An extremely rare and large Chinese export famille rose armorial porcelain charger with the Amsterdam coat-of-arms
Diam. 54 cm
Two gilt lions hold the Amsterdam coat-of-arms in the centre of the dish with a description beneath that reads ‘AMSTELDAM’, all set within an elaborate red and green architectural framework and two Chinese ladies on pedestals in a reces left and right. The edge of the dish has an underglaze blue pattern with six cartouches featuring pink fish and grey crabs and shrimps. The outer edge is decorated with pink and red flowers in six large cartouches.
This in Dutch called ‘karrewiel’ or cartwheel dish and is the largest of a series of 23 so-called 'provincieborden' with the arms of towns and provinces of Holland, Belgium, France and England, produced between 1710 and 1730. Since the VOC in these years hardly ordered any porcelain in China, these provincieborden probably were ordered by private Dutch merchants who were quite successful commercially with these dishes.
The present dish is identical to a dish acquired by the KVVAK (Royal Dutch Asian Art Society) and is now on loan in the Rijksmuseum (inv. AK-MAK-1733).
Part of the China collection.
Related objects
A pink, yellow and green enamelled porcelain VOC plate
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.
A Japanese Ko-imari porcelain 'VOC' dish
Arita, Edo period, first half 19th century Decorated in blue and iron-red under glaze with in the center the VOC monogram in gold. The bottom with imitation Chinese Ming Dynasty Chenghua marks, 'Great Ming Chenghua period mark'. Diam. 21.2 cm Dishes like the one present were very expensive souvenirs for wealthy Japanese domestic tourists who visited Nagasaki to get a glimpse of the Dutch on Deshima. The design of this particular dish is unknown, and it is possibly unique.
