Three Chinese export armorial 'Schreuder’ porcelain dishes for the Dutch market
Diam. 23 cm each D. 4 cm (deep dish) & D. 3 cm (flat dishes)
The coat of arms on the dishes was found on the will of Clara Geertruijda de la Haye (1729-1769) in Batavia (Jakarta) in 1767. However, the De la Haye family usually took another coat of arms, recorded in Batavia in 1759. Clara was the fourth wife of Johan Schreuder (1704-1769), director of Suratte (Surat) from 1740 till 1749, governor and director of Sri Lanka from 1756 till 1761 and Councillor of the Dutch East Indies in Batavia till his death in 1769. Together they had nine children, four of whom died young and were buried in Colombo. This same coat-of-arms, though with a different crest, was found on the tombstone in Colombo of three of their children; Susanna Engelberta Schreuder (bpt. Suratte 20 April 1743 - d. Colombo 29 March 1760), Huybert Joan Schreuder (Colombo 4 February 1759 - 29 May 1759) and a daughter who died soon after birth. Therefore, it seems likely that this coat-of-arms with the three fleurs-de-lis belonged to Johan Schreuder. It is interesting to note that this coat-of-arms is depicted in the same way on a sawasa Japanese lacquered copper beaker in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
Part of the China collection.
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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 rare large Japanese Arita blue and white porcelain 'V.O.C' dish
