A pair of large Chinese export porcelain dishes with the Valckenier coat-of-arms
The dishes are in the so-called encre de chine style and painted on the glaze in rouge de fer and the dominant colours blue, red, pink, black and gold. In the centre, the coat-of-arms of the Valckenier family. The arms features a tree stump in the middle, flanked by crescents on either side, and a helmet with a falcon as its crest. At the rim there is an engrailed gilt border and three flower sprays in gold.
Diam. 44 cm (each)
These particular dishes were probably part of a dinner-service that was ordered around 1735 by Adriaan Valckenier (1695-1751), Governor-General of the Dutch East India Company in Batavia (Jakarta). The service consisted of plates, salt cellars, ewers and dishes like the ones present. The plates and dishes vary in eight different sizes, from 44 cm to 22.5 cm. Amongst others, a salt cellar and a dish can be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (inv.no. AK-NM-13379 and AK-NM-13497).
Only five years after this dinner service was ordered, in October 1740, a drama took place in Batavia during Adriaan Valckeniers reign. In response to the uprising of the Chinese against the VOC, the cities European citizens carried out a huge massacre. ‘The streets were filled with corpses, the rivers flowing with blood.’
Adriaan Valckenier was portrayed by Theodorus Justinus Rheen (1714-1745), in 1737. In the upper right is the Valckenier family’s coat of arms, in the lower left are the coat-of-arms of the Dutch East Indies, the Republic and Batavia. This portrait is located in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (obj. no. SK-A-3778).
Provenance:
Private collection, Portugal
Literature:
Jochem Kroes, Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, Waanders Publishers, Zwolle, 2007, pp. 134-135
Source:
Leonard Blussé, De Kolonisatie van Batavia en het Bloedbad van 1740: de Chinezen Moord, Uitgeverij Balans, 2023, pp. 247
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.
