D2523. Blue and White Small Dish

Delft, circa 1690

Painted with a Chinese figure standing before his attendant bearing a large fan, amidst four vessels placed on the ground and one on top of a stove within a blue ground border, separated by eight lappets with the depiction of a flower, Chinese characters, or fret-patterns

DIMENSIONS
Length: 15.8 cm. ( 6.2 in.)

PROVENANCE
The Kitty Valkier-Schreurs Collection, Belgium; Aronson Antiquairs, Amsterdam

LITERATURE
Described and illustrated in Aronson 2017, p. 26, no. 13.

NOTE
The Dutch were intrigued by Chinese and Japanese porcelain objects, and imitated many of the unique forms in Delftware. Potters were particularly interested by the small porcelain dishes and saucers used for small bites during the Japanese tea ceremony. Similar forms were made in Holland, decorated with chinoiserie decorations, or with purely European subjects, such as harbour views and landscapes. One example is a set of leaf-shaped dishes made by Frederik van Frytom dated 1684, found in the collection of Museum Prinsenhof in Delft (inv. no. PDA 126B & PDA 126E). Interestingly, these small dishes that bear Dutch landscapes were then produced in Japan from circa 1700 until 1725, of which an example is in the Museum Prinsenhof (inv. no. PDA 126 g), illustrated in Kievit and Klüver, 2015, p. 114. According to van Dam, 2004, p. 83 small dishes shaped as leaves and various forms were probably created on a large scale in China for the Japanese market in the seventeenth century. Therefore, it is likely that the small chinoiserie dishes that the VOC brought home from China were actually intended for a Japanese clientele.