Sold Ceramics - Sold Kraak Porcelain wares 1570-1645 - Klapmutsen - Page 1

Object 2011932

Klapmuts

China

1609-1625

Height 50 mm (1.97 inch), diameter of rim 143 mm (5.63 inch), diameter of footring 63 mm (2.48 inch), weight 152 grams (5.36 ounce (oz.))

Klapmuts or bowl on footring, flattened rim with foliated edge. Mounted with a mid 19th century Dutch silver handle (marked). Decorated in underglaze blue. In the centre a walking figure holding a larger parasol. On the interior wall four medallions filled with flowers and peaches, on the rim four medallions with flowers and peaches flanked by scale or swastika motifs and separated by narrow panels filled with a bow hanging from a ruyi head. On the exterior wall four oval shaped medallions with four stylized flaming pearls, separated by narrower panels decorated with lingzhi. On the exterior rim three elongated flowering stems. On the base a circular paper dealers label that reads: 'Geoffrey Waters London SW3 4PW'.

According to Rinaldi this klapmuts can be classified as a group IV klapmuts. The decorative style of Group IV may have been adopted at quite an early stage of klapmutsen evolution, probably in the early years of the seventeenth century, but a small production continued for some years. In fact some klapmutsen with the same decorative rim motif have, in the medallion, a seated figure in a landscape which is very Transitional in style. The depiction of a human figure, coupled with the deterioration of the outside decoration (roundels with a dot in the centre), place some of these pieces in the later years of Kraak production (1635-45). (Rinaldi 1989, pp.127-129)

When the Dutch captured Formosa in 1624, the VOC (Dutch East India Company) provided the merchants who kept in direct contact with pottersin Jingdezhen with wooden models of silver objects that they wanted to be executed in Porcelain. Furthermore, the VOC specified which sort of decoration they wanted these products to have. People were primarily keen on decoration containing Chinese figures. Such subjects, however, very seldom appear on Kraak porcelain.(Campen & Eliëns 2014, pp.55-56)

For a bowl (kraaikop) similarly decorated with a walking figure holding a parasol, please see:

Interaction in Ceramics. Oriental porcelain and Delftware. (C.J.A. Jörg, Hong Kong, 1984), pp.52-53, cat. 10.

Condition: Three small firing flaws.

References:

Jörg 1984, cat. 10

Rinaldi 1989, pp.127-129 & Pl.137

Campen & Eliëns 2014, pp.55-56

Price: Sold.