Nynke Martens, Floris & Nynke van der Ven in front of the gallery in ’s-Hertogenbosch
The first edition of Eight – Living with Chinese Art (2019) was so well received, we decided to publish a second edition. We certainly still had a great deal to show you and so many stories to tell. ‘Inspirational’ was the key word when choosing our content, particularly focusing on how interesting and accessible Chinese art is and its timelessness in an interior. It has taken a while to pull it all together, but we feel we have succeeded in making another issue brimming with interesting articles and stunning images. It features all the things we get very excited about in our world - within and outside of our gallery. We are certainly beyond proud of the result!
The first magazine centred around the living room in our gallery, redesigned by Reineke Antvelink of RA Sutdio. This time the starting point was the dining room (see cover), a space reimagined by the same brilliant designer. This collaboration has given us so much positive energy in the last few years, that it has led us to working together on the design of our stand at the PAN Amsterdam fair in 2021 & 2022. Creating all these wonderful spaces together is so energizing: combining Chinese objects with beautiful fabrics, wallpaper and furniture – it truly embodies our vision of Living with Chinese Art. Excellent art befitting an excellent interior!
Organising photoshoots on location, was great fun and it is amazing to see what happens to our objects in different settings - either in our gallery (Fine Dining and Tablescapes), in combination with contemporary art (Art House) or in the beautifully restored Parc Broekhuizen. We just love historical interiors, in which Chinese art plays such a significant role and we have covered no less than four in this issue (Drottningholm’s Chinese Pavilion, Charlottenburg, Huis ten Bosch and Palace Het Loo). Inspiring people tell us about what interests and excites them (5Q). We can’t encourage you enough to also visit the small museums we have included, each founded by a passionate collector (Hidden Gems). There is a column about the joy of using antique objects (Susan Moore) and an article on the fairly unknown Blackheath Pagoda (Huon Malllieu). Of course we have also chosen a travel destination for you (Stockholm), selected books and learnt all about tea (Mariëlla Erkens).
Working with so many enthusiastic people on this magazine has been unbelievably rewarding and we are indebted to all who have contributed to this issue. The exchange of opinions and knowledge, as well as getting acquainted to such talented people has been truly a gift that we will cherish. They have enriched us, as they will undoubtedly enrich you too.
Floris & Nynke van der Ven
After a six year refurbishment closure, this fabulous has museum opened its doors once again to the public. The exhibition space has increased by 35%, allowing much more space for display. The collection was formed by wealth shipping merchant Sir William Burrell (1861-1958), who bequeathed the entire collection to the city of Glasgow. One of his major collecting areas was Chinese art, including porcelains from the Ming and Qing dynasty and - unusually for that period – also early ceramics, bronzes and jades. He acquired art through major dealers in London, painstakingly recording each addition in his purchase books. There are some incredible displays, making this museum a must see for any Chinese art enthusiast.
burrellcollection.com
The recently opened Hong Kong Palace Museum, is located on the waterfront of the West Kowloon cultural district. Dedicated to Chinese art and culture, it presents over 900 treasures from the Palace Museum in Beijing, many of them on display in Hong Kong for the first time. The museum will also regularly feature special exhibitions.
www.hkpm.org.hk
The Royal Asian Art Society (KVVAK), The Netherlands, was founded in 1918, to encourage a broader interest in Asian art. They hold a collection of over 1850 artworks, on loan to the Rijksmuseum. They offer a triannual journal Aziatistische Kunst, as well as organising excursions, lectures and courses. Membership €80 p.a. €95 overseas.
kvvak.nl | @kvvakasianart
Founded in 1921, The Oriental Ceramic Society (OCS), is a leading international society for the study and appreciation of Asian art, with a special focus on ceramics. They publish an annual journal (Transactions of The Oriental Ceramics Society) and regular newsletters. They organise handling sessions, lectures and excursions. Membership £55 p.a. (£50 overseas).
orientalceramicsociety.org.uk | @theorientalceramicsociety
Arts of Asia (est. 1970) is a quarterly magazine about Asian art and antiques. It is one of the foremost specialist magazines in its field, providing insights into the Asian art market. You can choose between a printed or digital edition.
artsofasia.com
ALDOUS BERTRAM
Chinoiserie is a term for Western art and design inspired by a largely invented vision of China. Marco Polo’s sensational account of his visit to the exotic East in the 13th century sparked a fascination with China, that reached a fever pitch in the 18th century and continues to this day. Art historian and artist Aldous Bertram has long been captivated by chinoiserie. His book Dragons & Pagodas is organized by theme, including porcelain, colour and pattern, flora, fauna, and architecture. Each chapter is bursting with images ranging from grand European summer palaces and whimsical pagoda follies to charming details of screens, porcelain figurines, and ornate plasterwork. Complete with Bertram’s own chinoiserie-inspired watercolours and collages, Dragons & Pagodas is an irresistible confection and an example of chinoiserie in its own right.
Aldous Bertram is an artist, illustrator, muralist, and interior designer who works for Lindroth Design. He received his PhD from Cambridge University, specializing in the historical influence of China on English garden design and architecture. His interiors have been featured in several design publications. He lives in Charleston, South Carolina.
| @dragons_and_pagodas
The lovely Parc Broekhuizen, is located in rural Leersum, nestled in the heart of nature. The first references to the estate date back to the 12 th century and it has since served as a country retreat. The current house can trace its roots to the late 18 th century, but was largely reconstructed after a fire in 1906. The present owner acquired the park and house in 2011. It has since been lovingly restored - the historical details preserved - and filled with art and contemporary design. Now it is a culinary estate where you can experience the delights of their top restaurant, stay the night in the historical building and enjoy the tranquil surroundings. We chose this setting as a backdrop for beautiful Chinese porcelain combined with amazing sugar flowers.
This jade screen depicts a river scene with choppy water and a shoreline with trees and rocks. A solitary figure sits in a shallow boat, which appears to be made from a gnarly tree trunk. The skilled jade carver, has cleverly created a sense of depth by carving the stone to varying levels of relief. Large jade screens, are very rare and to achieve this size, such panels are made up of multiple slices of the same jade - the joins barely visibly through clever use of carved decoration. The size and quality of this screen, indicate that it may have been created in the Palace workshops in Beijing.
The bearded gentleman depicted in the boat, is the explorer Zhang Qian 张骞 (d.114 BC), is renowned historical statesman, explorer and chronicler. In 138 BC, Zhang travelled to the West, to establish relations with the countries bordering on China. After an epic 13 year journey, he came home and brought the Emperor the first reliable account of the lands to the West of China. His missions, led to the opening up the first trade routes between East and West and to the establishment of the Silk Road. He was later immortalized in a Yuandynasty poem, that tells the romanticized version of his epic voyage.
Yellow Jar and Cover Kangxi period (1662-1722) H: 22 cm | € 12,500
Yellow Jar Kangxi period (1662-1722) H: 14 cm | € 12,500
Wanli period (1573-1620), late 16 th century H: 48 cm | € 34,500
Mountain China,
(1662-1722)
Mountains ( shan ) play an important role in Chinese customs, myths and legends. It was believed that immortals dwelled there – in a mountain paradise known as Penglai. This heavenly place, reigned over by the Queen Mother of the West, was also where the peaches of immortality grew. There are five actual sacred peaks in China, one in each cardinal direction, which have been places of veneration since ancient times. They were thought to be where heaven was connected to earth. To communicate with the Daoist deities, various Emperors ordered construction of temples on these mountains.
This large model of a mountain would have been placed in a Chinese scholar’s studio, so he could contemplate on the beauty and benefits of nature. A place where solitude and connection with the immortals could be sought.
BIOGRAPHY
Natasja was educated in fashion at school in Groningen. She started her career in bridal couture, and has now turned her creativity to making elegant cakes adorned with delicate and realistic sugar flowers. Her source of inspiration is the world around her and she has made arrangements for clients from New York to Paris. Her work and photography has been featured in international magazines such as Elle Décor USA, Flower Magazine and Dutch Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar. More recently she collaborated with fashion designer Adam Lippes for his 2022 collection. Amsterdam is her home town where she lives with her husband and two children. Natasja has a beautiful Instagram feed, where she shares pictures of her life in Amsterdam, her amazing sugar flowers as well as her trademark ‘Sunday Flowers’ from the local flower market arranged in blue and white vases. Her new book A Sweet Floral Life: Romantic Arrangements for Fresh and Sugar Flowers is due in April 2023
@cakeatelieramsterdam natasjasadi.com
The intricate, subtle and perfect timeless artistry. And when there is use of color its boldness. Just like in nature everything matches and each piece always complements and elevates the environment and its decor.
Without a doubt Art. Both classic and contemporary. That said, inspiration is all around us so absolutely anything! From floors to ceilings. From food to flowers to fabrics, anything that awakes my senses is considered inspiration. The smallest details can evoke creativity.
3. In what way does art enriches your own interior?
The pieces we own have become almost like dear friends or family members. They provide joy because of their beauty and give comfort for nurturing my mind. Some are more valuable than others but to me, they are all priceless. I can only hope my children will feel the same way.
4. What’s the last artistic or cultural event that really impressed you?
A lifelong dream came true this summer visiting Chiang Rai in Thailand with its extraordinary Buddhist temples. Especially the white temple ‘Wat Rong Khun’ and oldest temple ‘Wat Phra Kaew’ before the crowds are visions to behold. An otherworldly experience both spiritually and physically.
5. If money, space or time were no object, which piece of art or antique would you like to have in your own home?
Blue and white soldier vases. Preferably two! They say saying your dreams out loud is the first step. Let’s hope I’m now closer to a pair of these standing triumphantly by our fireplace.
SUGAR FLOWERS
LARGE DOUBLE GOURDS
Inspiration, that is the main aim of this magazine. So we thought why not invite four different people to make a display on the same table, each in their own way using pieces from our collection and their own personal objects. As this project unfolded, we were amazed and delighted by the results. They are all entirely different and equally wonderful.
Mark Broch deals in Old Master paintings and drawings and gives professional advice and expertise on these subjects. He is passionate about interior decoration and together with his partner he is an avid collector of 17 th - and 18 th -century pictures, furniture, decorative arts, Delftware, silver and porcelain from both East and West. The collections are displayed in dense arrangements throughout their Dutch 18 th century canal house, which also serves as their gallery. whiterosefineart.com
The Porcelain Cabinet in Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin
As a rule, princely apartments in Baroque castles were not used for private retreat and relaxation. They were semi-public places of encounter, exercise of power and self-expression. The sequence of rooms was fixed: their use but also their furnishing corresponded to the requirements of the actions that, according to the ceremonial, took place in them. Perhaps it is easier to imagine this if we consider that even today, for example, we serve guests an aperitif in the salon, then lead them to the dining room for dinner, and finally have coffee in the library.
In the Baroque period, in German residences, at the end of such an apartment there was usually a room called a cabinet, which gave the prince or princess the opportunity to withdraw, or to have a confidential conversation. These cabinets were therefore small, comfortable, and often served to house special collections. They are rooms characterized by personal preferences of the owners.
The cabinet at the end of the state apartment in Charlottenburg Palace is therefore very unusual. The room was inaugurated by the first Prussian king Frederick I in 1706, a year after the death of his wife Sophie Charlotte. Both were enthusiastic about Asian art and especially loved Chinese and Japanese porcelains. It can be assumed that they did not give the architect of the room, Johann Friedrich Eosander, a free hand in the development of the decor, but rather contributed ideas.
The room is the same size as the audience chamber four rooms in front of it, and significantly larger than the rest of the rooms in the apartment. Almost half of the walls are covered with very large and, at the time, extremely precious mirrors. In addition, the six large French windows leading to the terrace overlooking the garden also looked like mirrored surfaces in the dark. However, the impression of the room is dominated by the nearly 3,000 Chinese and a few Japanese porcelains: large bowls, plates and saucers
DETAIL OF AN ARRANGEMENT
set with plaster directly into the gold-coloured walls, small tea bowls, slop bowls and vases standing on finely carved, gilded consoles, plates set into freely suspended metal frames from which miniature vases hang like tassels, or large lidded vases on étagères with glittering nashiji lacquer decoration - all this results in a bewildering splendour in blue and white.
This unique creation, which still enchants visitors to Charlottenburg Palace today, was comprehensively described and illustrated with two views in the important historical chronicle “Theatrum Europaeum” in 1717 and 1718. The illustrations carried the fame of the room all over the world. Numerous German princes were inspired by it and commissioned similar cabinets, which were exceedingly richly furnished with Asian porcelain. Although the Charlottenburg Porcelain Cabinet was certainly the most famous example of this genre at the Prussian court, it belonged to a whole series: the mother of Frederick I - Henriette Louise of OrangeNassau - had already furnished a porcelain room in her Oranienburg Palace, located north of Berlin. Unfortunately, we know neither what it looked like nor what pieces were in it. However, the little information available indicates that the room was entirely in the tradition of the porcelain rooms of her native Holland. That is, it was lined with gold-leather wallcovering and presented porcelains on consoles, cabinet stands and tables. When her son took over the regency in 1688, he remodelled this palace. He set up a room at the end of the new state apartment, with
plates and saucers of blue and white porcelain set into its white-painted walls. Mirrored surfaces, gilded consoles and monumental étagères in the shape of pyramids presented coups and vases. This room, which was completed in 1695, was also very special for its size and architectural elements. The porcelain chambers in the Royal houses of Malchow and Caputh were proportionally much smaller, but were shown by their owners to high guests - such as August the Strong of Saxony, King in Poland, or Frederick IV of Denmark - with as much pride as the large chambers.
But why did Frederick invest so much in these rooms, where no audience was given, no food was served, and no games were played, which were only meant for viewing? To answer this question, it is worth taking a look at the ceilings. The ceiling painting of the oldest still existing porcelain chamber in Caputh shows an allegory of Europe, to whom porcelains are presented by black figures and putti. It is not fantasy pieces that are depicted there, but recognizable types of Kraak, Kakiemon and Yixing wares. The same applies to the painting by Augustin Terwesten on the ceiling in Oranienburg, in the centre of which an allegory of Orange sits. In Charlottenburg, the ceiling by Jan Anthonie de Coxie shows no porcelains, but the richest pictorial program: Aurora and Apollo as allegories of Sophie Charlotte and Frederick I, ride one behind the other on chariots over the clouds, in front of them a figure drives away death and darkness. They are surrounded by many people and animals, all of which represent various allegories of time and space. This expresses that the new royal couple will bring light and a good age, forever and throughout the whole kingdom. This is made possible for them by “the foundation” on which they operate, namely the porcelain-clad walls. Since the blue and white porcelains at that time could also be understood as a symbol for The Netherlands; the viewer is told here in a suggestive way, that the impending flowering of Prussia is connected to its kinship with the House of Orange. In all likelihood, then, the large Wucai lidded vases, which were presented with particular emphasis and, unlike most of the other pieces, were already several decades old when the room was inaugurated, came from the Orange heritage.
Unfortunately, we know very little about individual porcelains that were originally in the Charlottenburg porcelain chamber. The two copperplate engravings from 1717 and 1718 do hint at decorations, so that,
for example, one believes to recognize a row of large Kraak bowls at the top of the entablature. However, there are no other sources, such as inventories, to confirm this. When enemy troops looted and devastated rooms in Charlottenburg Palace during the Seven Years’ War in 1760, much was also broken in the porcelain cabinet. The empty spaces were subsequently filled with plates, tea bowls and vases collected from other places. Shortly after 1820, the miniature vases were supplemented with copies from the Berlin porcelain manufactory KPM. However, it was the Second World War which had a truly devastating effect on the room. Fortunately most of the porcelains could be moved to safe places during the war, but after 1945 they were transported to Russia by the trophy troops of the Red Army and are now still in a museum depot in St. Petersburg. When the castle was almost completely destroyed by bombs in November 1943, the ceiling collapsed. Nevertheless, so much of the wall decoration was preserved that the room could be restored and reconstructed. When refurnishing the room with porcelain in the 1960s, however, those responsible were not guided by the pre-war photographs, but by the prints of the early 18 th century. Since only about 70 of over 4500 Asian porcelains in the entire palace remained at the time, the replacement pieces were acquired on the art market. A larger numberfor example the large Kraak bowls - came from the 1986 auction of the so-called Hatcher Cargo. While the appearance before 1943 was rather colourful and made up of different types due to the many additions, today the porcelain cabinet presents itself very uniformly: blue and white porcelains from the mid-17 th century and especially from the period around 1700 are complemented by a few lidded pots in five-colour decoration (wucai) and a small amount Japanese pieces.
Hardly any other room today conveys the fascination of German porcelain cabinets so impressively. The Charlottenburg room was the model for a large number of porcelain chambers, and it is striking that it was almost without exception Protestant princes who followed this model. Their creations - whether in Weikersheim, Rudolstadt, Arnstadt or elsewherealso place more emphasis on the quantity of porcelain than on the decoration with other artistic means. Moreover, they invariably feature monograms or coats of arms indicating the owners and their dynasty. The Dutch of the United Seven Provinces in the north
were the heroes of the Protestant princes, not least because of the expulsion of the Catholic Spaniards. Even if there were no kinship ties to the House of Orange, as was the case in Brandenburg-Prussia, they were thus able to express a connection via the porcelain as a symbol for the Calvinist Netherlands. Last but not least, it was demonstrably the Prussian porcelain chambers - and Charlottenburg in particular - that spurred Augustus the Strong on to his passion for collecting in the wake of his visits in 1709 and 1728 and inspired the idea of the Japanese Palace in Dresden. But this is another story.
The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation BerlinBrandenburg is currently in the process of completing an online inventory catalogue of Asian porcelain, which will be available on the Internet in 2023 or 2024 at the latest. The several thousand objects will also provide detailed commentary and illustrations of the entire current holdings of the Charlottenburg Porcelain Cabinet, as well as 3D visualizations that will allow online users to experience the cabinet. This is a wonderful enrichment for enthusiasts and scholars alike, although one has to admit: the impression one has when entering this room cannot be matched by any other medium. See for yourself, you are cordially invited!
Samuel Wittwer (b. 1967) studied History of Art at the university of Basel and trained as a porcelain restorer. After working for the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Foundation in Basel, he was appointed curator of the ceramics collections of the Prussian Palaces and Gardens Foundation Berlin Brandenburg in 1999. He wrote and published his thesis
The Gallery of Meissen - Augustus the Strong’s Menagerie for the Japanese Palace in Dresden in 2004 (German) and 2006 (English). In 2008, he was promoted to director of the foundation.
Hardly any other room today conveys the fascination of German porcelain cabinets so impressively
Kate Malone MBE (b. London 1959), is one of the UK’s leading ceramic artists with an illustrious career spanning thirty years. She has developed an unmistakable style, particularly focussing on her pioneering glazing techniques. This has led to collaborations with prominent architects and designers. She is truly passionate about the ceramic arts, dedicating much of her time to sharing her skills and expertise. She is the charity founder and ambassador of the Firedup4 auctions, raising money to enable young people to enjoy the benefits of pottery, by providing pottery studios, equipment and training to OnSide Youth Zones. Kate is also is a regular contributor at specialist art events, and was a judge on The Great Pottery Throw Down. Her work is represented by leading ceramics gallery Adrian Sassoon in London.
@kate_malone_ceramics katemaloneceramics.com adriansassoon.com firedup4.com
What first comes to mind is the charm and the appropriate weight of the object. If you pick a piece up as a maker, it feels perfect. Each object made with care and sensitivity, feel so right. They have the right weight in my hand, and a unique charm - so simple, yet sophisticated. When handling the porcelain, I often feel a great connection with the maker, more so than with objects from other cultures.
For me inspiration can be found everywhere and in everything –I pick from the pantry of the world! It can be something I see in a magazine, on television or at an art fair. Both historical or new objects. I don’t make a particular mental note to use a sourceI just store it in my subconscious. The main source however is nature - perhaps whilst in the garden and seeing a fruit, or even someone else’s version of a fruit.
3. In what way does art enriches your own interior?
Art is everywhere in my interior – they are all about people and memories! Just on one set of shelves are pieces by Andrew Wicks, a covid piece by an intern, simple Indian altar sculpture. I like to swap and exchange with other makers – so each piece has that memory of people attached to it. Therefore it reminds me of the person involved as well as enjoying the beauty of the object.
4. What’s the last artistic or cultural event that really impressed you?
The annual Loewe Craft Prize, which was in Seoul this summer – for which I was also nominated. The prize’s remit is to encourage traditional craft, with the addition of new invention. There were 30 finalists chosen from an incredible 3000 applications from 116 countries. Each entry is all about craft reinterpreted and re-thought. The extraordinary tradition of crafts, which I appreciate in older things, but brought into the present and future. The scope of material on offer was amazing, the winning piece was a basket woven from horse hair.
5. If money, space or time were no object, which piece of art or antique would you like to have in your own home?
Very hard to choose one thing – so I chose two! The large plaster figure of a seated Buddha in the Vanderven collection – it has such a spiritual quality, when I first saw it, I felt it was breathing at me. The other is a beautiful Chola bronze from Southern India – which have a quality to them, which I would aspire to for the rest of my life. Though I am not particularly religious, I seem to be drawn to the spirituality of temple figures.
PINEAPPLES SOLD FOR CHARITY
KATE MALONE’S STUDIO IN KENT
PLASTER FIGURE OF BUDDHA MING DYNASTY
In China a bright turquoise colour on ceramics is referred to as Peacock Green - due to its resemblance to peacock feathers. This glaze is fired at a medium temperature and owes its hue to the copper oxide in an alkaline mix. It became a very popular colour in the 18 th century, when the potters at Jingdezhen developed a turquoise of even greater depth and brilliance. It also appealed in the West, where especially French aristocratic and royal collectors, such as Marie Antoinette, delighted in objects in this bright colour –known there as Bleu Celest e.
The much admired restyled living room was such a fantastic addition to our gallery, that we needed no encouragement to refurbish a second space. We approached Reineke Antevelink (RA Studio) again, this time to create a dining room. The idea was that it should be very different, but also complementary to the living room. The brief was that our long table should fit in, the existing wooden floor should be preserved and we had enough display space for our collection.
Reineke surprised us by using a chalky purplish colour (Carte Colori Mauve) on the walls, as well as the ceiling, woodwork and even the sockets.
Choosing to paint the ceiling was a challenge due to the height (4,5 meters), but the overall effect is spectacular! The oak floor was sanded down its original lighter colour and a natural rug added. The room is visually divided by a Chinese altar table, with one side for the long table, the other for a small seating area with reupholstered antique chairs. The neutral linen curtains, have elaborate ruching for a luxurious effect. Two large bespoke oak cabinets, created ample space for displaying our works of art and were supplemented with a row of pedestals, with loose linen covers to blend with the walls.
Reineke personally ‘shopped’ for Chinese objects from our collection, to be displayed in the room. We quickly discovered that both early terracotta objects and Chinese porcelain sit well in this new space. A painting by Desiree Engelen and a large plant chosen by Paul Klunder, completed the look.
Many delightful dinners have been hosted here already and there will be many more to come!
A comfortable seating area to receive guests, completed the room
The bespoke oak cabinets are ideal for displaying the collection
RA STUDIO was founded in 2013 by Reineke Antvelink. With her background in the arts, her vision always pushes beyond the usual. Renowned for her extravagant style and fine detailing, her philosophy is to harmonize beauty and functionality in the spaces where we live and work. Her rooms have great character, but also a sense of timelessness. Reineke has an eye for remarkable objects and pieces that will enrich your living space - these can be antiques, modern art or an exotic artefact - so every room will vibrate with personality. info@ra-studio.nl | ra-studio.nl | @rastudionl
Inspiration, that is the main aim of this magazine. So we thought why not invite four different people to make a display on the same table, each in their own way using pieces from our collection and their own personal objects. As this project unfolded, we were amazed and delighted by the results. They are all entirely different and equally wonderful.
babshaenen.com
@babshaenen
Dutch ceramic artist Babs Haenen – born 1948 – studied visual arts at the Gerrit Rietveld academy in Amsterdam (1974-1997) where she became a teacher in 1994 until 2013. Babs has worked and lived in Jingdezhen, in China, won several awards like the Van Achterbergh prize in 2020 and the Inax Design prize for Europeans in Japan in 1991. Her work is exhibited in The Museum of Contemporary Ceramic Art -Shigaraki, Japan, Museum Boijmans van BeuningenRotterdam, The Netherlands, Metropolitan Museum of Art - New York, Victoria and Albert Museum – London. Babs is a great communicator, has a wonderful sense of humor and is an avid Instagram user.
In September and October 1815 a near 50 year-old former pawn-broker, tax collector and draper found fame in yet another career as a competitive walker. For £100 wager he was to walk 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours around Blackheath, the open area that adjoins Greenwich Park in south-east London. Crowds massed to watch, bet and drink, with the Hare and Billet public house alone selling “thousands of quarts” of beer (one quart equaling 1.14 litres), and sideshows included a small herd of elephants. Thanks to public rowdiness, hostile magistrates and serious rain, Wilson did not quite win his challenge, but the £100 was rapidly raised for him on the London Stock Exchange.
Naturally, such an event attracted popular printmakers, and in an etched caricature by George Woodward behind the figure of the “Blackheath Pedestrian” can be seen the profile of a small and unusual building at the edge of the Heath. This is the Blackheath Pagoda, which, like its more elaborate and famous contemporary at Kew in south-west London,
owes its form to the Anglo-Swedish architect Sir William Chambers (1723 - 96).
Chambers was a son of a Scottish merchant established in Gothenburg, after whose death 1735, he was sent to a cousin in Yorkshire to be educated. At 16 he joined the Swedish East India Company, sailing to Bengal as a cadet in 1740 - 2. In the following years he made two voyages to China, serving as a supercargo. The roundtrip to Canton usually took an average of 18 months, but the first voyage for Chambers took 31, and a third of the crew perished. It has been said that during his second Canton visit he made detailed drawings of Chinese buildings and furnishings, but there is no evidence for this. As the China coast specialist Dr Patrick Conner, who has generously shared his research with me, puts it: “One simple (although not conclusive) reason for doubting whether Chambers made detailed drawings in Canton is that no such drawings are known. Many other drawings by Chambers survive from later phases of his career, but none from China.”
BLACKHEATH PAGODAIn fact, Westerners were not allowed into the walled city itself, and would quite likely be met with hostility if they tried to penetrate it. Furthermore, even outside the walls they were closely controlled as to what they could visit. When he came to describe one of the plates in his Designs of Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and Utensils , published in 1757, Chambers glossed this over with the note: “I do not pretend to give this as a very accurate plan; exact measures of Chinese buildings are of small consequence to European artists; and it is a matter of great difficulty to measure any publick work in China with accuracy, because the people are very troublesome to strangers, throwing stones and offering other insults”. He does not seem to have observed that the three towers that he would have seen outside Canton, adhered to the Chinese rule of odd numbered storeys, while his Great Pagoda at Kew has ten, and Blackheath two.
When he talked of basing his work on “original” drawings, he did not necessarily mean his own. He was familiar with prints of Chinese buildings by earlier travelling artists, and, like many of his mercantile colleagues, he commissioned and brought back reverse paintings on glass. European glass was carried on outward voyages to be painted by Chinese specialists, and since he could, presumably, stipulate the subjects, he could acquire reference stock in this way.
However, the fact that Chambers was known to have spent time in China was enough for him to be credited as the great expert of the day. In a remarkably short time after his settlement in England in 1755, he counted the Royal family and numerous dukes among his clients, and George III not only recognised the knighthood of the Polar Star awarded him by the King of Sweden, but allowed him to assume the style of an English knight. This explains the caption of a caricature print of him published by Mary Darly in 1773: “From North to South, I came forth right, By favour in duplici modo
a knight, In primis an Ass, secundus a Bear, The one is a Fact, the other is Fair”. It may be that not everyone was completely convinced. On his return to Europe he studied in Paris, and then Rome where Robert Adam first met him and wrote spikily that “ he both knows well & draws exquisitely… He despises others as much as he admires his own talents, which he shows with a slow and dignified air, conveying an idea of great wisdom…” Adam, of course, was also a Scot hoping to make his name as an architect and designer in London.
The Blackheath Pagoda was built in the “Remote Gardens”, a patch of land detached from the principal grounds of Montague House, a comparatively small property of the Dukes of Montague and their heirs, the Earl of Cardigan and Dukes of Buccleuch. For many years the origin of the Pagoda was a matter of conjecture, and it was often assumed to be a 19 th century building, because of its Victorian additions. However, it has now been established that it dates from 1767, when the 3 rd Duke of Buccleuch took over the Blackheath properties on marriage to Lady Mary Montague. Her parents had subscribed to Chambers’ 1757 publication, and he was already working for the Duke elsewhere. The Remote Gardens, leased from the Earls of Dartmouth, the area’s largest landlords, had no buildings, and a summer house and stabling were required. Chambers’ much loftier Kew Pagoda dates from 1761-2, and even though that may have prompted it, in its early days the Blackheath summer house was referred to as the “India Room”, a common usage for anything broadly Oriental. At the same time, the Buccleuchs commissioned a portable canvas pagoda, probably for use during archery meetings of the Toxophilite Society on the Heath. A successor tent made in about 1805 survives at Boughton, and a similar portable Chinese Temple was made for Lord Scarsdale at Kedleston, Derbyshire, in 1769.
BLACKHEATH PEDESTRIANThe Pagoda’s upturned Chinese roof and moon window would have been visible from Montague House, with the less Chinese motif of a thistle on the gable. This is likely to allude to the Duke’s admission to the Scottish Order of the Thistle, also in 1767. Unfortunately no early interior views of the Pagoda and its furnishings are known, although an inventory of the early contents of the “Indian Room” has been discovered.
By 1799 the Buccleuchs had left Montague House and the Pagoda, letting them to Caroline, Princess of Wales, who was in need of a residence after the acrimonious collapse of her marriage to the future George IV. She held her alternative court there until 1812, and she established a nursery school with
a vegetable garden in the Pagoda, then called the Pavilion. A smitten local poet, Thomas Noble wrote: “There the Pavilion with fantastic roof Reflects the glistening sunbeam, while around Young Vegetation lifts his verdant brows And in a thousand forms obeys the call Of genial Warmth: - A beauteous Princess here Receives the earliest offerings of the Spring.”
The fantastic roof was probably covered in copper, rather than lead, at that period. Pupils at the school included at least one who was suspected of being the Princess’s own child, and in the later stages of the divorce proceedings she was accused of carrying on many adulterous affairs there.
The property then reverted to the Dartmouth estate, and throughout the following century it was occupied, and developed by a series of tenants. In 1873, when it had been considerably enlarged, auction particulars for the lease said that the Pagoda was “built in a most substantial manner in the Eastern and extremely picturesque style of architecture”. Bizarrely, though, for the 1925 sale it was described as a “Tudor style property built in 1738 by the Duke of Buccleuch” - wrong in almost every particular, except that some interiors had indeed been given Tudor panelling. However, Frank Butcher, the owner at that time, collected Oriental works of art and adapted the drawing room to show them.
By the 1950s the Pagoda was used as a children’s home, and in the late 1980s as a temporary home for Tamil refugees. Lewisham Council took it on in 1990, and it was threatened with demolition before being bought by an architect who restored it as his home. Sold again in 2012, it remains a private residence.
With thanks to Dr Patrick Conner; Scott Macdonald at Boughton House; and the Blackheath Society.
Huon Mallalieu is an historian who writes on art, antiques and collecting for The Times, Country Life and The Oldie. He is the author or editor of many books, including The Dictionary of British Watercolour Artists and Understanding Watercolours (both Antique Collectors’ Club) and 1066 and Rather More, a Walk through History (Frances Lincoln). He is an FSA and an Hon RWS.
BLACKHEATH PAGODA
BLACKHEATH PAGODA
Small specialist house museums, are often founded by philanthropic collectors who wish to let their collections live on - for enjoyment as well as education. We have chosen four, each with an impressive Chinese ceramics collection. Each one, has a passionate collector as driving force behind it. Two of them were even founded by very visionary women and one is now run by a woman very passionate about the family collection.
PAULINA BISDOM
This house museum is remarkable, as its interior and collection has largely remained as the last owner - Paulina Bisdom van Vlietleft it. It is a unique reflection of the life of a well to do family in the latter part of the 19 th century and, as such, an important Dutch historical monument.
In 1874 Marcellus Bisdom van Vliet - burgomaster of Haastrecht - had the current house built on the foundation of an earlier family property. On his death, the house passes to his daughter Paulina Bisdom van Vliet (1840-1923) - who lives there until 1923. She is an avid collector, filling the house with many art objects including an incredible 2500 pieces of Chinese porcelain. She had multiple Chinese dinner services, porcelain filled cabinets and dishes arranged in elaborate wall displays.
As a widow living on her own, Paulina seems to have been far ahead of her time, was very emancipated and socially engaged. She started a girls school, established a theatre and supported a variety of local sports clubs. In continuation of this, Paulina stipulated in her will that her house and it’s collection was to become a museum for the enjoyment of all. The second part of her will is yet to be opened –100 years after her death on 1 June 2023.
The house and garden over the road make a fascinating visit. Opening times vary so it is worth checking before visiting.
bisdomvanvliet.nl
In 2009, Sir Michael Butler completed a 400 sq m, purpose-built museum in his garden in Dorset, to house his Chinese porcelain collection.
It had previously been distributed amongst various old apple sheds and workshops, but after his exhibition in 2005-6 which travelled to the Shanghai Museum and then on to the Victoria and Albert Museum, Sir Michael felt the pieces needed a more distinguished setting. Exceptionally, the pieces are not behind glass allowing the very limited number of visitors to handle the porcelain and see it from all angles. Although 250 pieces were removed from the museum following Sir Michael’s death in 2013, another 300 were added from those he kept in his 2 homes plus over 50 that have subsequently been acquired by his daughter Katharine, meaning that over 650 pieces are now on display. A beautifully printed catalogue was published in 2021 (see Book Love p. 113).
Visits are by invitation only but may be arranged by contacting Katharine Butler on kbutler@butlercollection.com
The Custodia collection in Paris, is particularly famous for its stunning collection of Old Master Drawings. But what few people know, is that it also houses a splendid collection of about 120 pieces of Chinese ceramics, predominantly blue and white Chinese porcelain from the Wanli and Transitional periods.
Fondation Custodia was established in 1947, by the passionate Dutch collector and connoisseur Frits Lugt (1884-1970) and his wife Jacoba (To) Lugt-Klever (1888-1969). After spending the war years in the United States - inspired by similar initiatives from American collectors - they created a foundation for their expansive collection. They moved to France in 1953, settling in an 18 th century mansion Hôtel Turgot, where the Foundation is now housed. In his interiors Lugt aimed to present a broad view of Dutch material culture in the 17 th century; in which Chinese underglaze blue wares were regarded as essential element.
The Custodia collections reflect Lugt’s excellent eye and nose for quality - the porcelain collection is certainly no exception. From inventories it can be ascertained, that he already started acquiring Chinese works of art prior to 1931. Although his main focus lay in Old Master drawings, his other collection fields, should be seen in the context of the broader interest in other art forms, particularly those from Dutch 17 th century.
new catalogue on the Chinese porcelain collection, Chinese Porcelain in the Frits Lugt Collection by Prof. Dr. Christiaan Jörg, is due in 2023.
fondationcustodia.fr
Completed in 1898, The Hallwyl residence in the centre of Stockholm, was built to house the business and family of Wilhelmina von Hallwyl – Kempe (1844-1921) and her Swiss-born husband Walther von Hallwyl. In the succeeding years, the rooms were specifically adapted to display Wilhelmina’s omnivorous collections. Besides European ceramics, silver, arms and Dutch Old Masters, she also enjoyed collecting Oriental ceramics, resulting in an impressive collection of 900 individual pieces. There is also an interesting group of 362 ancient, mainly Chinese, Bronzes.
Wilhelmina was an educated woman, with a great interest in the arts. Starting modestly, she began collecting in earnest when she inherited a large fortune as her father’s sole heir. She became a knowledgeable and purposeful collector, even though she felt she was not always taken seriously as a woman. Not deterred, she travelled extensively, studied widely and consulted with art dealers, auction houses and museum curators - amongst them Chinese art expert R.L. Hobson. She was also one of the first and very active member of the Swedish Oriental Ceramic Society.
She ensured the collection was extremely well documented and catalogued –employing a great number of people to help with the process. Realising this gargantuan task would probably not be completed in her lifetime, a museum association was formed. All 78 volumes of the limited edition catalogue were not published until 1955. The house and its contents were left to the state on her death in 1930 and as stipulated in her will, the first director was a woman.
An excellent catalogue of the collection by Rose Kerr Asian Ceramics in the Hallwyl Collection was published in 2015. A catalogue of the bronze collection can be found online
archive.org/details/ treasuresfromthebronzeage
hallwylskamuseet.se
Inspiration, that is the main aim of this magazine. So we thought why not invite four different people to make a display on the same table, each in their own way using pieces from our collection and their own personal objects. As this project unfolded, we were amazed and delighted by the results. They are all entirely different and equally wonderful.
Roel Marius Brouwer is a Dutch, young and enthusiastic interior photographer, stylist and interior journalist with an eye for beauty. He works for high end interior designers, art galleries, lifestyle brands and a special group of exclusive hotels. Besides interior photography Roel inspires tens of thousands around the globe with his Instagram channel @RmariusB. A platform where he shares his finds, art de vivre and great places where one can experience living well. Through his agency RmariusB, he connects, combines and creates for and with his clients.
BY NYNKE VAN DER VEN
Tea is inextricably linked with China and the China trade. Its history spans thousands of years and many countries, but it all starts with the tea shrub Camellia Sinensis. The cradle of tea, is to be found in the vast area comprising various South East Asian countries: southwest China, the Assam region of India and in the northern parts of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.
The earliest tea drinking in China can be dated back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC), when tea was probably taken for medicinal purposes. However, the earliest actual written Chinese record of tea drinking dates to c.200 AD - in a medical text written by physician Hua Tuo. The first European reference to tea was noted by Venetian Giambattista Ramusio (1485-1557), who had heard about the drink through contact with Persian merchants. The first actual tea was brought to the West in the 16 th century by Portuguese Jesuits, but it was not until the 17 th century, that it became commercially available in Europe. However, it was still so rare and costly it had had to be locked in tea caddies, of which only the mistress of the house had the key. During the 18 th century, the Western tea culture really took hold and became fashionable practice in all of Europe’s elegant houses. Fully oxidized black tea was the most favoured tea in Europe, green tea the preferred choice in the American colonies. For a long time tea production was an extremely lucrative business for the Chinese and its production one of the country’s best kept secrets. Tea drinking was introduced into Japan by Buddhist monks in c.600 AD, who drank it to keep them focused and awake during meditation. They went on to cultivate tea themselves around 900AD, with seeds brought from China. The British developed commercial tea production in India in the 19 th century - finally breaking the Chinese monopoly and replacing China as a main exporter of tea.
Tea is harvested from bushes, which have two main varieties: Camellia Sinensis Sinensis with small, tender leaves and Camellia Sinensis Assamica , with larger, thicker leaves. The first thrives well in mountainous areas, tolerates cold, even some frost and snow.
The altitude ensures a slower growth, allowing more flavour development. In contrast, the Assamica variety thrives well in tropical areas and does not survive in colder climes. It grows particularly fast and can be harvested every two or three weeks. White tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong, dark tea (including pu-erh tea) and black tea are all harvested from these two major shrub varieties. However, the plucked leaves are processed differently to attain varying levels of oxidation, from fully oxidized black tea, through semi-oxidized white tea and oolong, to those with no oxidation at all in the case of green and yellow teas. Post-fermented tea, is green tea that undergoes an specific fermenting process that may take up to many years.
Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) records tell us, that at that time the tea leaves were steamed, pounded and dried into brick shapes. Later, during the Song Dynasty (9601279AD), production methods changed and loose-leaf styles of tea were generally preferred. The powdered teas forms travelled from China with the Buddhist monks to Japan, where it is called matcha, which means “powdered tea”which is still used in the Japanese tea ceremony.
The earliest tea drinking in China can be dated back to the Shang Dynasty (1600-1100 BC)
Mariëlla Erkens is a tea connoisseur and educator, and a food pairing specialist from Amsterdam. She was owner and head chef of Restaurant Eden, Brazil (2003–2008), after which she worked as a freelance chef and food stylist in Amsterdam until 2011. Her latest book Tea: Wine’s Sober Sibling , was published in Dutch in 2019 and in English in 2022. theesommelier.me | @me.theesommelier
Mariëlla Erkens tells us there are many ways to prepare tea, methods Depending on tea type and culture.
To get the most out of your tea make sure that you:
• Use soft, purified water with a neutral pH level (6-7)
• Use the appropriate amount of dry tea
• Use the water temperature that is best for each type of tea
• Steep for sufficient time
• Buy from an acknowledged tea shop
• Store the tea in proper caddies, each tea its own tin
In East Asia, a relatively high amount of tea and little water is used, with a shorter steeping time. It is made in smaller pots and served in smaller cups to fully enjoy the specific tastes of each steep. New water is added for up to 10 steeps, the taste changing subtly different with each round.
The standard method uses about 10 -12 g per litre of water, but personal taste is leading. Start off with 10 g and adjust the weight to your taste. If you work with readymade teabags, 10g is roughly 5 teabags.
In Tea: Wines Sober Sibling Mariëlla Erkens goes into great detail about tea types and their flavours, recommending tea and food pairings (including 70 recipes). Various methods of steeping tea are covered, with a myriad possibilities of tea for connoisseurs and beginners alike. It also contains lists of recommended tea shops, tea schools and interesting video links about tea.
Hardback € 39,99
The Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm
The Swedish royal palace of Drottningholm, is situated just outside of Stockholm. At the far end of its extensive park gardens, lies a delightful 18 th century diminutive palace, known as The Chinese Pavilion ( Kina Slott in Swedish).
This utterly charming building, built in the then fashionable rococo Chinoiserie style, is one of the best-preserved examples of its kind. At the time of its construction, China was seen as an exotic, mythical, distant country - the pavilion is the embodiment of this oriental fantasy.
On 25 July 1753, in the evening of her 33 rd birthday, Queen Louisa Ulrika was presented with this exotic pleasure palace - a surprise gift from her husband King Adolf Frederik. The keys were handed to her by her eldest son clad mandarin robes, and she was saluted by an entire court dressed as Chinamen.
In a letter to her mother, she wrote of her delight: “He led me to one side of the garden and suddenly to my surprise, I found myself gazing upon a real fairy tale creation, for the King had built a Chinese palace, the loveliest imaginable.”
The initial wooden construction, was approached by a newly laid out avenue; with further avenues added the next year. The building complex underwent continuous improvements in the following years.
Two smaller pavilions were also added: the King’s Pavilion with a small garden and the Confidence dining room above a new kitchen.
As the original wooden structure was vulnerable to the harsh Swedish winters, the first pavilion was replaced with a larger, more permanent, brick building in 1763 (completed in 1769). Designed by Swedish royal architect Carl Fredric Adelcrantz, it blended Chinese-inspired design with fashionable French rococo. The interior featured red, green, blue and yellow rooms, curved passageways and upstairs retiring rooms and a library.
QUEEN ULRIKA LOUISA
The rooms were ideally suited for dining, playing games and making musicTHE GREEN DRAWING ROOM
All the spaces were decorated with oriental lacquers, fabrics, wallpapers and objects d’art – much of which is still in place today. Particularly interesting is the collection of plaster figures and large Blanc de Chine figures of Guanyin. There is also a group of enamel on biscuit porcelain birds and animals, early dated inkstones and Japanese lacquer wares. The walls are covered varyingly with beautiful Chinese wallpaper, silks, mirror paintings and lacquer panels. The rooms are furnished with Chinese-inspired Swedish Rococo furniture.
The founding of the Swedish East India Company (SOIC), in 1731 in Gothenburg, would allowed the Queen to have easy access to exotic oriental objects for the Pavilion’s decorative schemes. Inventories also reveal, that some of the Chinese objects now in the Pavilion, were already part of earlier royal collections. This includes Kangxi period pieces collected in the 17 th and early 18 th centuries by Queen Hedvig Eleonora and Queen Kristina.
With its striking Chinoiserie design and filled with oriental treasures, the pavilion was created for the amusement of the Queen and her court. Intended to both enchant and entertain, it was above all a fantasy
With its striking Chinoiserie design and filled with oriental treasures, the pavilion was created for the amusement of the Queen and her court.
world far removed from the strict formalities of court life. Just like at the Petit Trianon at Versailles, a much more relaxed atmosphere prevailed and the royal family could be more themselves. Particularly in use during the warmer summer months, the court would spend afternoons in- and outdoors reading, drawing and lacemaking. The rooms were also ideally suited for dining, playing games and making music.
The unique Chinese Pavilion complex is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As it is unheated, it is only open for a limited time in the summer months.
kungligaslotten.se | @kungligaslottenStockholm is a very beautiful city with a lot of greenery and a distinctive cosmopolitan vibe. There is so much to enjoy, but we have made a personal selection of things to see and places to stay and eat.
Once a private residence built in 1910, it is now Stockholm’s most exclusive design hotel with only 12 rooms – It has also has a good restaurant. ◆ etthem.se
Contemporary yet classic hotel is located on the waterfront next to the national museum – also a good place for fika or lunch. ◆ lydmar.com
Bank Hotel 5* (SLH) Arsenalsgatan 6
Located in an early 20th-century building that was once a bank. ◆ bankhotel.se
Villa Dagmar 5* Nybrogatan 25-27
An inviting boutique townhouse in the heart of vibrant Östermalm - next to the Saluhall.
hotelvilladagmar.com
The wonderful Drottningholm Palace and gardens are well worth visiting. The famous Chinese Pavillion is filled with oriental interiors. The palace or Pavillion are not always open, so check the website. ◆ kungligaslotten.se We can recommend travelling there or back by boat! Tickets ◆ www.stromma.com
A house museum of the Hallwyl family, including an expansive collection of Chinese ceramics.
hallwylskamuseet.se
One of the world’s most important collections of Asian Art & archaeology ◆ ostasiatiskamuseet.se
For other activities you can also see the website of the Swedish OCS ◆ ocssweden.se
Fika is the Swedish name for an afternoon break for coffee and a pastry. Particularly famous, are the cinnamon or cardamon buns.
Vete Katten Kunsgatan 55 | Classic pastry shop and tea rooms founded in 1928. Also in various other locations. ◆ vetekatten.se
Riche Birger Jarlsgatan 4 | Very popular all-day restaurant (& lively bar) in a central location. ◆ riche.se
Östermalms Saluhall Östermalmstorg 114 | Food hall in a refurnished market building. A variety of delicatessen counters, bars and restaurants - ostermalmshallen.se
Under Kastanjen Kindstugatan 1 | Tea rooms located in the old town (Gamla Stan), on a charming small square with outdoor seating. ◆ underkastanjen.se
Nybrogatan Nybrogatan 38 | Café restaurant for breakfast lunch, dinner or drinks. ◆ nybrogatan38.com
Some restaurants are open for lunch and dinner, as well as having a bar for quick bites and drinks.
Frantzén *** | High end, Haute Cuisine - advance reservation is required. ◆ restaurantfrantzen.com
Operakällaren * | Smart restaurant with an amazing interior. ◆ operakallaren.se
Brasserie Astoria Östermalmstorg 15 | Björn Frantzén’s hip addition to the Stockholm food scene, housed in an old cinema. Restaurant upstairs, cocktail bar downstairs. ◆ brasserieastoria.com
Restaurang Princen Mäster Samuelsgatan 4 | Stockholm classic for lunch or dinner, with beautiful turn-of-the-century wood panelling and art-filled walls. ◆ restaurangprinsen.se
Daphne’s Artillerigatan 56, Östermalm | Cosy bistro popular with the locals. ◆ daphnes.se
Teatergrillen Nybrogatan 3 | Located next to the theatre. Founded in 1945, it has one of Sweden’s best preserved restaurant interiors. ◆ teatergrillen.se
The Hairy Pig Lilla Nygatan 13 | Farm-to-table dishes and boards - great for drinks! ◆ thehairypig.com
Stockholm is known as one of the most inclusive and welcoming cities in the world. Its contemporary, urban appeal is balanced with centuries-old history and closeness to nature. As for the things to do in Stockholm, the list is endless.
Photo: Östermalms Saluhall market hall
Christiaan J.A. Jörg (1944) studied art history at Leiden University. He specialised in Oriental export porcelain and got his Ph.D. in 1979. From 1978-2003 he was keeper and head of research at the Groninger Museum, Groningen. From 1997-2009 he was professor at Leiden University teaching East-West Interactions in Decorative Art.
In 2012 he was appointed Knight in the Order of Oranje-Nassau. Presently he is academic supervisor of the Dresden Porcelain Project, which aims to produce a complete catalogue of the Asian porcelains in the former collection of Augustus the Strong. Jörg made several major exhibitions and lectured widely in Europe, the Far East and the United States. He published over 120 books, catalogues and articles on Asian export porcelain and Japanese export lacquer.
1. Which area of Chinese art & culture particularly interests you?
I am particularly interested in Chinese export art made for the West, from the 16 th century up to the 20 th . Although porcelain is best known in that category, export textiles, wood and ivory carvings, silver, furniture and lacquer provide a much needed context.
2. How did you become involved in the world of Chinese Art?
As a boy of 14 I was weeding the vegetable garden of my aunt when a white shard came up, decorated in blue with half the image of a woman in a long robe. It’s old Chinese porcelain, my aunt told me. It started a life-long fascination.
3. What are some of your personal words of wisdom that you live and work by?
Some attitudes might be useful when working in this field such as: curiosity, amazement and an open mind. I think that sharing info and knowledge creates a community. Story-telling is important because it brings the mute object to life. And one should always have a deep respect for the endless creativity of the craftsman.
4. What’s the last artistic or cultural event that really impressed you?
The presentation of the Nebra disc in the Drents Museum in Assen. This bronze disk, inlaid with gold, is dated to c. 1600 BC and was recently found in Germany. It is the oldest astronomical depiction of the sky known and a stunningly beautiful object.
5. If money, space or time were no object, which piece of (Chinese) art or antique would you like to have in your home?
Besides objects made of wood, I love stone. So do the Chinese. The exuberant ‘spirit’ stones, placed on the desk of the scholar, or the larger taihu stones in his garden, appeal to an esthetic almost unknown in the West. A scholar’s stone reflects the personality of its owner, but is difficult to find. I still try…
SPIRIT STONE, THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM NEW YORK
Throughout the 18 th century models of Chinese porcelain dogs, were popular export objects for the Western market. They could be either a realistic representation, or the more fantastical Buddhist lion, also known as a Fo Dog. The Chinese believe that Fo dogs bring happiness, good fortune and protection for the home or business. They generally appear in pairs - the female lion holds a cub under her paw whilst the male lion rest a paw on a brocade ball.
BIOGRAPHY
Kristin Duysters (1965) studied Art History at Leiden University. She started her career at the Amsterdam Museum and became associated with the Zeeuws Museum in Middelburg. Subsequently, she became curator of applied arts at Museum Arnhem where she curated exhibitions about Yixing and European red stoneware teapots, Arnhem faience and Delftware. Since 2016 she is curator at Paleis Het Loo. In her recent publications she focusses on Delftware and Asian porcelain of William and Mary and royal tableware.
paleishetloo.nl
For me it is the lustre of the material, the colour intensity of the glazes and the way the motifs are ordered on the surface. But also the deeper meaning, stories and symbolism of the designs. This gives Chinese porcelain a deeper layered meaning, which captivates me.
High quality Chinese porcelain was always considered special and precious. This status ensured for example, that in 15 th century Iran and Uzbekistan costly Chinese ceramics were placed in niches in special porcelain rooms. So Chinese ceramics have certainly had an impact on the interior. Europe followed in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, with special porcelain cabinets with Chinese porcelain displayed on wall-brackets. Since then, the decorating of walls, shelves and display cabinets with ceramics has become an indispensable way to embellish an interior and appears to be a recurringly in vogue.
Most of the art objects in my own interior have been bought during travelling, so remind me of trips or other important occasions in my life. By grouping these together on surfaces, it turns them into small altars, where I can stand still to reenergise or get inspiration from.
4. What’s the last artistic or cultural event that really impressed you?
The opening of the Depot Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam. A revolutionary art storage facility nicknamed ‘De Pot’. The general public can view the storage compartments through large windows and enter a storage department accompanied by a guide. The most spectacular experience was taking the lift to the roof terrace. It felt like I was flying through a 3-dimensional staircase by Piranesi or Escher, whilst seeing lovely artworks from variety of angels. The museum also has a great collection of Asian ceramics. > www.boijmans.nl/collectie
5. If money, space or time were no object, which piece of art or antique would you like to have in your own home?
When I was 17, I was awestruck by the Ishtar Gate (Babylon, 6 th century), in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin. Not only the size of the gate, but also the blue glazed bricks and large dragons, lions and bulls took my breath away!
Even if money, space or time wasn’t an issue – it would certainly not fit in my house! So I choose another favourite: a beautiful antique stoneware Yixing teapot.
THE DEPOT MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN, ROTTERDAM
YIXING EWER V&A MUSEUM LONDON
ISHTAR GATE, BABYLONIA C. 575 BC PERGAMON MUSEUM BERLIN
PALACE
In 1677, the English - conveniently protestantprincess Mary Stuart, arrived in the Dutch Republic, after marrying her cousin Stadholder William of Orange. She found herself at a rather sober court, but one where Chinese porcelain was already highly esteemed.
BY NYNKE VAN DER VENEven though Mary would have previously seen such exotic wares in the English palaces, it was at the Dutch court where it was a particularly loved, collected and lusciously displayed. Here, Chinese porcelains had come to represent the success and wealth of the Dutch Republic and the glory of the House of Orange. By the time of her death in 1675 William’s grandmother, Amalia von Solms, had already amassed a truly impressive collection of 1200 porcelains from China and Japan. Her daughters, the Orange princesses, also took their beloved oriental porcelain abroad with them when they married, constructing dedicated porcelain rooms in their palaces – such as in the German Schloss Oranienburg.
Being in The Netherlands, they were certainly right at the source of where most of the porcelain was entering Europe. At the time the Dutch East India company (VOC) was importing substantial amounts of Chinese porcelain to Amsterdam, from where it was auctioned and distributed across Europe.
We can assume, that the availability of and proximity to so much Blue and White porcelain, no-doubt fuelled Mary’s passion for these wares.
Paleis Het Loo William and Mary did not start off in a happy matrimony, but over the course of the years they developed a very good relationship. Mary even came to grow very fond of the peaceful and friendly country, where she had come to live. Together the royal couple shared an interest in architecture, gardens and interiors, happily overseeing the refurbishment of their Dutch palaces; bringing them up to date in a style befitting Mary’s royal status.
The royal couple shared an interest in architecture, gardens and interiors
As with other European royal residences at the time, the palace, interiors and gardens of Versailles were a good source of inspiration.
For the construction of their summer palace Het Loo, they enlisted the services of French Huguenot designer and architect Daniel Marot. His fashionable French inspired designs, would produce a suitable palace for the royal couple. Work commenced in 1686 and was completed by 1688; with further extensions in 1692 made after Mary had moved back to England. Marot’s, interior schemes integrated a variety art objects and textiles into his designs, to form a coordinated look. Studying Marot’s design books, we can see he makes abundant use of Asian porcelain,
placing it on wall brackets, over-door shelves and around chimney breasts. We can therefore get a good sense of how Het Loo was intended to look.
Contemporary inventories complete the picture, by recording how much porcelain was used and where. The Chinese porcelain was mainly found in the Queens and King’s private apartments. From travel journals we also know that in the long picture gallery there were large porcelain jardinieres containing orange trees. Through excavated remnants, it can be concluded that these were like those which are still in Hampton Court Palace today. Most of the porcelain at Het Loo was blue and white, only a small proportion was coloured.
DANIEL MAROT’S DESIGN
MAROT CHIMNEYBREAST DESIGN
The French Huguenot designer and architect Daniel Marot would produce a suitable palace for the royal couple, with his fashionable French inspired designs
QUEEN’S CABINET
Mary had a particular passion for flowers and requested fresh flowers be put in her rooms every day - as was also the fashion at the French court. At Het Loo there was even a special tiled room in the cellars, which led directly to the Queen’s private garden. It could be reached by a staircase leading directly from her first floor apartments. Here she could make sweetmeats and arrange flowers in Chinese pots and specially commissioned Delftware flower pyramids. It is also in this part of the garden, that fragments of Chinese porcelain and Delft earthenware have been found.
The accession of Mary II as Queen of England in 1689, also entailed a joint sovereignty with her husband, who was duly crowned William III. After their arrival in England, they also set about expanding and redecorating their royal residences, again with the help of Daniel Marot. Mary brought most of her beloved blue and white porcelains with her to England, where they were given pride of place in her new reception and private rooms. Inventories record that at Kensington Palace and Hampton Court,
very extravagant porcelain displays were installed in the Queen’s royal apartments, which no-doubt impressed and inspired all who saw them. According to contemporary accounts, we can now ascertain that besides blue and white, there were also a number of coloured porcelains, as well as a variety Blanc de Chine wares and soap stone figures on display. These type of objects, must have similarly embellished their Dutch interiors. At the time, Mary’s ensembles of porcelain, would have been very novel in England and certainly caused quite a stir; probably triggering a fashion for Oriental ceramics. Contemporary privy purse account books, show Mary continued to acquire ceramics until her death, from merchants in both Holland as well as England.
Oriental porcelain, which had once been merely an isolated curio in a wealthy collector’s cabinets, had by the late 17 th century effectively evolved into being placed in ostentatious displays, with many pieces massed together in specially-designed rooms. Initially, these Chinese porcelain rooms do seem to have been the particular remit of women, as many accounts of them are connected to female quarters.
PICTURE GALLERYTo celebrate the reopening of the palace in 2022, a new book has been published. A large well illustrated volume, containing all the latest research on this important historic building, as well as its royal residents. It covers the important first expansion by Prince William of Orange and Mary Stuart, through various royal residents to the present day.
Anne-Dirk Renting (editor), Paleis Het Loo: Een Koninklijk Huis, Apeldoorn, 2022 Hardback (Dutch) € 75,00
TILED CELLAR
However, by the 18 th century they were an essential part of the fully fledged Porcelain mania which gripped the courts of Northern Europe, such as in Charlottenburg, Dresden and Drottningholm.
Mary Stuart died in England of small pox in 1695, so she would never see Het Loo completed. The couple were childless and William passes away in 1702 after a riding accident.
Sadly, most of Mary’s interior schemes in The Netherlands have been lost in their entirety - those at Het Loo destroyed after the flight of King Willem V to England. Since becoming a museum in 1984, Het Loo has undergone various major restoration projects - for the building as well as the gardens. Through written records and inventories, art historians have been able to reconstruct how the rooms must have originally looked, including the interiors with Chinese porcelain.
During the most recent refurbishment and underground extension (2018-2022), more unique shards were found. These help to illuminate the types of ceramics that would have been at Het Loo during the time of William & Mary. A particularly interesting new find is a piece Kangxi period (1662-1722) Famille Verte porcelain – which at the time would have been a totally new kind of porcelain amongst the established blue and white wares. A small exhibition ‘Traces of the Past’ in the basement level of the palace, now elucidates these finds. ◆ paleishetloo.nl
• JAN VAN CAMPEN & TITUS ELIËENS (ED.), CHINESE AND JAPANESE PORCELAIN
FOR THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE, ZWOLLE, 2014
• A.M.L.E. ERKELENS, QUEEN MARY’S DELFT PORCELAIN, APELDOORN, 1996
• MARK HINTON & OLIVER IMPEY, KENSINGTON PALACE AND THE PORCELAIN OF QUEEN MARY, LONDON, 1998
• KOEN OTTENHEYM, WILLEM TERLOUW & ROB VAN ZOEST, DANIEL MAROT: VORMGEVER VAN EEN DEFTIG BESTAAN, AMSTERDAM, 1988
• ANNE-DIRK RENTING (EDITOR) ET AL, PALEIS HET LOO: EEN KONINKLIJK HUIS, APELDOORN, 2022
• VIRGINIA TREANOR, “UNE ABONDANCE EXTRA ORDINAIRE”: THE PORCELAIN COLLECTION OF AMALIA VAN SOLMS , EARLY MODERN WOMEN: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL VOL. 9, NO. 1, 2014
EXHIBITION ‘’TRACES OF THE PAST’
A friend and fellow art critic once asked me if I had any luxuries of life – pleasures that had nothing to do with cost but took time and effort. His was the luxury of a real fire in his bedroom – well worth the heaving of logs up several flights of stairs. Mine, I replied, was crisp white linen - a pain to launder - and old table glass and porcelain that had to be respectfully hand-washed after use. Nothing has changed over the decades – except for the quantity and variety. Even so, the glass remains English, the porcelain, Chinese.
This taste for export porcelain emerged and evolved, I now realise, out of paintings. Its roots were an early fascination with the PreRaphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and that great Aesthete, his friend and neighbour James McNeill Whistler. Their passion for blue and white – ‘Nankin’ or ‘Old Blue’ as they called it – was legendary, and it lined their Chelsea homes. If Whistler could describe those ‘curious’ paintings in cobalt blue ‘the finest specimens of Art’, these ceramics were obviously worth serious consideration. For a student in London, the British Museum and V&A could not have been more obliging in terms of their collections. Without consciously deciding to do so, I began to pick up the odd piece as opportunity and funds allowed.
As I made a home, these chance purchases turned into ‘harlequin’ sets of plates and bowls of similar shape, size, and pattern. I saw no need for anything to match perfectly – and rather rejoiced in the fact that they did not. For some reason it was harder to find blue and white coffee cups and saucers - or perhaps I was simply impatient – so even this parameter was relaxed to embrace Qianlong famille rose of wildly varying decoration and quality. Oscar Wilde once quipped that he found it harder and harder to live up to his ‘blue china’. My humble specimens were definitely to be lived with.
Perhaps it was Dutch and Flemish still-life painting that bought me to the rummers. Thought to derive from the Dutch or German roemer, these English vessels appealed by being sturdier and more capacious than the more elegant 18th-century wine glasses. It was certainly northern still-life paintings that opened my eyes to the possibilities of magical juxtapositions of colour and texture in the presentation of food.
No one coming to dinner has ever found half-peeled lemons uncoiling in elegant scrolls beneath a Wanli dish a la Willem Kalf or Jan Davidsz. de Heem-style lobsters dripping over the edge of the table, but they may well have found the likes of mounds of fraises des bois in small Ming blue and white bowls. Nothing could be simpler, but what eye could fail to delight in such a spectacle? As every good cook will testify, the battle of the table is won by pleasing all five senses – beginning with the anticipatory pop of a cork and scrunch of starched linen. Slowly the eye takes in the gleam of silver against dark wood, the play of reflections in flickering candlelight, the colour, texture, and scent of flowers… All of this before tasting a thing. If anything, the visual feast only gets better as a meal draws to its close with the arrival of velvety fruits and variously textured nuts - in yet more blue and white vessels - and the richer, deeper hues of sauterne or port. These pleasures are more than the sum of their parts.
Looking around the house, I also realise how many of these blue and white wares have escaped from the table. There are bowls
filled with pot pourri, lidless tureens repurposed as jardinieres, saucers as soap dishes and ashtrays – not that anyone uses them these days. Added to the mix were Kangxi jars from the family, their lids long gone, and inevitably transformed into lamps (but happily not drilled). In a way that is hard to define, blue and white has a neutrality that allows it to belong anywhere and everywhere – like a pair of blue jeans, it does not seem to clash with anything. When a kind friend gave me an 18th-century provincial blue and white dragon dish, for instance, I flourished another and immediately set them down on the chimneypiece nearby where they have remained ever since. There they sit perfectly at peace under a 16th-century Madonna and Child and either side of an ancient Roman glass unguentarium, flanked by Egyptian alabaster, polished ammonites some 146 million years old, and a jaunty contemporary seated wire woman who, like one of de Heem’s lobsters, balances on the side of the ledge.
This belief in the ability of blue and white to look at home anywhere is also a legacy of the English country house where every room is in effect a palimpsest revealing the taste, and acquisitions, of successive generations of a single family. It is a relaxed, embracive and above all tolerant way of living in a house, a much-emulated style of decorating - if that is what it is - where even the grandest of interiors may exude an easy informality deriving in part from a sense that most of their contents, however eclectic, have grown comfortably old together. Perhaps the only thing gratifyingly not welcomed in this historic mix of old and new is frigid perfection.
Even as a younger generation pares back the plethora of clutter to give their homes a more graphic, architectural feel, swapping faded glory for bold colour, this aesthetic lives on almost everywhere in town and country house. The basic rules of engagement have not changed. As the late and much-lamented decorator cum antiques dealer Robert Kime would always say, every good room begins with a rug. It also must have Chinese porcelain.
Susan Moore writes for the Financial Times and Apollo, and founded the not-for-profit Slow Art Workshop in 2017.
‘Every good room begins with a rug and it also must have Chinese porcelain’
Inspiration, that is the main aim of this magazine. So we thought why not invite four different people to make a display on the same table, each in their own way using pieces from our collection and their own personal objects. As this project unfolded, we were amazed and delighted by the results. They are all entirely different and equally wonderful.
Nynke van der Ven is an art historian and responsible for research and communication at Vanderven Oriental Art. She attended school in England and read Art History at Leiden University. Her first jobs were in public relations and event management. She joined Vanderven in 2005 and since 2012 is primarily focussed on writing the catalogues (and their magazine!). A great advocate of perpetual learning, she regularly attending specialist courses and seminars. She believes aesthetics are important in all walks of life and she is on a mission to reignite the love antique objects amongst a younger generation.
The versatility of Chinese art objects comes fully to the fore in this house, placed in amongst the modern art and vintage design. The discernment of the owners is reflected, not in their beautiful collection, but also by how and where they have placed each piece within in the interior - making use of walls, tables and even the floor.
art and Chinese antiques make such an exciting combination
Quality objects will always sit well together
Any surface can be used to display and combine beautiful objects
“Je trouve le présent réellement trop magnifique. J’ai presque honte de l’accepter”
Soon after the thread of French revolutionary armies and their Dutch sympathizers had led stadtholder Prince William V and his family to flee to England in 1795, the Batavian Republic started to sell the contents of their beloved palaces. An important exception was made for the furniture of the “Chineese Kamers” at Huis ten Bosch Palace. The ensembles in these rooms was apparently deemed too important to part with, which is why we can still rejoice in their eighteenth-century splendour.
Part of the apartment of the stadtholder in his country residence just outside of the city of The Hague, these “Chineese Kamers” were decorated between 1767 and 1795. Their decoration and contents show a real appreciation for Asian art, exemplified by both authentic Chinese export items as well as European interpretations in the form of chinoiseries. Contemporary accounts remind us that these rooms were decorated with delicately crafted embroidered Chinese silks, which probably took one of the embroidery workshops in Guangzhou months to finish. The silk, most of which survives, albeit not all in situ , was applied in multiple ways. It was used to cover three suits of furniture and a pair of fire screens, for wall-hangings and for curtains with complementary valances.
As we can gather from a letter that Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia wrote to her daughter Louise on 22 July 1791, the silks were part of a gift also including porcelain and lacquerware. These objects were presented to the stadtholder by Ulrich Gualtherus Hemmingson, on his return from China. The amount of embroidered silk would allow for the decoration of two or three entire rooms. Wilhelmina, an avid painter and embroiderer whose apartment at the Binnenhof was also decorated with embroidery,
was absolutely delighted by the gift and told her daughter she felt almost too ashamed to accept it: “Je trouve le présent réellement trop magnifique. J’ai presque honte de l’accepter.”
Who was this rather generous benefactor the princess wrote about? Hemmingson was born in 1741. His father, a member of the military, was employed by the governor in Batavia. These connections and his brother-in-law’s position as head of the trading post in Dejima, helped him climb the ranks of VOC employment; from secretary until he eventually became director of the Dutch trading post in Guangzhou in 1790 - the only Chinese port open to international trade. The question remains why he would return with such a lavish gift? Since private trade was often instrumental in complimenting a VOC employees’ salary, over the years, Hemmingson had likely established an important Dutch clientele for Chinese luxury items. Is it possible that he wanted to further emphasize his importance as a trader in this market and show that, even though he might no longer travel between the countries, his connections would still allow for superior products? Alternatively, he may have wanted to show his loyalty to the stadtholder in a time where the patriots were more and more actively opposing his rule.
It seems likely that Hemmingson knew about the stadtholders wish to redecorate his apartment. He may have received this information from his friend and amateur-sinologist Jean Theodore Royer, who stood in close contact with the prince and princess. According to the prince’s accounts from 1790, the local furniture maker Matthijs Horrix was asked to contribute to the decoration of the new Presence Chamber of the stadtholders’ apartment, which he fitted up with a wall paneling veneered with various woods, as well as lacquer panels. The same woods were used to veneer the corresponding tables and clock. After the silks had arrived in 1791, Horrix supplied two fire screens decorated with the same woods he used for the panelling and charged f 52.10 for “het maaken van 5 paar gevoerde gardijnen” for this room. These must refer to the fire screens (fig.1) and embroidered silk curtains we still see today. The curtains were moved to the adjoining Chinese Room in the 1950s.
The design of the curtains somewhat resembles that of the more well-known painted wallpaper that was specifically made in Guangzhou for the export market around that time. We see a suburban setting with pagodas, houses and people working and going about their daily routines, against a mountainous backdrop. Although many embroiderers likely contributed to its execution, the workshop probably had master designs they worked from. These designs were based on prints and illustrated treatises that circulated widely, some of which were even commissioned by the emperor himself in order to encourage a certain representation of Chinese society as productive, harmonious and content. This results in various compositions being used multiple times across the curtains and other silks, with minor changes to turn them into different scenes.
However, the curtains are by no means a repetitive and unoriginal product. They display a real amalgamation of scenes from everyday life that, when studied, reveal many interesting details. The intricate scene (fig 2), is made up of two houses. The house on the left accommodates five men, identifiable by their hairstyle, sitting around a table with piles of money and a pouch. These attributes indicate that money is being exchanged here. The fact that the building is made of brick suggests that a money exchange office was considered an important venue. This is also apparent from the contrast with the gambling house next to it.
There is a lot going on in this second venue. Men are fighting, money has fallen to the floor and a chair has toppled over. The men seem to be gambling and since the man in the middle looks like he is holding a bowl, they may also be playing fan-tan : a game of chance in which several objects are hidden under a bowl with players having to guess how many. The house has been poorly maintained, as can be seen from the peeling paint that reveals the bamboo construction underneath. A lantern hangs from the ceiling, an important detail because gambling often took place in the evening or at night.
The delicate silk curtains were restored multiple times over the course of their existence. Their
fragility and sensitivity to light means they remain vulnerable. This may be why we know if no other surviving examples in Europe of embroidered Chinese silk of this period, on this scale. There is a pair of comparable yellow silk wall hangings in the Royal Collection Trust, which are said to have been gifted to Queen Victoria on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee in 1879 as a ‘Pair of Embroidered Curtains from the Emperor of China’. These are relatively small panels however, so in that sense the silks for Huis ten Bosch Palace are a seemingly unique survival. A group of experts on textiles and Asian art eventually decided that in order to safeguard them for future generations, it would be best not to use the curtains anymore. They will therefore be conserved and stored.
FIG. 1 FIRE SCREEN
Ine Castelijns studied Fine and Decorative Art at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. She worked as a Junior Curator at the Rijksmuseum for two years, before moving back to London to work for the Royal Collection Trust. This incredible collection sparked her interest in Asian art, leading her to contribute entries on Japanese lacquer to the Japan: Courts and Culture catalogue. She now works as Head of Collections and Curator of Furniture for the Dutch Royal Household, where she is one of the project managers of the ‘curtain project’, creating new curtains for the Chinese Room at Huis ten Bosch Palace.
The windows of the Chinese Room have not been forgotten however; new curtains are being made. Since we felt it was important to incorporate embroidery in the new design, the Central Government Real Estate Agency and the Dutch Royal Household immediately turned to the TextielMuseum in Tilburg. Together with the museum, we looked for a designer who would be able to pay tribute to the historic curtains and help us create new cultural heritage, adding to the ensemble of the room. With Liesbeth Stinissen, we felt like we found someone who would be able to rise to this challenge. Her concept applauds the original design, but reinterprets it in a contemporary way.
Her plan was digitised at the TextielLab, so that their embroidery machine would be able to read and execute it. Details which were be made by hand, will enrich the overall motifs and are currently being added to the curtains. These intricate handmade flowers and birds were created by 16 embroidery groups from across the country, representing the love of the craft. Her Majesty Queen Máxima, an enthusiast just like Princess Wilhelmina of Prussia, embroidered details for the curtains as well. Overall, a project to which many people contribute, resulting in wonderful exchanges of knowledge and personal stories.
The original as well as the new curtains will be on display at the exhibition Royal Embroidery – Stitches and Stories at the TextielMuseum from 1 December 2022 - 29 May 2023, before the new curtains will be incorporated into the interior if the Chinese Room at Huis ten Bosch Palace. ◆ textielmuseum.nl
• REINIER J. BAARSEN, ‘IN DE COMMODE VAN PARIJS TOT DEN HAAG’ MATTHIJS HORRIX (1735-1809), EEN MEUBELMAKER IN DEN HAAG IN DE TWEEDE HELFT VAN DE ACHTTIENDE EEUW’, OUD HOLLAND, VOL. 107, 1993, PP. 161-256
• EMILE DE BRUIJN, CHINESE WALLPAPERS IN BRITAIN AND IRELAND, LONDON, 2018
• M.A.P. MELLINK-ROELOFSZ, ‘ULRICH GUALTHERUS HEMMINGSON, V.O.C.-DIENAAR EN VERBINDINGSSCHAKEL TUSSEN CHINA EN NEDERLAND’, NEDERLANDS KUNSTHISTORISCH JAARBOEK, VOL. 31, 1980, PP. 456-474
• LOUTJE DEN TEX, ‘CHINESE VOC-TEXTIEL TOEGEPAST ALS ONDERDEEL VAN ACHTTIENDEEN NEGENTIENDE-EEUWSE INTERIEURS’, STICHTING TEXTIELCOMMISIE NEDERLAND JAARBOEK, 2008, PP. 62-68
HUIS TEN BOSCH
Katharine Butler is an Art Historian and Entrepreneur. She studied Art History at Edinburgh University, but chose to pursue a business career in Eastern Europe following the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. She founded and ran several consumer goods companies in the Czech Republic most of which she had successfully sold by 2019 when she started focussing on writing a catalogue raisonné of the Butler Collection with Dr. Teresa Canepa. In the last decade, she has been actively collecting Chinese porcelain.
kbutler@butlercollection.com
I love holding ceramics. Often they combine extreme fragility with great structural integrity. I like to feel the unglazed clay, sometimes smooth like soap and sometimes gritty and rough. I love the fact that it takes movement to appreciate the whole piece and when you hold it, you can feel the weight distribution of the clay.
Rather to his own surprise, my father put together the finest collection of 17 th century Chinese porcelain in the world. I was brought up with the pieces around me and drawn in by my father’s increasing interest in the scholarship of the period. Although their iconography was at first alien, the beauty of the designs and the elegance of the shapes always attracted me. Around 20 years’ ago, I made up my mind that I would learn as much as I could about our collection, knowing that I could not forgive myself if my father passed away before I had done so. Since his death in 2013, I have intensively studied Chinese art and the porcelain of the 17 th century in particular.
My father built a museum to house his collection and that allows the pieces to be studied and appreciated in context. Although I do have many pieces of Chinese porcelain in my home, it seems to me that there they have lost their scholarly values and are only aesthetic objects. I prefer to see them in amongst the rest of the collection where they act like pieces in an art historical jigsaw. So in my home, I have a wide range of art, from Netherlandish tapestries, contemporary ceramics and glass objects, Han figures and European antique furniture.
In March of this year, I was in New York for Asia Week and I visited the Asian ceramics collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. I was so impressed by the versality of their approach to displaying their collections. They frequently change the pieces in the cabinets and update the labels. Also they have created themed rooms where objects are put in context and they do not hesitate to put porcelain amongst the works in the Painting and Calligraphy rooms. One can regularly visit the same spaces and see different layouts and objects, often with stimulating or unexpected juxtapositions. It is really good to see that an institution of so great a scale can still maintain the nimbleness to allow real curatorial freedom.
5. If money, space or time were no object, which piece of art or antique would you like to have in your home?
What I love about porcelain, is that as long as you don’t drop it, it doesn’t mind being hot, cold, damp or dry. However, now assuming concerns about display and conservation are removed, as well as those of money and space, then I would love to own a misty landscape painting by the 11 th century Chinese artist Mi Fu (1051-1107). I particularly covet one in the Freer Gallery in Washington titled ‘The Tower of Rising Clouds’, which ironically is probably not by the master himself. This painting was also admired by 17 th century painter, Dong Qichang, whose influence can clearly be seen in the landscapes on some of our porcelain.
4. What’s the last artistic or cultural event that really impressed you?KATHARINE IN THE BUTLER COLLECTION MI FU, TOWER OF RISING CLOUDS METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
This book covers Chinese miniatures from 5,000 BCE till the 15th century. The pocketsize representations of supernatural beings, people, animals, or everyday objects are virtually uncharted, even in China. It explores their meaning and traces their production and the market for such treasures, covering the secular, religious, erotic and humour. Miniatures had many different functions, from insignia, fetishes and devotional objects to burial gifts or toys.
This impressive book is more than a catalogue raisonné of the world famous collection assembled by British diplomat Sir Michael Butler; it is the history of 17th century Chinese porcelain told and illustrated by his comprehensive collection. It includes a vast amount of new research into the iconography, production dates and markets of the porcelain. In 576 pages, it includes the story of how the collection was made, a chronological study of the porcelain as well as maps and tables showing the kiln sites, important shipwrecks and all known dated porcelain from the period.
Hardback £ 175 / € 200
A scholarly study which explores the relationship between collecting Chinese ceramics, interior design and display in Britain through the eyes of collectors, designers and tastemakers in the early 20th century. The Ionides Collection of Chinese export porcelain forms the nucleus of this study. The book maps the networks involved in collecting, linking the patrons to agents and dealers, auctioneers, and museum specialists. It brings into focus the dynamics of collecting during this period and the taste of the enthusiastic collectors.
Hardback £ 120
Albrecht
Argus Tiren
van den Broek
Marius Brouwer
Deleu Sjoerd Eickmans
van den Eerenbeemd
van Praag
Raihle Rehbäck
Schuth
IMAGES COURTESY OF
Sassoon Gallery
Society
British Museum, London
Butler Collection, United Kingdom Fondation Custodia, Collection Frits Lugt, Paris Hallwyl Museum, Stockholm Museum Paulina Bisdom van Vliet, The Netherlands Paleis Het Loo, The Netherlands Royal Collections of The Netherlands Royal Court, Sweden Statens Historiska Museer, Stockholm Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten, Berlin Victoria & Albert Museum, London
OUR THANKS GO OUT TO ALL THE ENTHUSIASTIC PEOPLE WHO HELPED US WITH THIS EDITION:
Antvelink Aldous Bertram
Bos
Broch
Marius Brouwer
Butler Ine Castelijns Kristin Duysters
Erkens
& Liselot Frencken Helen Glaister Babs Haenen Alexander Holme
Janssen Koos de Jong Christiaan Jörg
Larson
Luijten Huon Mallaieu
Malone
Meijer Moniek Molenaar
Moore Wytske Rijkers Natasja Sadi Elien Voerman
Williams
PRINTING Drukkerij Hendrix, Belgium
“creativity is a wild mind and a disciplined eye”
