Sold Ceramics
Sold Blue and White wares since 1722
Western Shapes
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Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011542
Mustard pot
China
1735-1750
Height with cover 86 mm (3.39 inch), height without cover 76 mm (2.99 inch), diameter handle to spout 104 mm (4.09 inch), diameter of mouthrim 67 mm (2.64 inch), diameter of footring 46 mm (1.81 inch), weight with cover 268 grams (9.45 ounce (oz.)), weight cover 56 grams (1.98 ounce (oz.))
Cylindrical mustard pot on high, splayed foot, recessed base. Curved C-shaped handle. Domed pierced cover. Decorated in underglaze blue with flowering plants between two borders with reserves and half flower heads on a trellis pattern ground. On the foot and round the mouthrim a pointed leaves pattern border. On the handle a single flower spray. The cover is decorated en suite.
In his book 'Geldermalsen. History and Porcelain', Jörg states, more extensive is a dinner service in blue-and-white depicting a river landscape with to the right a promontory and trees, a pavilion and a fence. At any rate five sizes of serving dishes, of 42, 39, 35.5, 32 and 29 cm. a saucer dish of 26 cm, dinner plates, a deep dish of 38 cm. tureens, soup plates, salt cellars and rather curious mugs with handle and lid, on a high spreading foot, belong to this service. The mugs are intriguing, since this is a rare model and its use is not known. Neither the orders, nor the shipping invoices or unpacking books of previous years give any description of such a mug with lid on a foot.
It may be a mustard pot, an object only mentioned in the unpacking books of 1749 as part of a 110-part service, which apart from the usual items also included two mustard pots. If this conjuncture is correct and if the services of 1751 did include two of these mustard pots, we may suppose that the Geldermalsen carried at least 28 services of this type since 56 of these posts have surfaced. (Jörg 1986/1. pp.60-63)
In his book 'The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes. The Complete Record', Sheaf states that Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) lists do not mention their purpose, but they most likely contained dry powdered spices or mustard, There is no aperture in the rim of the shallow lid to accommodate the shaft of a spoon or ladle (such as one finds with earlier mustard pots or on some contemporary sauce and soup tureens), so diners took a pinch by hand, spoon or knife-tip, like salt. (Sheaf & Kilburn 1988, p.130)
Just like salt, mustard was once an important taste-inducing additive on the dinner table, though it had less status because it was locally made. Still the luxurious mustard pots made of Chinese or Japanese 17th century porcelain were quite large. After 1720 the use of mustard jars appears to diminish, though the ones salvaged from the wreck of the Geldermalsen (1752) still has a considerable size.
Mustard used to have to be stirred before use, which is why mustard pots often had a little opening in their lids for a small stirring stick. Sometimes such a pot was fitted with a new nice silver lid, which lacked an opening. A tiny piece of pottery was then broken out of the rim, in order to allow the stirring stick or spoon to fit in.
There is some uncertainty about the shape of mustard pots and as to how it changed in the course of time. As for pots with an opening for a spoon in their lids or rims, it is clear that we're dealing with mustard pots. In the case of the pots which lack an opening, we can only guess.
Lunsingh Scheurleer suggests that these covered pots might have been used as custard pots. (Lunsingh Scheurleer 1989, p. 136)
For similarly shaped and sized mustard pots, please see:
- The Geldermalsen. History and Porcelain, (C.J.A. Jörg, Groningen 1986), p.60, fig. 40.
- The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes. The Complete Record, (C. Sheaf & R. Kilburn, Oxford 1988), pp.130-131, Pl.172.
- Chine de Commande, (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Lochem, 1989), p.163, afb. 136.
Condition: A chip with a connected hairline to the rim and three glaze rough spots to the edge.
References:
Lunsingh Scheurleer 1989, cat. 136
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2010940
Salt
China
c.1740
Height 53 mm (2.09 inch), diameter scale 60 mm (2.36 inch), diameter footring 74 mm (2.91 inch), weight 122 grams (4.30 ounce (oz.))
Salt of circular waisted form, on an open base. The inside glazed, the lower part tapering to the waist, the spreading top with a recessed centre, the rim extending downwards. Decorated in underglaze blue with around the foot a trellis pattern border with four cartouches filled with flower sprays, on the body three flower sprays and around the rim a trellis pattern border with four cartouches filled with flower sprays. The scalloped dish is decorated with a riverscape with mountains, trees, a house and a figure fishing along a shore.
This salt was moat likely modelled after a European pewter or earthenware salt. It was part of a large dinner service. With many Christian connotations, salt was an important seasoning at dinner before the 19th century and salts were larger and more elaborate than they are today. (Howard 1994), (Jörg 2011)
For a similarly shaped salt decorated with famille verte enamels, please see:
Condition: Frits, chips and a partial rough rim to the underside of the scale, the upper rim of the scale is rough. A frit to the footring and two firing flaws to the inner wall.
References:
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011640
Vomit-pot / children’s chamber-pot
China
1745-1752
Height 85 mm (3.35 inch), diameter of rim 128 mm (5.04 inch), diameter of footring 75 mm (2.95 inch), weight 434 grams (15.31 ounce (oz.))
Vomit pot on footring, splayed overturned rim with a thick, curved C-shaped handle. Decorated in underglaze blue with foliage, bamboo and flowering peony plants. On the rim three flower sprays and on the handle a single stylized flower on a stem.
Identical shaped and decorated vomit-pots were found amongst the ceramic cargo of the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) vessel Geldermalsen. Captain Michael Hatcher salvaged 495 blue & white vomit-pots in total. The content of this ship was auctioned at Christie’s in 1986 as the Nanking cargo.
The Geldermalsen, which sank in 1752 carried among its cargo some unusually shaped porcelains. As the porcelain trade between China and Europe revived from the very end of the seventeenth century, demand for Western shapes rapidly increased. The constantly changing demands of customers and the frequent ordering of new shapes made it necessary to provide the Chinese dealers with models. Western-manufactured objects in wood, pewter, silver, glass and ceramics (like Dutch Delft) and numerous drawings were sent out to Canton and dropped off at Jingdezhen. Several kilns came to specialise in ‘Western‘ wares, probably making nothing else. At Jingdezhen the wares were potted in as close an imitation of the original as the Chinese could achieve. Hatcher found a number of shapes which must have been commissioned and delivered in this manner, among which a category of handled bowls such as this one, which were initially thought to be chamber-pots for children. In their auction sales catalogue Christie’s also referred to them as 'children's chamber-pots'. For their size, they could very well have been used for this purpose.
However, the VOC archives suggest another more likely use: a ‘vomit pot’ (Dutch: spuijgpotje). Jörg mentions that the custom to use special porcelain vomit-pots after a rather too copious dinner has obviously not been fashionable for very long, perhaps as little as five years. VOC archival documents first mention them in 1745 (2049 blue & white decorated pieces), only to be followed by 1746 (1,017 pieces blue & white), 1750 (1,000 pieces blue and white, described as ‘in the manner of a small waterpot’, content 0.6 litre or 1 pint), 1751 (606 pieces blue & white, recorded on the shipping invoice of the Geldermalsen) and finally 1752 (540 blue & white pieces). We know that Heren XVII in their Requirements for 1751 expressly forbid the buying-in of vomits-pots. These small model vomit-pots had to be ordered specially at the factory and were not a substantial part of a VOC commercial cargo. The normal and somewhat bigger water pot could be supplied from stock and was therefore cheaper and just as well suited to the purpose. However, as Jörg explains, in reality the Requirements for 1751 were ignored for several reasons and the cargo of the Geldermalsen was purchased according to the requirements of 1750. Whatever was in stock was taken along at once. The remainder of the VOC order of 1750 was shipped in 1752.
Because of the limited ordering this small vomit pot is therefore a rare article. Howard also mentions that the Geldermalsen cargo must have contained the great majority of those that still exist today.
For identically shaped and decorated vomit-pots, please see:
- The Nanking Cargo. Chinese Export Porcelain and gold, auction catalogue Christie’s Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986, pp.26-31, lots 1094-1169.
- The Geldermalsen. History and Porcelain, (C.J.A. Jörg, Kemper Publishers, Groningen 1986), p.80, fig. 69.
- The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes. The Complete Record, (C. Sheaf and R. Kilburn, Phaidon Inc Ltd, Oxford, 1988), pp.134-134, Pl.175.
- The Choice of the Private Trader. The Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain illustrated from the Hodroff Collection, (D.S. Howard, Zwemmer, London, 1994), pp.228-229, cat. 270.
Condition: glaze rough spots to the sides of the handle and the complete underside of the rim. The handle could have broken of and restored at some point but in my opinion it hasn’t. Instead I think the handle shows two firing tension hairlines.
References:
Amsterdam 1986, lots 1094-1169
Jörg 1986/1, pp.34-35, pp.69-70 & pp.80-81, appendix 3 p.115
Sheaf & Kilburn 1988, pp.134-135 & Pl. 175
Jörg & Van Campen 1997, pp. 252-253
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011973
Coffee pot
China
1740-1760
Height with cover 160 mm (9.05 inch), height without cover 134 mm (6.70 inch) diameter of mouthrim 49 mm (2.76 inch), diameter of footring 50 mm (5.91 inch), weight with cover 406 grams (14.32 ounce (oz.)), weight cover 49 grams (1.73 ounce (oz.))
Pear-shaped coffee pot on footring, body with handle and thumb rest and a wide neck with a short spout on the rim. A flattened pierced domed cover with fruit-shaped finial. The cover is connected to the coffee pot by a silver chain attached to a Dutch silver mount (engraved) on the rim. Decorated in underglaze blue with a large rooster on rockwork flanked by flowering plants. Round the rim of the coffee pot and the rim of the cover flower pattern borders.
This coffee pot is a close copy of a German porcelain original popular at that time (1740-60). Its shape, spout, handle and flower decoration were closely copied. The Chinese porcelain decorator painted the rooster somewhat clumsy on a pile of rocks (like a Kangxi pheasant). This coffee pot is in fact a Chine de commande object in shape and decoration in a time were underglaze blue commande was rare. The whole production had to be done in Jingdezhen because Canton could not fire underglaze blue objects. The later fitted, 19th century, Dutch silver mount only ads more to the charm of this object.
The term Chine de commande is used for Chinese porcelain objects decorated with Western designs or objects that were made after Western models. This coffee pot is a fine example of the latter. At the end of the 17th century drinking coffee was a rage throughout Europe and the demand for porcelain coffee wares was booming. The first porcelain coffee pots that arrived in the West were Japanese they were tapering shaped and made after a European metal model. Soon the Chinese began to imitate this European model. (Jörg & Van Campen 1997, p.275)
Condition: A hairline to the rim and a professionally restored (re-stuck) handle.
Reference:
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011301
Shaving bowl
China
1740-1750
Height 74 mm (2.91 inch), dimensions rim 309 mm (12.16 inch) x 230 mm (9.06 inch) centre saved semicircular section, dimensions footring 125 mm (4.92 inch) x 75 mm (2.95 inch), weight 1.024 grams (36.12 ounce (oz.))
Oval shaving bowl or barber's bowl on footring of the same shape. Spreading flat, underglaze brown-edged rim (jia mangkou) with a semicircular section saved in the lower part, two pierced holes in the footring. Decorated in underglaze blue with flowering peony and plum with a flying butterfly and insect. On the flat rim prunus and plum sprays. The reverse is undecorated.
Shaving bowls were used by barbers and were indispensable in the Dutch household too. They were made of earthenware, pewter, copper and even silver. They had an alternative use, namely to let blood from a vein in the arm during blood-letting, a medical procedure thought to drain bad blood from the system also performed by the barber/surgeon. In the seventeenth century, regulations were put in place in England to govern what barbers were permitted to do. Thus they became confined to bloodletting and treating external diseases. In Prussia the barbers' and the surgeons' guild joined in 1779, and it was said of great Prussian surgeons that they had risen "up from the barber's bowl". Both purposes explain the semicircular saving. The two holes are for a cord used to suspend it from the client's neck to catch lather and water during shaving, or to hang the bowl on the wall thus implying that owners also appreciated the bowl for its decorative value as well as its function. Chinese shaving bowls usually have the holes in the footring while Japanese examples have them in the rim. (Jörg 2003/1, p.184), (Sargent 2012, p.189)
Shaving bowls or barber's bowls are not very common in Chinese export porcelain, and oval bowls are rarer than round ones. The Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC), for instance, shipped 6,438 round bowls to Holland against 3,272 oval bowls in the period 1730-1790 (Jörg 1982/1, p.284). (Jörg 1989/2, p.76)
These forms have also been called shaving basins as well as Mambrino's helmets, a name that comes from Cervante's novel The Life and Achievements of Don Quixote de la Mancha, in which the title character uses the bowl of the barber Mambrino as a helmet. (Sargent 2012, p.189)
For similarly shaped shaving bowls or barber's bowls, please see:
- Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, (E. Gordon, New York, 1977). p.14.
- Chinese Export Porcelain. Chine de Commande from the Royal Museum of Art and History in Brussels, exhibition catalogue Hong Kong Museum of Art, (C.J.A. Jörg, The Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1989), pp. 76-77, cat. 15.
- The Choice of the Private Trader. The Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain illustrated from the Hodroff Collection, (D.S. Howard, Zwemmer, London, 1994), p.227, cat. 268.
- Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, (W.R. Sargent, Salem, Massachusetts, 2012), p.189, plate 88.
Condition: A hairline to the base.
References:
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011731
Handle for cane or walking-stick
China
1740-1750
Height 77 mm (3.03 inch), diameter of top 40 mm (1.57 inch), diameter of base 19 mm (0.74 inch), weight 121 grams (4.27 ounce (oz.))
Cylindrical handle for cane or walking-stick, tapering towards a flat knob. The cane opening is unglazed. Decorated in underglaze blue with a central lotus flower head encircled by leaves. The sides with peony flower heads surrounded by leafy scrolls. Below the flat knob a decorative scroll border.
In 18th century Europe men started carrying canes, not necessarily for support, but as an accessory to their wardrobes. The fancier and more resplendent the cane, the more the gentleman was admired by one and all .... the ladies followed suit. It was the jewelry of the day. It proclaimed your wealth for all to see. It was a mark of your place in society.
By the eigtheenth century, Chinese potters were particularly adept at producing special wares for their foreign customers. Some of these were not at all unusual for their time, but now strike us as being, if not singular, then at least novel. Many of these objects must have ben produced as special orders. Almost all are based on European forms and probably were adepted from porcelain, pewter or silver models brought by traders as early as the seventeenth century. This interchange of techniques and forms quickend in pace as the world trade in porcelain continued to grow between East and West. Hundreds of models could be named to illustrate the complex nature of trade between East and West in the 1700s. Porcelain plaques, chandeliers, torchères, stem cups based on Dutch and English drinking glasses, spittoons, butter dishes, wine cups, ewers, casters, ink pots, handles for canes or walking-sticks, barber's basins-all these and many more were produced at Ching-tê Chên, decorated there or in Canton an shipped to Europe and North America. (Gordon 1977, pp.102-103)
Lunsingh Scheurleer mentions that for all kinds of handles for walking canes models from European porcelain factories such as Meissen and Chantilly were used by the Chinese. According to him most of these handles can be dated 1750-1800 and the majority of them have a famille rose decoration. This handle with an underglaze blue decoration can therefore be considered unusual. (Lunsingh Scheurleer 1989, pp.152-153)
The porcelain handles for cane walking-sticks must be distinguished from those for walking-sticks of other materials, which were also made in Chinese porcelain, but were larger and more elegant. The latter were never handled by the Dutch East India Company. Handles for cane walking-sticks were bought in only in 1737 (5,043 blue and white and 5,000 with enamels colours decorated) and 1743 (2,760 blue and white, 4,070 Chinese Imari and 4,100 with enamels colours decorated) at less than 10 cents apiece. In view of the large quantities, these might have been special orders for re-export, since there was evidently no demand in the Netherlands for these objects in other years. (Jörg 1982, p.192 & p.306)
Large walking-stick handles are rare and must have been used for walking-sticks of ebony or another expensive tropical wood. More common are the small knobs for the ordinary cane walking-sticks, such as bought by the Dutch East India Company in 1737 and 1743. (Jörg 1989/2, p.81, cat. 18)
For a Chinese Imari decorated saucer with a decoration of an 18th century European dressed figure, holding a cane or walking-stick, please see:
Condition: A firing flaw to the cane opening and two tiny frits to the flat knob.
References:
Lunsingh Scheurleer 1989, pp.152-153
Price: Sold.
Sold Cermics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2012018
Milk bowl
China
1745-1752
Height 61 mm (2.40 inch), diameter of rim 112 mm (4.41 inch), diameter of footring 58 mm (2.28 inch)
weight 235 grams (8.29 ounce (oz.))
Small milk bowl on splayed foot with a wide footring, steep sides and an everted rim. The rim with a short pinched spout and a small ribbed side handle with thumb rest. Decorated in underglaze blue with a pine tree, flowering peony and other plants growing from rockwork. On the bottom a single flowering peony spray. Round the inner rim a small band with diaper patterns alternating with flower heads.
In 1745 the Dutch East India Company, (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, VOC) ships take along milk bowls to the Netherlands for the first time, in rather small quantities. This stops after 1752, but in the sixties the occasionally reappear. Shipping invoices and reports do not describe them, but only refer to drawings or samples. We read, however, that a milk bowl should have a handle, while the order for 1750 mentions two sizes: one for half a pint and one with the contents of a mingele (2 pints or 1.2 litres).
In the wreck of the VOC ship Geldermalsen (1752) Captain Michael Hatcher found 479 of the 548 such milk bowls on the shipping invoice - exclusively in underglaze blue - with a handle and short spout in two different sizes, finally making clear what a milk bowl looks like.
Little is known about the use of these milk bowls. Presumably children and old people slop their bread in them and then pour out the remaining milk. They could also be used to skim the cream off the milk. The rare milk bowls in existing collections can now be recognized as to type and dated more accurately. (Jörg 1986/1, pp.72-73, fig. 59)
Howard states that these milk (dairy) bowls were imported into Holland in any quantity only for eight years (1745-1752), and probably there was no private trade in this form. (Howard 1994, p.225)
For similarly shaped milk bowls, please see:
- Chinese Armorial Porcelain, (D.S. Howard, London, 1974), p.772.
- The Geldermalsen. History and Porcelain, (C.J.A. Jörg, Groningen, 1986), p.72 cat 59.
- The Nanking Cargo. Chinese Export Porcelain and gold, auction catalogue, (Christie’s Amsterdam, 28 April - 2 May 1986), pp.177-184. lot 4001-4130.
- The Hatcher Porcelain Cargoes. The Complete Record, (C. Sheaf & R. Kilburn, Oxford 1988), p.141, Pl.183.
- The Choice of the Private Trader. The Private Market in Chinese Export Porcelain illustrated from the Hodroff Collection, (D.S. Howard, Zwemmer, London, 1994), pp.224-225, cat. 264.
Condition: Firing flaws to the spout and handle, a glaze frit, four shallow glaze chips and a popped bublle of glaze, caused during the firing process, all to the rim.
References:
Price: Sold.
Sold Ceramics - Sold Blue and White wares since 1722 - Western Shapes - Page 1
Object 2011413
Salt
China
1750-1760
Height 26 mm (1.02 inch), dimensions base 74 mm (2.91 inch) x 57 mm (2.24 inch), weight 138 grams (4.87 ounce (oz.))
Salt of oblong octagonal shape, on a flat unglazed base. The rectangular top has a rectangular indention in the centre. Decorated in underglaze blue. On the central indention a bouquet of flower. On the flat rectangular top and on the sides flower heads with leafy scrolls. Round the foot a upturned pointed leaf-shaped border.
Throughout history salt - and thus a salt cellar as well - has always been considered to be of great importance for a meal. It made food tastier and masked its spoilage, while it furthermore was also used to actually preserve food. All in all, salt was indeed simply seen as a basic necessity of life. It had to be imported for the Dutch market, for instance from Southern Europe or from the salt mines in Germany, which made it an expensive commodity. Moreover - due to its reference to the Biblical expression of Jesus calling his disciples the 'salt of the earth' - the use of salt has for centuries also been placed in a religious context.
At the dinner table salt was therefore commonly given a prominent place in especially for this purpose designed salt cellars, which particularly in the 17th century were rather large. Though commonly made of silver, pewter or ceramics, porcelain ones were at times also manufactured to order in China for the Dutch East India Company. Wooden salt containers were used as models. Around 1700 Chinese porcelain salt cellars were available in all kind of shapes, though by then their sizes were starting to decrease. In the course of the 18th century salt cellars continued to get smaller, less high and more angular. (source: The World at Home: Asian porcelain and Delft pottery held from 17 June 2017 to 10 March 2019 at the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands)
This salt falls into that last category, it was made in the second half of the 18th century and most likely after an European glass model of that time.
For a similarly sized and shaped and decorated in famille rose enamels, please see:
Condition: Two small chips to the foot.
Reference:
Exhibition: The World at Home: Asian porcelain and Delft pottery held from 17 June 2017 to 10 March 2019 at the Groninger Museum, The Netherlands
Price: Sold.
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