Recent Acquisitions

On this page you'll find my latest acquisitions.

This way you can quickly browse through my recently acquired objects without having to browse through all the various categories.

After some time, each object in 'Recent Acquisitions' will be moved to their specific category.

Latest update: Recent Acquisitions; August 30, 2026.

2012732

Japanese Kakiemon / Japanese Kakiemon-style wares - Japanese Kakiemon

Object 2012732

Teapot

Japan (Kakiemon)

1670-1690

Height with cover 91 mm (3.58 inch), height without cover 64 mm (2.52 inch), diameter handle to spout 145 mm (5.71 inch), dimensions of oval mouth 62 mm (2.44 inch) x 50 mm (1.97 inch), dimensions of oval foot 66 mm (2.60 inch) x 50 mm (1.97 inch), weight with cover 201 grams (7.09 ounce (oz.)), weight cover 13 grams (0.46 ounce (oz.))

Lobed teapot of compressed oval, decagonally-lobed shape on a low footring of the same shape. Bend spout. The original handle and cover are missing and replaced by a moulded metal / tin handle and cover with a wooden knob. Kakiemon decorated in enamels with a blossoming prunus growing from rocks and swirling cloud scrolls. On the shoulder a ruyi-border, round the mouthrim a border of small upturned pointed leaves. Fitted with a 19th / 20th century metal / tin mount and cover, the cover with a wooden knob.

Kakiemon teapots occur in various shapes and sizes, this ribbed form being one of the most refined. At the end of the 17th century tea drinking had become all the rage in the Netherlands, as elsewhere in Europe, and there was a great demand for porcelain tea things, preferably the fashionable new coloured varieties. Cups and saucers were obtainable in Chinese famille verte porcelain, thus they are relatively rare in Japanese porcelain. Famille verte teapots were scarcer (Chinese wine pots were sometimes used instead), so that alongside Blanc de Chine and Yixing tea pots examples in Japanese porcelain were assured of a market. However, such Kakiemon examples were already rare at that time and belonged among the costliest pieces. (Jörg 1984, pp.124-125, cat. 78)

This well-known type of Kakiemon teapot is very elegant and carefully moulded. Curiously, teapots are not mentioned in the list of porcelain shipped to The Netherlands, but a considerable number must have been bought privately by the Dutch on Deshima or were sold via the Chinese. This teapot is small, as tea was still expensive at the time and only offered in small quantities. At tea parties, each guestt was often given a teapot with the tea he or she had selected, which was strongly brewed and diluted with hot water in the cup. Similar examples are often embellished with gold mounts, not only to emphasise their luxuriousness, but also to serve a practical purpose by preventing the cover from falling off when pouring tea. (Jörg 2003/1, p.194, cat. 241)

This Japanese Kakiemon decocrated teapot is special and interesting because it shows contrast. During the 17th and 18th centuries Kakiemon porcelain was extremely sought-after and valuable in Europe. Aristocrats and royal houses collected Kakiemon decorated objects and damaged or precious pieces were often fitted with gold or gilded silver mounts specially to underline their value and to protect or "complete" the object (for example, a missing lid or a broken handle or spout).

A cheap metal / tin mount from the 19th/20th century doesn't fit that picture of pure luxury - and that's exactly the point. Such a simple repair usually indicates that, at some point, the teapot was no longer in the hands of a wealthy collector or goldsmith, but with an owner who simply wanted to repair it for everyday use, without the money or access to a gold- or silversmith. The precious Japanese porcelain was thus given a makeshift solution made from an everyday material.

As a result, this object tells two stories at once: the story of international trade, luxury, and status (the Kakiemon decorated porcelain itself), and the story of practical use, wear, and pragmatic care by a later, less wealthy owner (the metal / tin mount). That tension between high-end art and a humble, improvised repair often makes such an object more valuable for research into an object's "biography" than an undamaged, 'perfectly' mounted example - it shows how the object was actually lived with and used, rather than only how it was originally intended.

Jorg states that it is interesting to compare this example decorated only in underglaze blue-and-white with the Kakiemon teapot. The shapes are almost identical and may have been made at the same (Kakiemon?) workshop, but the decorations are completely different, illustrating the variety within this limited group.(Jörg 2003/1, p.193, cat. 240)

FC cat 240 p193

Teapot, Japan, c.1670-1690, Prinsenhof Museum, Delft, The Netherlands, No.1286 (not included in this sale/offer) (Reproduced from: Fine & Curious: Japanese Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, (C.J.A. Jörg, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam 2003), p.193, cat. 240. (Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by the publisher or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved)

A rather exact copy of this teapot was made at the Bow factory about 1753. (Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, p.142, cat. 103)

For identically shaped, sized and decorated teapots, please see:

Condition: Wear to the decoration, a missing handle and cover, a hairline and a chip to the rim, a missing metal / tin rib.

References:

Lunsingh Scheurleer 1980, cat. 491

Jörg 1984, cat. 78

Ayers, Impey & Mallet 1990, cat. 103

Oxford 1981, cat. 181

Kassel 1990, cat. 217

Impey 2002, cat. 82

Jörg 2003/1, cat. 240 & 241

Price: € 749 Currency Converter

More pictures >>

2012734

Chine de commande - Armorial / Pseudo-Armorial wares 1700-1800 - Armorial - Dutch

Object 2012734

Coffee cup

China

1745-1750

Height 63 mm (2.48 inch), diameter of rim 61 mm (2.40 inch), diameter of footring 32 mm (1.26 inch), weight 82 grams (2.90 ounce (oz.))

Coffee cup with handle on footring. Decorated in iron-red, blue, green, black, pink enamels and gold with a coat of arms in an oval shield.: on a blue background a white (silver) bend charged with three black balls, a coronet above with nine blue pearls. It is surrounded by green branches and a pink-edged banderol beneath inscribed in black: 'IOH: VAN AKEN, ROEL:DOGTER' which is for Johanna van Aken Roelandsdochter (1704-1795) from a family of merchants and vicars in Utrecht and Dordrecht, who commissioned this service. Round the rim a band of scrolling leaves and loops reminiscent of acanthus leaves in gold and rouge de fer.

The Van Aken arms were borne for the first time by Roeland van Aken (1631-1698) shown on a glass plague from about 1675, the crest with a black ball between a pair of black and silver wings. Roeland was councillor and alderman of the city of Utrecht and he was Johanna's great-grandfather. His ancestors came from the city of Aachen and they settled in Utrecht about 1600. At first their family name was Erckelens van Aken, afterwards simply Van Aken. Roelands descendants were apothecaries in Utrecht, vicars in Utrecht, Gelderland and the East Indies, timber merchant in Utrecht and so on.

Johanna's father was the reverend Ds. Roeland van Aken (1662-1708) who was vicar in the Gelderland villages of Well and Ammelrooij. From his second marriage in Well in 1699 to Anna Magdalena (van) Walraven (Baardwijk 1673-before 1756) three daughters were born: Susanna Barbara (1699-1783), Roelanda van Aken (1703-1791) and finally, Johanna van Aken (1704-1795).

Johanna van Aken (baptized Well,1704; died Dordrecht. 13 April 1795) grew up with her parents in the Slotje Well or Het Huys van Malsen.

kasteel-well-in-2014-monique-van-der-steen-rce-via-cg

Johanna's eldest sister Susanna Barbara married in 1726 Adriaan van Dam (1688-1749), a cloth merchant in Dordrecht and soon after both Johanna and her sister Roelanda moved to Dordrecht, where she was still living in 1730. She never married or left Dordrecht and she must have ordered this armorial tea service in the late 1740s when she was about 40 to 45 years old. She died in Dordrecht at the very great age of over 90 years old. On 19 January 1785 she made her will in Dordrecht bequeathing to Roeland, son of her nephew Roeland Leonard van Dam (1742-1800): 'het glazen hoekkastje met al het porselein op hetwelk haar testatrices wapen en naam staat' (the small glass corner cupboard with all the porcelain bearing the lgatee's arms and name...). Roeland Leonard van Dam (1742-1800) was the son of Adriaan van Dam Susanna barbara van Aken, Johanna's sister and brother-in-law. Later this went to Roeland Leonard's son, Roeland van Dam (1775-1838), who became a cloth merchant and councillor of Dordrecht . The last menber of this family to own this service van Roeland van Dam (1829-1910) who was mayor of Ilpendam and unmarried. After his death the service was probably sold and acquired by the Amsterdan antique dealer Abraham van Messel (1884-1955). (Kroes 2007, pp.311-312)

In 1910, the Frisian antiques dealer Samuel van Messel opened his *De Friesche Antiekwinkel* (The Frisian Antique Shop) in the Nieuwe Spiegelstaat 39 in Amsterdam, with the slogan "everything guaranteed old." Samuel van Messel also owned a shop in Leeuwarden. The Amsterdam business was run by his sons, Abraham van Messel (1884–1955) and Jacob van Messel (1889–1944). Their specialty was antique Japanese and Chinese porcelain—specifically, the finest quality. Only 33 other pieces of this Van Aken tea and coffee service are known. In the early 20th century the whole set was owned by Abraham van Messel (1884-1955), who sold two coffee cups and a coffee saucer to the Princessehof Museum in Leeuwarden in the 1920s. (Kroes 2007, pp.311-312)

For the saucer and two coffee cups, sold by Abraham van Messel (1884-1955) to the Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden, in the 1920s, please see:

Jacob van Messel struck out on his own in 1935 at Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 49 in Amsterdam, leaving Abraham to continue the business here alone. Abraham van Messel's shop remained at the Nieuwe Spiegelstraat 39 until the 1960s. Abraham van Messel died in 1955, apparently the Van Aken tea and coffee service came in the possession of his brother Koos van Messel (1896-1966) who was married to Sophia Boerema. Sophia Boerema died on 8 May 1999. Kroes states that the 33 other pieces of this tea and coffee service comprising two covered teapots (h.135 mm); two milk jugs with covers (h.130 mm); a tea caddy with cover and with applied scrollwork at the foot (h.135 mm); a hexagonal spoon tray with lobed sides (l.125 mm and w.80 mm); twelve tea cups (d.80 mm, h.40 mm) and twelve saucers (d.120 mm) were auctioned on 29 November - 10 December 1999 at De Zwaan Auctioneers, Amsterdam with the provenance (Antique dealer Koos van Messel (1896-1966) Amsterdam. (Kroes 2007, p.585)

The saucer of the coffee cup and saucer illustrated by Kroes has a diameter of 152,5 mm (6.00 inch) and is clearly wider than the 12 auctioned tea saucers which each had a diameter of 120 mm (4.72 inch). So it could very well be that Abraham van Messel sold the coffee cups and saucers separately leaving him a complete tea service to sell.

Condition: A hairline to the rim.

References:

Kroes 2007, cat. no. 228

Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden, inv. nr. NO 00593

Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden, inv. nr. NO 05394

Keramiekmuseum Princessehof Leeuwarden, inv. nr. NO 05395

Price: Sold.

More pictures >>