A Japanese Arita porcelain bottle with the initials of opperhoofd of Deshima and Governor-General of the former Dutch East-Indies Johannes Camphuys
A porcelain apothecary bottle with a bulbous body and tapering neck decorated in underglaze blue with branches of flowering peony and foliage with two perched and two flying birds. On the base the initials “I.C” inside a wreath.
H. 25.4 cm
The shape of these bottles is derived from a Dutch glass bottle. The Dutch East Indian Company must have brought many of these bottles used on board of ships, in kitchens and by pharmacists to Deshima. The initials “I.C.” could stand for Johannes Camphuys. Before becoming Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia from 1684 to 1691, Johannes Camphuys was “Opperhoofd” in Deshima intermittently between 1670 and 1677. He retained a lasting love for Japan and its people from this period. However Christiaan Jörg, Fine & Curious, Japanse Export Porcelain in Dutch Collections, thinks it more likely that Johannes Camphuys would have had his initials in a more obvious place and suggests “I.C” may stand for ius citronensis, or lemon juice. However, why the content of the bottle should be indicated underneath is even less likely.
Part of the Japan collection.
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Executed in rose-pink, yellow, and soft blue-green enamels, this design follows a silver ducatoon of 1728 in almost every aspect, with even the rim of the plate imitating the ribbed milling of the coin. On a shield is a crowned rampant lion, holding in his left paw a bunch of seven arrows symbolising the seven provinces of the United Netherlands, and in his right paw, a sword is shown supported by two crowned rampant lions. Below the shield is the monogram of the VOC, the Dutch East India Company, above the date 1728, and around it is the heraldic motto of the Dutch Republic CONCORDIA RES PARVAE CRESCUNT (by unity small things grow). The first ducatoon, or zilveren rijder, on which the design of this plate was based, arrived in Canton, China, on the 2nd of August 1729 with the Coxhorn, the first VOC ship to sail straight to Canton and not by way of Batavia. It arrived in Amsterdam in 1730 with the ordered porcelain in this design. This is an early example of the so-called Chine de Commande porcelain. Although the Cantonese artists had a zilveren rijder as an example, they didn’t really understand the design, giving the lions grimacing human faces and cape-like manes. They also didn’t understand the Latin letters, since the R ends truncated, the V is an inverted A, and the E looks more like a Chinese character. The only Chinese porcelain known with this design is a tea set, comprising cup-and-saucers and a theapot. For a cup and saucer, see: Uit Verre Streken, June 2017, no. 49. The Dutch likely took a cup-and-saucer from China to Japan, ordering larger plates like the one present. Until recently, these plates were attributed to Chinese kilns, but they are more likely Japanese. This solves the debate on whether these dishes are modern Chinese forgeries. One has been found in an old Japanese collection and is listed in a catalogue, which makes the latter impossible. The enamel's hues and the porcelain's colour are, indeed, more Japanese than Chinese.