts of glass and crystal wares, clocks which are highly
prized by the Chinese, much cotton cloth, precious stones cut and set in
rings, chains, carkanets, tokens, ear-pendants and bracelets; for the
Chinese like vastly to get gems and jewels of all sorts for their wives.
The ships leave Goa towards October, and touch at Cochin for precious
stones and spices, such as pepper and cinnamon, leaving there the
merchandise of Europe or of the northern parts of India. Thence they
sail for Malaca; for they cannot make this voyage without touching at
Malaca in order to get the Governor’s passport, and also to purchase the
merchandise of the islands of Sunda in exchange for cotton cloths and
other goods of India and Europe.
“Vessels making the voyage from Goa to Japan and back may reckon on
taking three whole years; nor can they reckon on less by reason of the
winds called by them _Monssons_ and by us _Muesons_, which prevail for
six months and more. From Malaca they go to Macao, and thence to Japan.
At all these places they must await the _Muesons_; in the meantime while
waiting they carry on their trade. At Macao they leave the greater part
of their goods, and all their silver, relading with other goods of
China, such as silks and Spanish white ... it is dear, and much in
request in Japan, where all the women whiten the whole body with it,
even down to the legs. This white comes from the island of Borneo,
whence it is carried to China. Then they carry to Japan all those China
goods and some others from Europe and India, which they sell exceeding
well; they bring back only silver, which they get cheap, and return to
Macao to resell all their silver, exchanging it for other merchandise.
They make a long sojourn in all those places, and then return to Malaca,
where they must call; there they make another exchange of goods for
those of Malaca and the islands of Sunda. Thence they return to Goa, or
whatever other place the master of the ship belongs to.”
In Goa, “They have no glasses, except what are brought from these parts
or from Persia, and that is but little, and, moreover, not much
esteemed, as they get the porcelaines of China at small cost.
“The Maldives take their food so nicely that they spill nothing, not
even a drop of water, though they wash the mouth before and after dinner
in basins served on purpose. The vessel used is of earthenware, like
that of Fayance, fashioned in the native style, and imported from
Cambaye; or else it is of China porcelain, which is very common and used
by almost all. But they use not any plate of earthenware, or of
porcelain, saving one kind of round box, polished and lacquered, with a
cover of the same; it is manufactured in the island....
“His (the King’s) plate is neither gold nor silver, for that is
forbidden by their law, but of porcelain or of other China fabric.
“It is impossible to tell all the great riches and all the rare and
beautiful things which the ships bring back; among others they bring
much gold in ingots. Some gold also they have in leaf and some in dust;
also great store of gilded woodwork, such as all sorts of vessels and
furniture lacquered, varnished and gilded with a thousand pretty
designs; then all kinds of silk stuffs, good store of unwrought silk,
great quantities of musk and civet, plenty of the metal called
_calin_,[7] which is much esteemed over all the Indies, and even in
Persia and elsewhere.... Of this metal they make all their utensils and
ornaments as we do have of silver and tin; they even use it for rings
and bracelets for girls and children. They import also from thence much
porcelain ware, which is used throughout India as well by the Portuguese
as by the Indians. Besides all this, many boxes, plates and baskets made
of little reeds covered with lacquer and varnished in all colours,
gilded and patterned. Among other things I should mention a great number
of cabinets of all patterns in the fashion of those of Germany. This is
an article the most perfect and of the finest workmanship to be seen
anywhere; for they are all of choice woods and inlaid with ivory,
mother-of-pearl and precious stones; in place of iron they are mounted
with gold. The Portuguese call them _Escritorios de la Chine_.”
Footnote 7:
Malayan tin.
J. G. Mendoza was another traveller who gave Europe the results of his
observations of Portuguese activities in the Far East, and helped to
stimulate a popular taste for porcelain. His book was translated into
English in 1588, by R. Parke. Among other interesting information he
tells us:
“There be also shops full of earthen vessels of divers making, redde,
greene, yellow, and gilt; it is so good cheepe that for foure rials of
plate they give fiftie pieces: very strong earth, the which they doo
breake all to pieces and grinde it and put it into sesternes with water,
made of lime and stone; and after that they have well tumbled and tossed
it in the water, of the creame that is upon it they make the finest sort
of them, and the lower they go, spending that substance that is the
courser: they make them of what colour they please, the which will never
be lost: then they put them into their killes and burne them. This has
beene seene and is of a truth, as appeareth in a booke set forth in the
Italian tongue by Duardo Banbosa,[8] that they do make them of
periwinkle shelles of the sea: the which they do grinde and put them
under the ground to refine them, whereas they lie 100 years. But if that
were true, they should not make so great a number of them as is made in
that kingdome, and is brought into Portugall, and carried into the Peru,
and Nova Espania, and into other parts of the world.... And the Chinos
do agree for this to be true. The finest sort of this is never carried
out of the countrie, for that it is spent in the service of the king,
and his governours, and is so fine and deere, that it seemeth to be of
fine and perfite cristal: that which is made in the province of Saxie is
the best and finest....
Footnote 8:
1520.
“The fine earthen dishes that are in this countrie cannot be declared
without many wordes. But that which is brought from thence into Spaine
is verie course; although, unto them that hath not seene the finer sort,
it seemeth excellent good; but they have such with them, that a cubbard
thereof amongest us would be esteemed as though it were of golde. The
finest cannot be brought forth of the kingdome upon paine of death;
neyther can any have the use thereof, but onely the _loytias_, which be
there gentlemen.”
The glowing accounts of the riches of Ind and Far Cathay brought home by
the early voyagers naturally fired the imagination and cupidity of
Dutch, English and French merchants and adventurers, who said to one
another: “We too will go to the hills of the Chankley Bore”; and every
potentate in Europe connived at their subjects’ efforts to trespass on
the King of Portugal’s Tom Tiddler’s Ground.
Independent efforts had been made by the English to get a share of the
riches of the East long before the Dutch and English East India
companies were formed. In 1560, the Portuguese ambassador exhibited
articles for restraining the traffic of English merchants in the Indies.
In 1566, “Dr. Lewes takes bonds of George Fenner not to spoil any of the
Queen’s subjects, nor to traffic into India, or any other places
privileged by the King of Spain.” About the same date, the merchants
petitioned “for reopening the trade with Portugal suspended in
consequence of the irregular trade of some Englishmen to the Indies.”
Instances of poaching and piracy in Portuguese preserves might be
multiplied, but three will suffice. In 1598, Cecil receives a report
from a Lisbon agent that, “On August 1st, three carracks arrived from
India and one was burnt there full laden. They bring news that two
English ships in India have taken two Portugal ships, rich with
treasure, that were on their voyage from Goa to Chine.” And again, on
October 16, 1601, Sir John Gilbert writes to Cecil: “My ship ... has
brought home silks, having taken a Brazil vessel with porcelain and
other wares.”
Elizabeth’s luxurious ministers had choice collections of porcelain
richly mounted in precious metal, from which they sometimes offered her
presents. For instance, among her New Year’s gifts in 1588, we find:
“One porrynger of white porselyn, garnished with golde, the cover of
golde, with a lyon on the toppe thereof; all given by the Lord
Threasorour, 38 oz. Item, one cup of green pursselyne, the foot, shanke
and cover silver guilte chased like droppes. Given by Mr. Robert Cecill,
15 oz. Item, one cup of pursseline, th’ one side paynted red, the foote
and cover sylver guilte. Given by Mr. Lychfelde, 14 oz.”
It is natural that from the fact that the Portuguese had the monopoly of
the East Indian trade, the finest examples of Oriental workmanship
should be found in Portugal and Spain, Lisbon being the _entrepôt_ of
European distribution. The Spanish dominions in the Low Countries were
well supplied with these wares by the Dutch mariners.
During the sixteenth century, the Dutch were already famed as
sea-carriers (_rouliers des mers_). With Lisbon as a base of supplies,
they soon destroyed the monopoly of the trade in Oriental wares which
Venice had so long enjoyed. When Philip II annexed Portugal in 1580,
however, he naturally sought to take revenge on his rebellious subjects
of the Low Countries by closing against them the ports of the Iberian
peninsula.
Finding that their profits from the trade with the East Indies were thus
practically extinguished, their only course was to go to those distant
lands themselves. How to get there was the question; and this was a
secret which the Portuguese navigators had carefully guarded. The Dutch
knew that they were reached by some southern route which could only be
traversed by force of arms, but thought that the lands where one might
“swim in golden lard” might be reached by a north-east passage. Dutch
ships vainly attempted this in 1594 and 1596, being barred by the ice.
In the meantime, Corneliz Houtman had managed to buy some Portuguese
charts, and thus to learn the real route around the Cape. He induced ten
merchants of Amsterdam to form a “Foreign Company” (_van verre_) and
send out a sort of exploring expedition. This first attempt was made on
no lavish scale. The ships could not hope to fight the mighty Portuguese
armed carracks. The four ships of this first voyage were the _Maurice_,
400 tons; the _Amsterdam_, 200 tons; the _Dove_, 30 tons; and the
_Holland_, 400 tons.
They left Texel early in April, 1595, and arrived home in August, 1597.
Their glowing reports encouraged the despatch of a second flotilla of
eight ships in 1598, four of which went to the Moluccas and the rest no
farther than Bantam, returning with rich cargoes of spices and other
merchandise. Several other companies were started in consequence, but in
1602 they were all consolidated with a capital of 6,440,000 florins, and
the Dutch East India Company was established.
The Dutch navigators and travellers who sailed the Vanderdecken course
to the Spice Islands, naturally, on their return, gave their
fellow-countrymen a full account of the wealth and curiosities of art
they had witnessed in India, Polynesia, China and Japan. Two or three of
these, not being foreign to our subject, may be quoted here. The
Netherland East India Company sent an embassy to the Emperor of China in
1655, and the reporter was evidently most interested in supplying his
fellow-countrymen with the secrets of the manufacture of porcelain,
which the Dutch were trying to imitate with their delft ware. He says:
“Upon the 25th of April we came to a village famous for shipping called
Ucienjen, where lay great store of vessels of several sorts and sizes,
which were come thither from all parts of China, to lade with China
earthenware, whereof great store is sold in this village.... Quite
through the middle of this rich village rims a broad street, full of
shops on both sides, where all manner of commodities are sold; but the
chiefest trade is in Purceline, or China dishes, which is to be had
there in great abundance....
“The earth whereof this porcelain is made, is digged in great quantity
out of the mountains situated near the chief city Hoei-cheu, in the
province of Nanking, from whence it is brought in four-square clods to
the above-mentioned village, which have the Emperor’s arms stamped upon
them to prevent all manner of deceit. The earth is not fat, like clay,
or chalk, but like to our fine sand, which they mingle with water, and
so make it into four-square clods. They likewise beat and powder the
broken China dishes, and make new ones of them; (but such as are made of
broken ware never take so fine colour and gloss as those which are made
of fresh mould.) The earthen clods which are thus brought from the
mountains are afterwards framed into what fashions they please, after
the same manner as our potters in Europe form their earthenware. Upon
the great pots which are made of this earth, they have an art to
themselves to paint all manner of creatures, flowers and trees, which
they do very curiously only with _Indico_. This art of painting upon the
pots is kept so private and secret that they will not teach it to any
but to their children and near relations, wherein the Chineses are so
dexterous that you cannot show them anything, but they will imitate it
upon their pots and dishes, which being framed and made of this earth,
are first dryed in the Sun before they are baked in the oven; and when
they are thoroughly dryed, they are put into an oven and stopt very
close, where they bake for fifteen days together with a good fire under:
the time being out, they are continued in the oven fifteen days more
without any fire; however the oven all that while is kept close stopt,
and not opened till it be quite cold; for if they should take their
earthenware red-hot out of the oven, it would endanger the breaking and
losing their gloss. After the expiration of thirty days, the furnace is
opened in the presence of an officer appointed by the Emperor to take an
account of this earthenware, and to receive the Emperor’s duty which is
of such sort the fifth piece, according to the laws of the kingdom; the
rest they afterwards sell to the inhabitants of this village, Ucienjen,
where (as they say) is the staple of this _Purceline_ trade, which is
sent from this village, not only through all China, but also through the
whole world.”
From Samedo’s _History of China_, we learn:
“They have altogether relinquished to Europe to be served in plate,
there being scarce found among them a vessel of silver of a considerable
bigness, no not in the Emperor’s palace, being content to eat in
porcelain, which is the only vessel in the world for neat and delightful
cleanliness.... Kiamsi is famous for the Porcellane dishes (indeed the
only work in the world of this kind) which are made only in one of its
towns: so that all that is used in the kingdom, and dispersed through
the whole world, are brought from this place: although the earth whereof
they are made cometh from another place: but there only is the water,
wherewith precisely they are to be wrought to come to their perfection,
for if they be wrought with other water the work will not have so much
glosse and lustre. In this worke there are not those mysteries that are
reported of it here, neither in the matter, the form nor the manner of
working; they are made absolutely of earth, but of a neat and excellent
quality. They are made in the same time, and the same manner, as our
earthen vessels; only they make them with more diligence and
accuratenesse. The blew, wherewith they paint the porcellane, is anill,
whereof they have abundance, some do paint them with vermilion, and (for
the king) with yellow.”
The same traveller also notes: “The workmanship of Europe which they
most admired were our clocks, but now they make of them such as are set
upon tables, very good ones.”
A Jesuit father, writing from China in 1688, sheds further light on the
wares that were made there and prized in Europe. He says in part:
“As for porcelain, it is such an ordinary moveable, that it is the
ornament of every house; the tables, the sideboards, nay, the kitchen is
cumber’d with it, for they eat and drink out of it, it is their ordinary
vessel. There is likewise made huge flower-pots of it. The very
architects cover roofs and make use of it sometimes to incrustate marble
buildings.
“Amongst those that are most in request, there are of three different
colours; some are yellow, yet though the earth be very fine, they appear
more coarse than the others; and the reason is, because that colour does
not admit of so fine polishing; it is used in the Emperor’s palace.
Yellow is his own proper colour, which is not allowed to any person to
bear; so that one may safely say, that as for the business of porcelain,
the Emperor is the worst served.
“The second sort is of a grey colour, with abundance of small irregular
lines in it, that cross one another, as if the vessel was all over
striped, or wrought with inlaid or mosaic work. I cannot imagine how
they form these figures, for I have much ado to believe that they are
able to draw them with a pencil. However it is, these sort of vases
partake of a particular beauty; and sure I am, the curious amongst us
would much value them.
“Last of all, the third sort of porcelain is white, with divers figures
of flowers, trees and birds, which they paint in blue, such as come
hither into Europe. This is the commonest of all, and everybody uses
it.”
The minute descriptions of the manufacture and varieties of porcelain
furnished by Dutch and other travellers must not be charged up to an
artistic appreciation exclusively. The Dutch were very much in earnest
in their efforts to manufacture a home product which might compete with
the foreign. As we have seen, Dutch pottery had already attained a high
reputation, and was much sought after in foreign markets; and now, with
the influx of porcelain, the Guilds strained every nerve to meet the
demand.
The manufacture of delft began at the end of the sixteenth century with
Hermann Pietersz, a native of Haarlem. In the first days of its
existence, the style of decoration was rather complicated, for the
subjects representing _kermesses_, combats, etc., were designed _en
camaïeu_. In order to sell a piece of pottery, the potter had to belong
to the Guild of St. Luke. The Delft Guild of St. Luke was established in
1611 and included all the skilled workmen in the arts and crafts: (1)
painters; (2) stainers of glass, engravers and glass-makers; (3)
potters; (4) embroiderers and weavers of tapestry; (5) sculptors and
carvers; (6) sheath or scabbard-makers; (7) art-printers and
booksellers; and (8) engravers and dealers in paintings.
In the second half of the seventeenth century, particularly under the
influence of Abraham de Kooge (1632) and Albrecht de Keizer (1642), the
Delft potters began to imitate the Oriental products in both modelling
and decoration. De Kooge was famous for his landscapes and portraits
with names and dates—all in blue; but de Keizer, who was the precursor
of the celebrated Cornelis de Keizer and the two Pynackers, also
produced coloured ware in imitation of the Chinese and Japanese. Other
followers were: Pieter Oesterham, who devoted himself chiefly to
landscapes and national portraits; Frederick van Frytom, who was
particularly fond of blue _camaïeu_: Gerrit Pietersz, who delighted in
elephants and Chinese subjects; and Augustijn Reygensbergh, who made
fine imitations of Chinese and Japanese ware in red, blue and gold.
Lowys Fictoor (1689) and Lambertus Eenhoorn (1691) were famous for their
black delft, with wonderful glaze and ornamented in the Chinese style
with pagodas and trees in yellow and green; Lucas van Dale, for his
olive-brown decorated with yellow; Leonard van Amsterdam, for figures,
small landscapes and shipping scenes painted in colours on the backs of
brushes as well as small dishes; and Verhagen sought the prints of
Goltzius. Among other celebrated potters of this period are the names of
two other Eenhoorns, five Kams, four Van der Hoevens, and two Dextras.
The many factories of Delft were known under fanciful names, such as The
Rose, The Star, The Peacock, The Claw, The Three Bells, etc., etc. Delft
ware declined about the end of the seventeenth century.
The European potters did not gain a clear and sane understanding of the
composition and manufacture of porcelain till the last years of the
reign of Louis XIV, when d’Entrecolles, a Jesuit father, sent home a
full report of the mystery. A few extracts from his letter will be
extremely illuminating on certain points relating to European trade and
Chinese guile:
“As for the colours of the porcelain, they are of all kinds. In Europe,
scarcely any are to be seen but those that have a strong blue on a white
ground. I believe, however, that our merchants have brought others in.
There are some with grounds like our _miroirs ardents_; some again are
entirely red, and amongst these some are dotted with little points like
our _mignatures_. When these are perfect, which is very hard to attain,
they are infinitely esteemed and extremely dear.
“Finally there are porcelains in which the landscapes painted on them
are made up of almost every colour and relieved by gold. They are very
beautiful, if we judge by their cost: otherwise the ordinary porcelain
of this kind is not comparable to that painted with azure alone....
Black porcelain has also its own price and beauty.... The gold that is
applied to it, gives it a novel charm....
“Here also is made another species that I had never yet seen: it is all
pierced and cut-work: in the centre is a cup to contain liquor. The cup
is in the same piece and forms a part of the cut-work. I have seen other
porcelains in which Chinese and Tartar ladies were painted to the life.
The draperies, the complexion and features of the faces were all well
rendered. From a distance you would take this work for enamel.
“The Chinese complain of a lost secret: they once had the art of
painting on the insides of porcelains fishes and animals that only
became visible when the vessels were filled with some liquid. They try
from time to time to recover the art of this magic painting, but in
vain.... However that may be, we may say that at the present day the
beautiful blue has been revived on porcelain after having disappeared
from it....
“The Chinese chiefly succeed in grotesques and the representations of
animals. They make ducks and turtles that float upon the water. I have
seen a cat painted to the life. In its head had been put a little lamp
the flame of which shone through the eyes, and I was assured that rats
were terrified at it. They also make here many statues of _Kouan in_, a
Chinese goddess, with an infant in her arms.
“European merchants often order from the Chinese workers porcelain
plaques to form the top of a table, or back of a chair, or frame of a
picture. These works are impossible: the greatest length and width of a
plate is about one foot. If they are made larger than that, no matter
how thick, they bend.... The history of _King te ching_ speaks of divers
works ordered by Emperors that workmen tried vainly to execute.... The
Mandarins of this province presented a petition to the Emperor begging
him to have the attempts cease.... However, the Mandarins who know how
ingenious Europeans are in invention, have sometimes asked me to have
new and curious designs sent from Europe in order to have something
singular made for presentation to the Emperor. On the other hand, the
Christians strongly urged me not to procure such models, for the
Mandarins are not so readily satisfied as our merchants are when the
workmen tell them that a work is impracticable; and frequently the
bastinado is liberally bestowed before the Mandarin abandons a design
from which he has promised himself great advantages.
“We should not be astonished that porcelain is so dear in Europe: we
shall be still less so when we learn that besides the great profits
taken by the European merchants and by their Chinese agents, it is
rarely that a baking is entirely successful; sometimes indeed it is a
total failure. Thus for one workman who grows rich, there are a hundred
ruined; but this does not deter them from tempting Fortune.... Moreover,
the porcelain that is sent to Europe is almost always made on new and
often strange models in which success is difficult. However slight the
blemishes may be it is rejected by the Europeans, who will not take any
but perfect pieces; so that it remains in the hands of the workmen, who
are not able to sell it to the Chinese because it is not to their taste.
The consequence is that the pieces that are taken bear the additional
charge of those that are rejected.
“According to the history of _King te ching_, the profits were formerly
much greater than they are now. It is hard to believe this, for there
must then have been a great sale of porcelain in Europe. I have said
that the difficulty in executing certain models sent from Europe is one
of the causes of the excessive price of porcelain, for it must not be
imagined that the workmen can work on all the models that reach them
from foreign countries. There are some impracticable ones in China, just
as there are some made that astonish foreigners who would not think them
possible.”
The price of china-ware fluctuated considerably during the seventeenth
century. Sometimes a critic complained, as above, that values had
greatly appreciated because of the demand, and then again others wailed
that the enormous importations had driven prices down till the game was
not worth the candle. In Mendelslo’s _Voyages_ (1639), we read:
“The Chinese bring to the island of Java porcelain which they sell there
very cheaply: for when boats arrive from China they buy six porcelain
dishes for a thousand _caxas_ (a string of two hundred _caxas_ are
called _sata_ and are worth about nine _deniers_ of French money, and
five _satas_ tied together make a _sapocon_).”
Again, from _Recueil des Voyages_ (Constant) we learn:
“The (Chinese) ships also bring (to Java) fine and coarse porcelain.
When the Dutch first arrived, they bought five or six dishes of both
kinds for 1,000 _caxas_, but afterwards they got no more than two or
three, rarely more.
“For return freight, they take, besides pepper, all the lacca brought
from the city of Tolonbaon, where there is great abundance. They also
load with the anil[9] that comes from Anier in pots; sandal wood, musk
and tortoiseshell, with which in China they make beautifully wrought
_coffres_; elephant tusks, with which they make beautiful seats that are
esteemed as much as if they were of silver, and that are used by
Mandarins and Viceroys.”
Footnote 9:
A species of indigo.
The importations were indeed enormous, as the bills of lading of the
Dutch vessels prove. For example, among the cargoes of eleven Dutch
ships that arrived in Holland from the East Indies in July, 1664, were
44,943 pieces of very rare Japanese porcelain and 101 Japan cabinets.
The eleven ships that left Batavia on December 24 of the same year,
brought home 16,580 pieces of porcelain of divers kinds.
The Dutch brought to Europe such vast quantities of porcelain in the
first quarter of the seventeenth century as practically to monopolize
the trade and undersell the English. Thus, Methwold, writing from
Masulipatam to the East India Company in 1619, says: “The great profit
first obtained on porcelain has filled all men’s hands with plenty (by
the Dutch), which makes theirs (the East India Company’s) not sought
after.”
Turning now, for a moment, to tea, we find that it made its way into
public favour somewhat slowly—far more so than porcelain. It was known
to the Dutch before 1600, but was not in general use till half a century
later.
J. H. van Linschoten, describing the manners and customs of the Island
Japan (1598), says:
“After their meat, they use a certain drinke, which is a pot with hote
water, which they drinke as hote as ever they may indure, whether it be
Winter or Summer ... and the gentlemen make it themselves; and when they
will entertaine any of their friends, they give him some of that warme
water to drinke: for the pots wherein they seeth it, and wherein the
herb is kept, with the earthen cups which they drinke it in, they
esteeme as much of them as we doe of diamonds, rubies, and other
precious stones, and they are not esteemed for their newnes, but for
their oldnes, and for that they were made by a good workman: and to know
and keepe such by themselves, they take great and special care, as also
of such as are the valuers of them, and are skilful in them.... So if
their pots and cups be of an old and excellent workman’s making, they
are worth four or five thousand ducats or more the peece. The King of
Bungo did give for such a pot, having three feet, fourteen thousand
ducats, and a Japan, being a Christian in the town of Sacay, gave for
such a pot fourteen hundred ducats, and yet it had three pieces upon
it.”
As late as 1639, Mendelslo thought it worth while describing again. He
says in his _Voyages_:
“The Japanese bray the tea as fine as powder, and taking a little on the
point of a knife put it in a porcelain or earthenware cup filled with
boiling water.... They have no more luxurious articles of furniture than
belong to this service: teapots have been seen that cost twenty-eight
thousand crowns.”
The use of tea became common among the well-to-do and fashionable
classes from 1660 to 1680. Every house had a special tea-room fitted up,
and even the burghers had their tea-offices, or drank tea in the front
room or _voorhuis_; for the social tea always took place in the front
part of the house. The tea-room was furnished like a reception-room, the
important pieces of furniture being the tea-buffet and the tea-table. “A
corner tea-buffet of costly wood” is mentioned in the inventory of
Develstein, while other inventories mention “properly inlaid Chinese
lacquered tea-tables mounted with silver and mother-of-pearl,” also
fir-wood and oak tables and tables with drop leaves. On the tea-table
the porcelain was displayed. This was bordered with gold or silver, or
was a blue Chinese or a coloured Japanese set with the “waffle-mark,” or
the six marks of the “Long Eliza,” “the cuckoo out of the house” and
“the cuckoo into the house,” and all kinds of red and gold, ribbed or
plain porcelain. A complete tea-set included large and small teapots,
large and small cups with and without covers, sugar basins, pastry
dishes with a small golden fork, and saffron pots. These little pots and
dishes were of different shapes; and we should note that there were a
double set of teapots—one in which the tea was drawn and the other into
which it was poured, to be poured out into the cups in turn. Sometimes
these pots were curiously shaped with open or basket sides, the spout
formed like the head of a bird or animal, while others carried
inscriptions or coats-of-arms, and the top of the lid bore some
grotesque fowl, bird or ornament. Square teapots profusely decorated
with gold paint were very costly. The teacups were also gaily decorated.
An exhibition in Delft in 1863 showed thirty famous designs of cups and
saucers.
If we were to enter a fashionable tea-room of the seventeenth century,
we should find ourselves in the front of the house in a room furnished
according to the rank and means of the proprietor. Rich or poor, it is
always exquisitely clean. As carpets and rugs are not common, the floor
is covered with bright mats, and the walls are either whitewashed, or
encased in blue and white tiles. Upon them hang pictures, more or less
valuable. The round table and the chairs are of _sacredaan_ wood, and
the latter are furnished with cushions of Utrecht velvet. The
chimney-piece is ornamented with Chinese knickknacks that will interest
the visitor for several hours, and on either side of it are two oak
cupboards inlaid with ebony. Facing the chimney stands the china-cabinet
with its fragile treasures, the _vrouw’s_ idol, the object of her
tenderest care.
The guests usually arrived between two and three in the afternoon, and
were received and extended many formalities peculiar to the occasion.
Unless it rained, no cloak or wrap was worn, so the guests were received
in the tea-room at once and immediately seated themselves, resting their
feet—winter or summer—on a foot-warmer. The hostess takes a sample of
tea from her many tea-caddies, each filled with a different kind of tea,
and puts them into a different pot, each pot having a little silver
strainer in the spout. When the tea is drawn, she fills the smallest cup
with a sample from each pot and hands these tiny cups to her friends, so
that they may discover what kind they prefer. One prefers this, and one
prefers another; but, as a rule, the choice is left to the hostess. Now
the tea-making begins in earnest. According to the number of guests, the
hostess takes a single or double teapot, and from a larger caddy the tea
that has been chosen. While this is being drawn, she takes some saffron,
and infuses this in a small _red_ pot, and serves the tea and saffron in
a covered cup, so that none of the sweetness nor aroma shall be wasted.
In spring the saffron is discarded in favour of young peach leaves. The
tea is sweetened to taste, but milk is never served until 1680, when it
is used in imitation of the French; for the idea of milk in tea
originated with the Marchioness de la Sablière. The conversation at
these gatherings turned on tea and general gossip.
The tea-table was of great importance in social life. Even poets sang
its praises in Holland, as they did in England. A picturesque stanza
from a Dutch poet is worth quoting:
“_In ’t midden van de zaal daar stond een gueridon,
Op ’t zelve een keteltje, zo blank gelijk een zon.
’t Trekpotje was bekleed met zuiver zilverlaken,
Opdat geen vogt het goud van ’t lofwerk zou mismaaken
Waar meed het was beleid; de schoteltjes in ’t rond
Van onder net beplakt met zagte stukjes bont,
Uit vrees dat ’t porcelein het lakwerk mogte schaaren,
Van ’t lief japansche-blad, ’t geen ruste op drie pylaaren
Van sakredaan, kaneel en pik-zwart ebbenhout.
Het schenken van de thee werd juffrouw Rois vertrouwt,
Die evenwigtig thee met water wist te mengen._”
(In the middle of the hall there stood a table
Upon which was a small kettle, bright as the sun.
The teapot was covered with pure silver cloth
So that no liquid would deface the gold from the ornamentation
With which it was covered; the small saucers around it
Pasted underneath with soft furry cloth, so that
The porcelains might not scratch the lacquer
From the pretty Japanese tray, which rested on a tripod
Of sacredaan, cinnamon and jet-black ebony.
The pouring of the tea was trusted to Miss Rois,
Who knew how to mix tea and water properly.)
Thus we see that the tea-table was firmly established as a social
institution in Holland by the middle of the seventeenth century, and
porcelain was an important factor in interior decoration long before
Dutch William drove the Stuarts out of England. A Dutch inventory of the
time of the Glorious Revolution (1689) is worth citation for the sake of
illustrating the prevailing taste and the price of porcelain of the day:
STATEMENT AND INVENTORY OF THE CONTENTS AND THE GOODS OF DIRCK VAN
KESSEL AND CHRESTINA DE RIDDER, LEFT WITHOUT OWNER BY THE
AFORESAID CHRESTINA DE RIDDER BY HER DEATH ON THE 15TH OF JANUARY
OF THIS YEAR 1689
_In the Porcelain Room._
FLORINS.
Two porcelain “beguine” pots 150
One porcelain chamber-pot with cover 6
One porcelain box, without cover 6
Three porcelain preserve pots 120
Four large porcelain bowls 30
One high pyramidal shaped water jug 12
Two porcelain fruit dishes 15
A jug with a silver lid 10
A porcelain box with lid 12
One porcelain cover 10
One porcelain pot with handles 4
Two porcelain crackle bowls 10
Four porcelain boxes 10
A little stewing pot 10
Two porcelain teapots 6
One porcelain sexagonal pot 20
Two porcelain printed oil pots 10
One porcelain stewing pan coloured, without cover 18
One porcelain apple pot 30
Two porcelain crackle jars (one broken) 15
Two long porcelain boxes 5
Two porcelain “beguine” pots 30
Four porcelain boxes with covers 15
Four butter dishes 6
Twenty-four porcelain teacups with covers 48
An East India box with a bamboo 10
Thirteen (with inside decoration) 13
Two porcelain bottles with French flowers 60
Five porcelain butter dishes on the back yellow and green 10
Thirteen coloured tea-saucers (one broken) 8
Two porcelain cups with knobs on the covers 6
Three large East India teapots 24
Four little East India teapots 6
Four old porcelain stewing pots 40
Five old long shaped bottles, one of which is in pieces 30
Four porcelain boxes that can be shut (with covers) 20
Eleven little porcelain pieces 5
Two little candlesticks with extinguishers 16
Two round shaped oblong bottles, one of which is in pieces 15
Three porcelain small plaques 8
Six porcelain dinner plates 12
Eight porcelain printed red dishes 12
Two pots with Chinese acrobats 18
Two pots with French scrolls 24
Two old porcelain bottles with a cover 15
Four porcelain pots with overlapping covers 48
Five porcelain swans 5
Eighteen porcelain cups, red, with one blue 12
Forty porcelain yellow cups 12
Four porcelain slop basins 12
Fifty porcelain coffee saucers 30
Three porcelain sexagonal pin-trays 8
Five porcelain pieces, red and blue 3
Two old inscription bowls 16
Two porcelain bowls with birds on branches 20
One porcelain rosemary bowl 8
Three porcelain coloured starch basins 6
One porcelain “beguine” pot with a delft cover 16
One porcelain sexagonal pot 10
One porcelain chain pot 10
One porcelain pot with a bottle 8
One porcelain bottle with Chinese 30
One porcelain “beguine” pot, with handles 30
One porcelain four-square “beguine” pot 6
Three Persian basins 8
Seven porcelain butter dishes 21
One porcelain, broken, open-work tray 2
Three porcelain mustard pots, with a perforated cover 8
Eight candlesticks
Two porcelain butter dishes 21
One porcelain slop basin, one starch basin, and one crackle 5
jar
Six porcelain printed cups 8
Three porcelain printed saucers 4
Twenty-one porcelain printed coffee cups 10
Ten coloured East India tea-saucers, cups with ducks painted 20
on them
Two Japanese beakers 50
One East India beaker with Chinese letters 30
One East India beaker with pieces 12
One pot with a _jardinière_ 20
One Chinese pot 30
_China Closet near the Windows._
Five East India half-size wash basins 70
Five East India basins 40
Five East India basins 50
Five East India basins 46
Three old porcelain dishes 30
Three double butter dishes 20
Three East India round dishes, in three parts, with flower 30
pots
One East India round dish, in three parts, with flower pot and 12
stork
One engraved tumbler 20
Seven porcelain crackle bowls 24
Two old porcelain pots 15
One porcelain beaker with a crack. 10
Twenty-four brown bottles 15
Four porcelain boxes with covers 12
One porcelain basin and mustard pot without cover 3
Two porcelain salt cellars, with two mustard pots 12
Twelve teacups and saucers 48
Four porcelain perforated cups 15
Six porcelain perforated cups 18
Six porcelain perforated cups
Two East India slop basins with storks 10
Eight little old porcelain saucers 16
Six porcelain saucers with dragons 12
Six old porcelain saucers with frogs 18
Nine old porcelain saucers with handles 36
Two slop bowls 6
Six old porcelain cups 6
Two porcelain crackle bottles 30
Three porcelain breakers 30
Three old porcelain dishes in three parts 10
Five old porcelain mustard holders 18
Seven old porcelain mustard holders 10
Five great deep saucers 20
Two porcelain blue bowls 12
Two porcelain blue small bottles 3
One porcelain new dish 4
Two porcelain butter dishes 8
Six porcelain butter dishes 15
Three porcelain butter dishes 6
Six porcelain deep saucers 12
One hundred teacups and saucers. 200
One East India mat with three Chinese figures 4
_Upstairs in the Front Room._
Three pestles with flowers 40
Two printed cups 2
_Upstairs in the Rear Room._
Two “beguine” pots with landscapes 70
One East India “beguine” pot with Chinese 16
Two printed small bottes 40
Two small bottles with Chinese 25
Six teacups and saucers 15
One bottle with a small bird on a tree 10
Three butter dishes 20
Six little old small bottles 8
Six little old boxes with covers 8
Two teacups 6
Six dragon cups 6
Three flat saucers 4
Four coloured ribbed dishes or saucers 6
Six teacups and tea-saucers 15
Six dishes with a box cover 8
Two small baskets and two shelves 6
The porcelain on the shelves 12
_In the Vestibule._
The porcelain in the shop, comprising thirteen pieces 24
_In the Porcelain Room._
Firstly, an olive wood carved cabinet 250
One gilt and engraved jewel casket 50
One olive wood table with stands 25
“Now follows a collection of large mirrors, which we consider of less
importance. Of more interest is the following:
FLORINS.
148 sheets and one half of gold leather, being white and gold, 170·15
valued at 23 stuivers the sheet
The pine-apple with colours (decoration), 44 sheets, valued at 52·16
61 sheets, the unicorn green and gold 70
80 sheets of gold leather 40
42 ditto 42
1 lot of remnants, leather 30
1 lot of patterns and friezes 100
8 screens 130
2 curtains and balance and the gold leather that hangs in 9
the kitchen in the rear
“Hereafter follows again some porcelain and other articles, as—
FLORINS.
8 painted figures 40
2 broken roll wagons (round shaped bottles) 24
1 porcelain stewing pan 12
2 half-size wash basins 24
2 ditto 16
2 porcelain bowls 4
6 porcelain cups with a broken wash jug and a broken roll 4
wagon
1 delft stewing pot 4
6 gold leather chairs 20
1 clavecin 4
1 bundle of old gold leather 20
1 large cup engraved with a battle scene and a large cup with 30”
a vine
The value of porcelain may be gathered from the pieces mentioned in the
inventory of Joh. Gemeelenbrouck, “meester silversmith,” in 1653:
GUILDER. STUIVER.
In the shop 48
Four whole lamps
Sixteen half lamps 56
Sixteen round dishes in three parts 40
Four double butter dishes 6
Forty-five cornered butter dishes 33 15
One round shaped oblong bottle 6
Five “beguine” pots 30
Nine “beguine” pots (small) 22 10
Three drinking cups 4 10
Four drinking cups (small) 2 8
Three beakers 3 15
Three bottles 4
Three large bottles 18
Five mustard pots 3 15
Four wine cans 16
Four chamber-pots 10
Twenty-four parrot basins 24
Forty-four cups and saucers 15 4
Two cups and saucers 2
Four oil pots 2 8
Ten snuff boxes 10 10
Seventy-five mustard pots 29
Twenty-five deep saucers 16
Three boxes with lids 3
Four deep saucers 2 8
Five red pots 0 15