A rare pair of Chinese export porcelain ‘Table Bay’ dishes
Diam. 23.8 cm (each)
Finely pencilled in black, the Dutch flags in red and blue enamels, with Dutch ships in Table Bay, with Table Mountain, Devil's Peak and Signal Hill in the distance.
The border is decorated in the style of the du Paquier period of Vienna porcelain, around the well is a gold spearhead decoration, and touches of gold highlighting all over.
According to the Rijksmuseum, when sailors (or more plausible Captains or Officials) on their way to Asia would arrive at the Cape, they had a few months to replenish and visit the town. Often they would climb Table Mountain and admire the so recognizable view. Captured by this view, and by the view from the ship, they would purchase plates (or even whole dinner services) as the ones presented as a ‘souvenir’. (For a comparable dish, see Rijksmuseum, inv.no. AK-NM-13510)
As discussed by Woodward in Oriental Ceramics at the Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795, there are different versions of these 'Cape of Good Hope' dishes, of which the most numerous are in full colour. Grisaille or Encre de Chine versions are the rarest and scarce. Whilst all basically the same, they show little differences in detail and shading which enlivens all hand-painting and also a marked difference in the intensity of black; some versions are boldly pencilled with thick black lines and others, are much paler and more delicate in appearance, are drawn with great fineness.
Literature:
C.S. Woodward, Oriental Ceramics at the Cape of Good Hope 1652-1795: An account of the porcelain trade of the Dutch East India Company with particular reference to ceramics with the V.O.C. monogram, the Cape market, and South African collections, A.A. Balkema, Cape Town & Rotterdam, 1974, pp. 131-140 (ill. 157)
Part of the China collection.
Related objects
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.
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.
