Sold Ceramics - Sold Chine de commande - Armorial / Pseudo-Armorial wares 1700-1800 - Armorial - Dutch - Page 1

Object 2011171

Tea bowl

China

c.1765

Height 43 mm (1.69 inch), diameter of rim 74 mm (2.91 inch), diameter of footring 33 mm (1.30 inch), weight 44 grams (1.52 ounce (oz.))

Tea bowl on footring, slightly everted rim. Decorated in various overglaze enamels, iron-red, black and gold with a coat of arms surrounded by four large and four small flower sprays in European style. Round the rim a chain-pattern border. On the base an old handwritten collectors number 1018 in black ink.

The coat of arms show: on a gold background a red arched bend; the crest a gold coronet with above an eagle's claw upside down. The mantling comprises scrolling leaves in red and grisaille. These are the arms of "Van der Burch" from Delft and other major Dutch cities. The "Van der Burch" family is a very ancient one with its genealogy reaching back to the mid-14th century.

This tea bowl was part of a tea service that can be dated to the mid-1760s. At least seven people could have commissioned it, however the most likely is Frans Jansz. van der Burch (1718-1775). He was the city councillor of Delft from 1748 and he became director of the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) in 1765. This event in particular might have induced him to order both a dinner and tea service with his family arms. Kroes mentions that of this dinner service only an oval dinner platter is known and from the tea service only a tea caddy without cover is known. (Kroes 2007, p.363 & p.453)

In the collection of the Groninger Museum is a metal tobacco box made in Japan in the mid-18th century, with the same coat of arms of the Van der Burch family and an inscription: "FRANC(O) REYERSZ VANDER BURCH". In literature the word Franc(o) has been wrongly interpreted as "Sibrant", please see the following two pictures.

Van der Burch Kroes cat. no. 281b

Van der Burch Kroes cat. no. 281b cu

Both images reproduced from: Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, Chinese Porcelain with Coats of Arms of Dutch Families, (J. Kroes, Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 2007), p.363, cat.no. 281b. (copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by the publisher or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved)

For an identically shaped, sized and decorated tea bowl and cover that was donated by me in 2012 to the collection of Oriental ceramics of the Groninger Museum, please see:

Sold Ceramics - Sold Chine de commande - Armorial / Pseudo-Armorial wares 1700-1800 - Armorial - Dutch - Page 1 - Object 2011087.

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For an oval platter and a tea-caddy, with identically armorial design, please see:

Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, Chinese Porcelain with Coats of Arms of Dutch Families, (J. Kroes, Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 2007), p.363, cat.no. 281a & p.453, cat.no. 376.

For the metal tobacco box in the collection of the Groninger Museum made in Japan in the mid-18th century, with the same coat of arms of the Van der Burch family and an inscription: "FRANC(O) REYERSZ VANDER BURCH", please see:

Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, Chinese Porcelain with Coats of Arms of Dutch Families, (J. Kroes, Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 2007), p.363, cat.no. 281b.

Condition: A short hairline to the rim.

Reference:

Kroes 2007, cat.no. 281a, cat.no. 281 & cat.no. 376

Price: Sold.