Rise of Dutch Taste in Decorative Art—Influence of Foreign Trade in the Dutch Home—Accounts of Porcelain by Mediaeval Travellers: Edrisi, Ibn Batuta and Shah Rukh; Quotation from Pigapheta—A great European Collection—Monopoly of Trade by the Portuguese—Quotation from Pyrard de Laval—Portuguese Carracks—Voyages to Goa and Japan—Porcelain and Cabinets—Mendoza’s Description of Earthenware—Dutch and English Merchants—Presents to Queen Elizabeth—Dutch Expeditions and Establishment of the Dutch East India Company—Embassy to the Emperor of China in 1655—Descriptions of the Manufacture of Porcelain—Manufacture and Potters of Delft—Quotation from d’Entrecolles on Porcelain and Oriental Trade—Prices—Tea; Tea-drinking—A Dutch Poet on the Tea-table—Chrestina de Ridder’s Porcelain—Prices of Porcelain in 1653.

Until the middle of the seventeenth century, Flanders may be said to have overshadowed Holland in the field of Decorative Art, although, as we have seen, the two most important designers of domestic furniture—De Vries and Crispin van de Passe—were Dutch. The reason of Flemish preponderance was that the sovereigns and regents resided at Mechlin, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp, and to those courts the ablest men in the arts and crafts naturally flocked. With the decay of Antwerp, we enter the period of the Flemish Decadence, and Amsterdam rises to wealth and power at her rival’s expense. After the death of Rubens, Dutch art is supreme in the Low Countries; and Dutch taste undoubtedly influenced France and England.

The Dutch home of the seventeenth century was profoundly affected by foreign trade. The day of heavy carved furniture was over lightness and brightness are now the prevailing notes. Broad surfaces are veneered and inlaid with exotic woods; and the lathe is freely used in the ornamentation of the supports of seats, cupboards, cabinets, etc. Above all, we notice a predominance of native and Oriental ceramic ware.

The Dutch were as fond of earthenware as of tulips; and no study of a Dutch interior could be adequate if it neglected to take into account the part played by Delft and porcelain.

The three novelties that impressed the Dutch home of the seventeenth century were tea, porcelain and lacquer. The importance of tea, with its table and equipage as a domestic altar, can hardly be overestimated; but its consideration may be deferred for the moment. Porcelain affected the arrangement of furniture and the decoration of rooms. The cabinet assumed new forms and proportions, as porcelain decorated its exterior.

Although Chinese porcelains had appeared in the cabinets of amateurs of the sixteenth century, the comparative rarity of this ware confined its enjoyment to the very wealthy. The magnificent ebony cabinets, armoires, or kasten, with drawers and interior shelves in which women delighted to set in beautiful order miniatures and jewels, enamels and ivories, shells and rock-crystals, medals and coral, now had also to find room for carved ivory and ebony, gods and monsters, jade, porcelain, sandal-wood and lacquer boxes, and all the rarities that were to be found in the stores of the Eastern traders.

Porcelain was early held in high esteem, and a vase was regarded as a fit present from one potentate to another. It was very rare in Western Europe until the Portuguese opened the Eastern gates. Mediaeval travellers had frequently referred to its preciousness. Edrisi (1154) says of Susah: “Here are made an unequalled kind of porcelain, the Ghazar of China.” There was always a certain mystery attached to its composition and qualities till the beginning of the eighteenth century. Ibn Batuta, who travelled in Bengal and China about 1350, gives a more or less fabulous account of its manufacture. He says: “Porcelain in China is of about the same value as earthenware with us, or even less. It is exported to India and elsewhere, passing from country to country till it reaches us in Morocco. It is certainly the finest of all pottery ware.” In 1420 the Embassy sent by Shah Rukh to the Chinese Court mentions a buffet on which were arranged flagons, cups and goblets of silver and porcelain. The scribe also bears witness to the fact that “in the arts of stone-polishing, cabinet-making, pottery and brick-making, there is nobody with us who can compare with the Chinese.”

Early in the sixteenth century, before 1520, A. Pigapheta made a voyage to the East. He describes a visit to the house of the Queen of Mindanao: “I sat down by the side of her; she was weaving a palm mat to sleep upon. Throughout her house was seen porcelain vases suspended to the walls and four metal timbals.” He tells us that in Borneo, at Bruni: “For one cathil (a weight equal to two of our pounds) of quicksilver they gave us six porcelain dishes; for a cathil of metal they gave one small porcelain vase, and a large vase for three knives.... The merchandise which is most esteemed here is bronze, quicksilver, cinnabar, glass, woollen stuffs, linens; but above all they esteem iron and spectacles.

“Since I saw such use made of porcelain I got some information respecting it, and I learned that it is made with a kind of very white earth, which is left underground for fully fifty years to refine it, so that they are in the habit of saying that a father buries it for his son. It is said that if poison is put into a vessel of fine porcelain it breaks immediately.”

It is generally supposed that the table service, even among the rich, was very limited during the sixteenth century. A careful search of the inventories, however, shows that a complete service of faÏence was to be found on the tables of the opulent in the first half of the sixteenth century. In 1532, we find that the widow of a minister of Francis I had two complete services of beautiful faÏence: one entirely white, and the other “historied” with all kinds of coloured portraits. These two services were composed each of four dozen large and three dozen small plates, four aiguiÈres, three round and one oval basin, three salts (salliÈres), eight pots, twelve tazzi, and three dozen spoons, some of ivory and some of wood and mother-of-pearl, “which we used in summer and autumn in serving collations of confitures, junkets, custards, syllabubs, fruits and cider to the great ladies who came to visit my daughters and myself; and in addition I have also many other vessels of the best pottery of Italy, Germany, Flanders, England and Spain.”

Besides the above, this lady possessed forty-two vases, pots, tazzi and plaques of porcelain “of the earliest days when Europeans went to China, which are of a beautiful white, and decorated with all kinds of little paintings.” The owner, who had evidently read Pigapheta, adds that the makers did not profit in their own lifetime by the manufacture of this “ravissante” porcelain, because it had to be buried in the earth for a century in order to come to perfection. Another reason why it should be prized is that it is “so healthy that if it is soiled with poison by evil doers who want to injure anybody, it will immediately fall to pieces rather than suffer the vile draughts with which people would ravage our entrails.”

At this date, the Oriental wares had not yet supplanted those that came through Turkey, Asia Minor and Egypt by way of Venice and other Italian ports. Among the lady’s possessions we find twenty-eight vases, pots, cups and little earthenware bowls of Turkish work, decorated on the necks and handles with little tufts resembling horses’ tails.

She also had four hundred beautiful glasses of all colours, and other Venetian crystal vessels, “adorned with the gayest fancies that the glass-blowers were capable of inventing, with which we delighted the eyes of royalty and the great ministers of state at the great entertainments we gave.”

After Portuguese navigators had found the route to the East around the Cape of Good Hope, they were able to outstrip Venice as a sea-carrier for Eastern merchandise. The Levant trade, with its costly loading and unloading from caravan to ship, could not hope to compete with an all-sea route, and therefore the Portuguese soon acquired a practical monopoly of the traffic between Western Europe and Eastern Asia.^[6] Lisbon became the great mart whence lacquer, porcelain and other wares were distributed throughout Europe. Dutch ships swarmed in the Tagus, and transferred Oriental merchandise to Amsterdam and other European ports.

The Vicomte de Santarem assures us that from 1497 to 1521 from Lisbon alone the Portuguese despatched thirty-three fleets, composed of 220 ships; and a fleet was despatched every year till the next century. The fleet of 1604 even consisted of five ships. Two carvels also sailed the same year.

We learn what these great ships were like from Pyrard de Laval (1601), who wrote:

“Three or four Portuguese ships at most go out every year; these are the carracks, called by them naos de voyage, which are sent out with the intention that they shall return if they can....

“The carracks are all built at Lisbon ... they are ordinarily of 1,500 to 2,000 tons burden. Sometimes more, so that they are the largest vessels in the world so far as I have been able to learn; they cannot float in less than ten fathoms of water.

“These great carracks have four decks, on each of which a man, however tall, can walk without touching his head against the deck above: indeed, he comes not within two feet of it.

“The ships leaving Goa are laden not only with silver, but with divers goods of Europe, such as wines, woollen fabrics, and among others red scarlet; all sorts of glass and crystal wares, clocks which are highly prized by the Chinese, much cotton cloth, precious stones cut and set in rings, chains, carkanets, tokens, ear-pendants and bracelets; for the Chinese like vastly to get gems and jewels of all sorts for their wives. The ships leave Goa towards October, and touch at Cochin for precious stones and spices, such as pepper and cinnamon, leaving there the merchandise of Europe or of the northern parts of India. Thence they sail for Malaca; for they cannot make this voyage without touching at Malaca in order to get the Governor’s passport, and also to purchase the merchandise of the islands of Sunda in exchange for cotton cloths and other goods of India and Europe.

“Vessels making the voyage from Goa to Japan and back may reckon on taking three whole years; nor can they reckon on less by reason of the winds called by them Monssons and by us Muesons, which prevail for six months and more. From Malaca they go to Macao, and thence to Japan. At all these places they must await the Muesons; in the meantime while waiting they carry on their trade. At Macao they leave the greater part of their goods, and all their silver, relading with other goods of China, such as silks and Spanish white ... it is dear, and much in request in Japan, where all the women whiten the whole body with it, even down to the legs. This white comes from the island of Borneo, whence it is carried to China. Then they carry to Japan all those China goods and some others from Europe and India, which they sell exceeding well; they bring back only silver, which they get cheap, and return to Macao to resell all their silver, exchanging it for other merchandise. They make a long sojourn in all those places, and then return to Malaca, where they must call; there they make another exchange of goods for those of Malaca and the islands of Sunda. Thence they return to Goa, or whatever other place the master of the ship belongs to.”

In Goa, “They have no glasses, except what are brought from these parts or from Persia, and that is but little, and, moreover, not much esteemed, as they get the porcelaines of China at small cost.

“The Maldives take their food so nicely that they spill nothing, not even a drop of water, though they wash the mouth before and after dinner in basins served on purpose. The vessel used is of earthenware, like that of Fayance, fashioned in the native style, and imported from Cambaye; or else it is of China porcelain, which is very common and used by almost all. But they use not any plate of earthenware, or of porcelain, saving one kind of round box, polished and lacquered, with a cover of the same; it is manufactured in the island....

“His (the King’s) plate is neither gold nor silver, for that is forbidden by their law, but of porcelain or of other China fabric.

“It is impossible to tell all the great riches and all the rare and beautiful things which the ships bring back; among others they bring much gold in ingots. Some gold also they have in leaf and some in dust; also great store of gilded woodwork, such as all sorts of vessels and furniture lacquered, varnished and gilded with a thousand pretty designs; then all kinds of silk stuffs, good store of unwrought silk, great quantities of musk and civet, plenty of the metal called calin,^[7] which is much esteemed over all the Indies, and even in Persia and elsewhere.... Of this metal they make all their utensils and ornaments as we do have of silver and tin; they even use it for rings and bracelets for girls and children. They import also from thence much porcelain ware, which is used throughout India as well by the Portuguese as by the Indians. Besides all this, many boxes, plates and baskets made of little reeds covered with lacquer and varnished in all colours, gilded and patterned. Among other things I should mention a great number of cabinets of all patterns in the fashion of those of Germany. This is an article the most perfect and of the finest workmanship to be seen anywhere; for they are all of choice woods and inlaid with ivory, mother-of-pearl and precious stones; in place of iron they are mounted with gold. The Portuguese call them Escritorios de la Chine.”

J. G. Mendoza was another traveller who gave Europe the results of his observations of Portuguese activities in the Far East, and helped to stimulate a popular taste for porcelain. His book was translated into English in 1588, by R. Parke. Among other interesting information he tells us:

“There be also shops full of earthen vessels of divers making, redde, greene, yellow, and gilt; it is so good cheepe that for foure rials of plate they give fiftie pieces: very strong earth, the which they doo breake all to pieces and grinde it and put it into sesternes with water, made of lime and stone; and after that they have well tumbled and tossed it in the water, of the creame that is upon it they make the finest sort of them, and the lower they go, spending that substance that is the courser: they make them of what colour they please, the which will never be lost: then they put them into their killes and burne them. This has beene seene and is of a truth, as appeareth in a booke set forth in the Italian tongue by Duardo Banbosa,^[8] that they do make them of periwinkle shelles of the sea: the which they do grinde and put them under the ground to refine them, whereas they lie 100 years. But if that were true, they should not make so great a number of them as is made in that kingdome, and is brought into Portugall, and carried into the Peru, and Nova Espania, and into other parts of the world.... And the Chinos do agree for this to be true. The finest sort of this is never carried out of the countrie, for that it is spent in the service of the king, and his governours, and is so fine and deere, that it seemeth to be of fine and perfite cristal: that which is made in the province of Saxie is the best and finest....

“The fine earthen dishes that are in this countrie cannot be declared without many wordes. But that which is brought from thence into Spaine is verie course; although, unto them that hath not seene the finer sort, it seemeth excellent good; but they have such with them, that a cubbard thereof amongest us would be esteemed as though it were of golde. The finest cannot be brought forth of the kingdome upon paine of death; neyther can any have the use thereof, but onely the loytias, which be there gentlemen.”

The glowing accounts of the riches of Ind and Far Cathay brought home by the early voyagers naturally fired the imagination and cupidity of Dutch, English and French merchants and adventurers, who said to one another: “We too will go to the hills of the Chankley Bore”; and every potentate in Europe connived at their subjects’ efforts to trespass on the King of Portugal’s Tom Tiddler’s Ground.

Independent efforts had been made by the English to get a share of the riches of the East long before the Dutch and English East India companies were formed. In 1560, the Portuguese ambassador exhibited articles for restraining the traffic of English merchants in the Indies. In 1566, “Dr. Lewes takes bonds of George Fenner not to spoil any of the Queen’s subjects, nor to traffic into India, or any other places privileged by the King of Spain.” About the same date, the merchants petitioned “for reopening the trade with Portugal suspended in consequence of the irregular trade of some Englishmen to the Indies.”

Instances of poaching and piracy in Portuguese preserves might be multiplied, but three will suffice. In 1598, Cecil receives a report from a Lisbon agent that, “On August 1st, three carracks arrived from India and one was burnt there full laden. They bring news that two English ships in India have taken two Portugal ships, rich with treasure, that were on their voyage from Goa to Chine.” And again, on October 16, 1601, Sir John Gilbert writes to Cecil: “My ship ... has brought home silks, having taken a Brazil vessel with porcelain and other wares.”

Elizabeth’s luxurious ministers had choice collections of porcelain richly mounted in precious metal, from which they sometimes offered her presents. For instance, among her New Year’s gifts in 1588, we find: “One porrynger of white porselyn, garnished with golde, the cover of golde, with a lyon on the toppe thereof; all given by the Lord Threasorour, 38 oz. Item, one cup of green pursselyne, the foot, shanke and cover silver guilte chased like droppes. Given by Mr. Robert Cecill, 15 oz. Item, one cup of pursseline, th’ one side paynted red, the foote and cover sylver guilte. Given by Mr. Lychfelde, 14 oz.”

It is natural that from the fact that the Portuguese had the monopoly of the East Indian trade, the finest examples of Oriental workmanship should be found in Portugal and Spain, Lisbon being the entrepÔt of European distribution. The Spanish dominions in the Low Countries were well supplied with these wares by the Dutch mariners.

During the sixteenth century, the Dutch were already famed as sea-carriers (rouliers des mers). With Lisbon as a base of supplies, they soon destroyed the monopoly of the trade in Oriental wares which Venice had so long enjoyed. When Philip II annexed Portugal in 1580, however, he naturally sought to take revenge on his rebellious subjects of the Low Countries by closing against them the ports of the Iberian peninsula.

Finding that their profits from the trade with the East Indies were thus practically extinguished, their only course was to go to those distant lands themselves. How to get there was the question; and this was a secret which the Portuguese navigators had carefully guarded. The Dutch knew that they were reached by some southern route which could only be traversed by force of arms, but thought that the lands where one might “swim in golden lard” might be reached by a north-east passage. Dutch ships vainly attempted this in 1594 and 1596, being barred by the ice. In the meantime, Corneliz Houtman had managed to buy some Portuguese charts, and thus to learn the real route around the Cape. He induced ten merchants of Amsterdam to form a “Foreign Company” (van verre) and send out a sort of exploring expedition. This first attempt was made on no lavish scale. The ships could not hope to fight the mighty Portuguese armed carracks. The four ships of this first voyage were the Maurice, 400 tons; the Amsterdam, 200 tons; the Dove, 30 tons; and the Holland, 400 tons.

They left Texel early in April, 1595, and arrived home in August, 1597. Their glowing reports encouraged the despatch of a second flotilla of eight ships in 1598, four of which went to the Moluccas and the rest no farther than Bantam, returning with rich cargoes of spices and other merchandise. Several other companies were started in consequence, but in 1602 they were all consolidated with a capital of 6,440,000 florins, and the Dutch East India Company was established.

The Dutch navigators and travellers who sailed the Vanderdecken course to the Spice Islands, naturally, on their return, gave their fellow-countrymen a full account of the wealth and curiosities of art they had witnessed in India, Polynesia, China and Japan. Two or three of these, not being foreign to our subject, may be quoted here. The Netherland East India Company sent an embassy to the Emperor of China in 1655, and the reporter was evidently most interested in supplying his fellow-countrymen with the secrets of the manufacture of porcelain, which the Dutch were trying to imitate with their delft ware. He says:

“Upon the 25th of April we came to a village famous for shipping called Ucienjen, where lay great store of vessels of several sorts and sizes, which were come thither from all parts of China, to lade with China earthenware, whereof great store is sold in this village.... Quite through the middle of this rich village rims a broad street, full of shops on both sides, where all manner of commodities are sold; but the chiefest trade is in Purceline, or China dishes, which is to be had there in great abundance....

“The earth whereof this porcelain is made, is digged in great quantity out of the mountains situated near the chief city Hoei-cheu, in the province of Nanking, from whence it is brought in four-square clods to the above-mentioned village, which have the Emperor’s arms stamped upon them to prevent all manner of deceit. The earth is not fat, like clay, or chalk, but like to our fine sand, which they mingle with water, and so make it into four-square clods. They likewise beat and powder the broken China dishes, and make new ones of them; (but such as are made of broken ware never take so fine colour and gloss as those which are made of fresh mould.) The earthen clods which are thus brought from the mountains are afterwards framed into what fashions they please, after the same manner as our potters in Europe form their earthenware. Upon the great pots which are made of this earth, they have an art to themselves to paint all manner of creatures, flowers and trees, which they do very curiously only with Indico. This art of painting upon the pots is kept so private and secret that they will not teach it to any but to their children and near relations, wherein the Chineses are so dexterous that you cannot show them anything, but they will imitate it upon their pots and dishes, which being framed and made of this earth, are first dryed in the Sun before they are baked in the oven; and when they are thoroughly dryed, they are put into an oven and stopt very close, where they bake for fifteen days together with a good fire under: the time being out, they are continued in the oven fifteen days more without any fire; however the oven all that while is kept close stopt, and not opened till it be quite cold; for if they should take their earthenware red-hot out of the oven, it would endanger the breaking and losing their gloss. After the expiration of thirty days, the furnace is opened in the presence of an officer appointed by the Emperor to take an account of this earthenware, and to receive the Emperor’s duty which is of such sort the fifth piece, according to the laws of the kingdom; the rest they afterwards sell to the inhabitants of this village, Ucienjen, where (as they say) is the staple of this Purceline trade, which is sent from this village, not only through all China, but also through the whole world.”

From Samedo’s History of China, we learn:

“They have altogether relinquished to Europe to be served in plate, there being scarce found among them a vessel of silver of a considerable bigness, no not in the Emperor’s palace, being content to eat in porcelain, which is the only vessel in the world for neat and delightful cleanliness.... Kiamsi is famous for the Porcellane dishes (indeed the only work in the world of this kind) which are made only in one of its towns: so that all that is used in the kingdom, and dispersed through the whole world, are brought from this place: although the earth whereof they are made cometh from another place: but there only is the water, wherewith precisely they are to be wrought to come to their perfection, for if they be wrought with other water the work will not have so much glosse and lustre. In this worke there are not those mysteries that are reported of it here, neither in the matter, the form nor the manner of working; they are made absolutely of earth, but of a neat and excellent quality. They are made in the same time, and the same manner, as our earthen vessels; only they make them with more diligence and accuratenesse. The blew, wherewith they paint the porcellane, is anill, whereof they have abundance, some do paint them with vermilion, and (for the king) with yellow.”

The same traveller also notes: “The workmanship of Europe which they most admired were our clocks, but now they make of them such as are set upon tables, very good ones.”

A Jesuit father, writing from China in 1688, sheds further light on the wares that were made there and prized in Europe. He says in part:

“As for porcelain, it is such an ordinary moveable, that it is the ornament of every house; the tables, the sideboards, nay, the kitchen is cumber’d with it, for they eat and drink out of it, it is their ordinary vessel. There is likewise made huge flower-pots of it. The very architects cover roofs and make use of it sometimes to incrustate marble buildings.

“Amongst those that are most in request, there are of three different colours; some are yellow, yet though the earth be very fine, they appear more coarse than the others; and the reason is, because that colour does not admit of so fine polishing; it is used in the Emperor’s palace. Yellow is his own proper colour, which is not allowed to any person to bear; so that one may safely say, that as for the business of porcelain, the Emperor is the worst served.

“The second sort is of a grey colour, with abundance of small irregular lines in it, that cross one another, as if the vessel was all over striped, or wrought with inlaid or mosaic work. I cannot imagine how they form these figures, for I have much ado to believe that they are able to draw them with a pencil. However it is, these sort of vases partake of a particular beauty; and sure I am, the curious amongst us would much value them.

“Last of all, the third sort of porcelain is white, with divers figures of flowers, trees and birds, which they paint in blue, such as come hither into Europe. This is the commonest of all, and everybody uses it.”

The minute descriptions of the manufacture and varieties of porcelain furnished by Dutch and other travellers must not be charged up to an artistic appreciation exclusively. The Dutch were very much in earnest in their efforts to manufacture a home product which might compete with the foreign. As we have seen, Dutch pottery had already attained a high reputation, and was much sought after in foreign markets; and now, with the influx of porcelain, the Guilds strained every nerve to meet the demand.

The manufacture of delft began at the end of the sixteenth century with Hermann Pietersz, a native of Haarlem. In the first days of its existence, the style of decoration was rather complicated, for the subjects representing kermesses, combats, etc., were designed en camaÏeu. In order to sell a piece of pottery, the potter had to belong to the Guild of St. Luke. The Delft Guild of St. Luke was established in 1611 and included all the skilled workmen in the arts and crafts: (1) painters; (2) stainers of glass, engravers and glass-makers; (3) potters; (4) embroiderers and weavers of tapestry; (5) sculptors and carvers; (6) sheath or scabbard-makers; (7) art-printers and booksellers; and (8) engravers and dealers in paintings.

In the second half of the seventeenth century, particularly under the influence of Abraham de Kooge (1632) and Albrecht de Keizer (1642), the Delft potters began to imitate the Oriental products in both modelling and decoration. De Kooge was famous for his landscapes and portraits with names and dates—all in blue; but de Keizer, who was the precursor of the celebrated Cornelis de Keizer and the two Pynackers, also produced coloured ware in imitation of the Chinese and Japanese. Other followers were: Pieter Oesterham, who devoted himself chiefly to landscapes and national portraits; Frederick van Frytom, who was particularly fond of blue camaÏeu: Gerrit Pietersz, who delighted in elephants and Chinese subjects; and Augustijn Reygensbergh, who made fine imitations of Chinese and Japanese ware in red, blue and gold. Lowys Fictoor (1689) and Lambertus Eenhoorn (1691) were famous for their black delft, with wonderful glaze and ornamented in the Chinese style with pagodas and trees in yellow and green; Lucas van Dale, for his olive-brown decorated with yellow; Leonard van Amsterdam, for figures, small landscapes and shipping scenes painted in colours on the backs of brushes as well as small dishes; and Verhagen sought the prints of Goltzius. Among other celebrated potters of this period are the names of two other Eenhoorns, five Kams, four Van der Hoevens, and two Dextras. The many factories of Delft were known under fanciful names, such as The Rose, The Star, The Peacock, The Claw, The Three Bells, etc., etc. Delft ware declined about the end of the seventeenth century.

The European potters did not gain a clear and sane understanding of the composition and manufacture of porcelain till the last years of the reign of Louis XIV, when d’Entrecolles, a Jesuit father, sent home a full report of the mystery. A few extracts from his letter will be extremely illuminating on certain points relating to European trade and Chinese guile:

“As for the colours of the porcelain, they are of all kinds. In Europe, scarcely any are to be seen but those that have a strong blue on a white ground. I believe, however, that our merchants have brought others in. There are some with grounds like our miroirs ardents; some again are entirely red, and amongst these some are dotted with little points like our mignatures. When these are perfect, which is very hard to attain, they are infinitely esteemed and extremely dear.

“Finally there are porcelains in which the landscapes painted on them are made up of almost every colour and relieved by gold. They are very beautiful, if we judge by their cost: otherwise the ordinary porcelain of this kind is not comparable to that painted with azure alone.... Black porcelain has also its own price and beauty.... The gold that is applied to it, gives it a novel charm....

“Here also is made another species that I had never yet seen: it is all pierced and cut-work: in the centre is a cup to contain liquor. The cup is in the same piece and forms a part of the cut-work. I have seen other porcelains in which Chinese and Tartar ladies were painted to the life. The draperies, the complexion and features of the faces were all well rendered. From a distance you would take this work for enamel.

“The Chinese complain of a lost secret: they once had the art of painting on the insides of porcelains fishes and animals that only became visible when the vessels were filled with some liquid. They try from time to time to recover the art of this magic painting, but in vain.... However that may be, we may say that at the present day the beautiful blue has been revived on porcelain after having disappeared from it....

“The Chinese chiefly succeed in grotesques and the representations of animals. They make ducks and turtles that float upon the water. I have seen a cat painted to the life. In its head had been put a little lamp the flame of which shone through the eyes, and I was assured that rats were terrified at it. They also make here many statues of Kouan in, a Chinese goddess, with an infant in her arms.

“European merchants often order from the Chinese workers porcelain plaques to form the top of a table, or back of a chair, or frame of a picture. These works are impossible: the greatest length and width of a plate is about one foot. If they are made larger than that, no matter how thick, they bend.... The history of King te ching speaks of divers works ordered by Emperors that workmen tried vainly to execute.... The Mandarins of this province presented a petition to the Emperor begging him to have the attempts cease.... However, the Mandarins who know how ingenious Europeans are in invention, have sometimes asked me to have new and curious designs sent from Europe in order to have something singular made for presentation to the Emperor. On the other hand, the Christians strongly urged me not to procure such models, for the Mandarins are not so readily satisfied as our merchants are when the workmen tell them that a work is impracticable; and frequently the bastinado is liberally bestowed before the Mandarin abandons a design from which he has promised himself great advantages.

“We should not be astonished that porcelain is so dear in Europe: we shall be still less so when we learn that besides the great profits taken by the European merchants and by their Chinese agents, it is rarely that a baking is entirely successful; sometimes indeed it is a total failure. Thus for one workman who grows rich, there are a hundred ruined; but this does not deter them from tempting Fortune.... Moreover, the porcelain that is sent to Europe is almost always made on new and often strange models in which success is difficult. However slight the blemishes may be it is rejected by the Europeans, who will not take any but perfect pieces; so that it remains in the hands of the workmen, who are not able to sell it to the Chinese because it is not to their taste. The consequence is that the pieces that are taken bear the additional charge of those that are rejected.

“According to the history of King te ching, the profits were formerly much greater than they are now. It is hard to believe this, for there must then have been a great sale of porcelain in Europe. I have said that the difficulty in executing certain models sent from Europe is one of the causes of the excessive price of porcelain, for it must not be imagined that the workmen can work on all the models that reach them from foreign countries. There are some impracticable ones in China, just as there are some made that astonish foreigners who would not think them possible.”

The price of china-ware fluctuated considerably during the seventeenth century. Sometimes a critic complained, as above, that values had greatly appreciated because of the demand, and then again others wailed that the enormous importations had driven prices down till the game was not worth the candle. In Mendelslo’s Voyages (1639), we read:

“The Chinese bring to the island of Java porcelain which they sell there very cheaply: for when boats arrive from China they buy six porcelain dishes for a thousand caxas (a string of two hundred caxas are called sata and are worth about nine deniers of French money, and five satas tied together make a sapocon).”

Again, from Recueil des Voyages (Constant) we learn:

“The (Chinese) ships also bring (to Java) fine and coarse porcelain. When the Dutch first arrived, they bought five or six dishes of both kinds for 1,000 caxas, but afterwards they got no more than two or three, rarely more.

“For return freight, they take, besides pepper, all the lacca brought from the city of Tolonbaon, where there is great abundance. They also load with the anil^[9] that comes from Anier in pots; sandal wood, musk and tortoiseshell, with which in China they make beautifully wrought coffres; elephant tusks, with which they make beautiful seats that are esteemed as much as if they were of silver, and that are used by Mandarins and Viceroys.”

The importations were indeed enormous, as the bills of lading of the Dutch vessels prove. For example, among the cargoes of eleven Dutch ships that arrived in Holland from the East Indies in July, 1664, were 44,943 pieces of very rare Japanese porcelain and 101 Japan cabinets. The eleven ships that left Batavia on December 24 of the same year, brought home 16,580 pieces of porcelain of divers kinds.

The Dutch brought to Europe such vast quantities of porcelain in the first quarter of the seventeenth century as practically to monopolize the trade and undersell the English. Thus, Methwold, writing from Masulipatam to the East India Company in 1619, says: “The great profit first obtained on porcelain has filled all men’s hands with plenty (by the Dutch), which makes theirs (the East India Company’s) not sought after.”

Turning now, for a moment, to tea, we find that it made its way into public favour somewhat slowly—far more so than porcelain. It was known to the Dutch before 1600, but was not in general use till half a century later.

J. H. van Linschoten, describing the manners and customs of the Island Japan (1598), says:

“After their meat, they use a certain drinke, which is a pot with hote water, which they drinke as hote as ever they may indure, whether it be Winter or Summer ... and the gentlemen make it themselves; and when they will entertaine any of their friends, they give him some of that warme water to drinke: for the pots wherein they seeth it, and wherein the herb is kept, with the earthen cups which they drinke it in, they esteeme as much of them as we doe of diamonds, rubies, and other precious stones, and they are not esteemed for their newnes, but for their oldnes, and for that they were made by a good workman: and to know and keepe such by themselves, they take great and special care, as also of such as are the valuers of them, and are skilful in them.... So if their pots and cups be of an old and excellent workman’s making, they are worth four or five thousand ducats or more the peece. The King of Bungo did give for such a pot, having three feet, fourteen thousand ducats, and a Japan, being a Christian in the town of Sacay, gave for such a pot fourteen hundred ducats, and yet it had three pieces upon it.”

As late as 1639, Mendelslo thought it worth while describing again. He says in his Voyages:

“The Japanese bray the tea as fine as powder, and taking a little on the point of a knife put it in a porcelain or earthenware cup filled with boiling water.... They have no more luxurious articles of furniture than belong to this service: teapots have been seen that cost twenty-eight thousand crowns.”

The use of tea became common among the well-to-do and fashionable classes from 1660 to 1680. Every house had a special tea-room fitted up, and even the burghers had their tea-offices, or drank tea in the front room or voorhuis; for the social tea always took place in the front part of the house. The tea-room was furnished like a reception-room, the important pieces of furniture being the tea-buffet and the tea-table. “A corner tea-buffet of costly wood” is mentioned in the inventory of Develstein, while other inventories mention “properly inlaid Chinese lacquered tea-tables mounted with silver and mother-of-pearl,” also fir-wood and oak tables and tables with drop leaves. On the tea-table the porcelain was displayed. This was bordered with gold or silver, or was a blue Chinese or a coloured Japanese set with the “waffle-mark,” or the six marks of the “Long Eliza,” “the cuckoo out of the house” and “the cuckoo into the house,” and all kinds of red and gold, ribbed or plain porcelain. A complete tea-set included large and small teapots, large and small cups with and without covers, sugar basins, pastry dishes with a small golden fork, and saffron pots. These little pots and dishes were of different shapes; and we should note that there were a double set of teapots—one in which the tea was drawn and the other into which it was poured, to be poured out into the cups in turn. Sometimes these pots were curiously shaped with open or basket sides, the spout formed like the head of a bird or animal, while others carried inscriptions or coats-of-arms, and the top of the lid bore some grotesque fowl, bird or ornament. Square teapots profusely decorated with gold paint were very costly. The teacups were also gaily decorated. An exhibition in Delft in 1863 showed thirty famous designs of cups and saucers.

If we were to enter a fashionable tea-room of the seventeenth century, we should find ourselves in the front of the house in a room furnished according to the rank and means of the proprietor. Rich or poor, it is always exquisitely clean. As carpets and rugs are not common, the floor is covered with bright mats, and the walls are either whitewashed, or encased in blue and white tiles. Upon them hang pictures, more or less valuable. The round table and the chairs are of sacredaan wood, and the latter are furnished with cushions of Utrecht velvet. The chimney-piece is ornamented with Chinese knickknacks that will interest the visitor for several hours, and on either side of it are two oak cupboards inlaid with ebony. Facing the chimney stands the china-cabinet with its fragile treasures, the vrouw’s idol, the object of her tenderest care.

The guests usually arrived between two and three in the afternoon, and were received and extended many formalities peculiar to the occasion. Unless it rained, no cloak or wrap was worn, so the guests were received in the tea-room at once and immediately seated themselves, resting their feet—winter or summer—on a foot-warmer. The hostess takes a sample of tea from her many tea-caddies, each filled with a different kind of tea, and puts them into a different pot, each pot having a little silver strainer in the spout. When the tea is drawn, she fills the smallest cup with a sample from each pot and hands these tiny cups to her friends, so that they may discover what kind they prefer. One prefers this, and one prefers another; but, as a rule, the choice is left to the hostess. Now the tea-making begins in earnest. According to the number of guests, the hostess takes a single or double teapot, and from a larger caddy the tea that has been chosen. While this is being drawn, she takes some saffron, and infuses this in a small red pot, and serves the tea and saffron in a covered cup, so that none of the sweetness nor aroma shall be wasted. In spring the saffron is discarded in favour of young peach leaves. The tea is sweetened to taste, but milk is never served until 1680, when it is used in imitation of the French; for the idea of milk in tea originated with the Marchioness de la SabliÈre. The conversation at these gatherings turned on tea and general gossip.

The tea-table was of great importance in social life. Even poets sang its praises in Holland, as they did in England. A picturesque stanza from a Dutch poet is worth quoting:

Thus we see that the tea-table was firmly established as a social institution in Holland by the middle of the seventeenth century, and porcelain was an important factor in interior decoration long before Dutch William drove the Stuarts out of England. A Dutch inventory of the time of the Glorious Revolution (1689) is worth citation for the sake of illustrating the prevailing taste and the price of porcelain of the day:

Statement and inventory of the contents and the goods of Dirck van Kessel and Chrestina de Ridder, left without owner by the aforesaid Chrestina de Ridder by her death on the 15th of January of this year 1689

“Now follows a collection of large mirrors, which we consider of less importance. Of more interest is the following:

“Hereafter follows again some porcelain and other articles, as—

The value of porcelain may be gathered from the pieces mentioned in the inventory of Joh. Gemeelenbrouck, “meester silversmith,” in 1653: