VOC plate

ca. 1660-1680

At the heart of this plate is the monogram VOC, for Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie, the Dutch East India Company. Such plates may have been ordered for company use both at the Eastern headquarters in Batavia and at the offices in Holland, but this assumption has never been documented. Two phoenixes, a flowering camellia, and pomegranates swirl about the monogram. Bamboo plants alternate with peonies as the primary motifs in the panel decoration around the rim of the plate.

This type of Japanese export ware was known as fuyo-de (hibiscus-type) because of the petal-like panels that radiate from the central motif. The immediate source for this style of compartmentalized border decoration on Japanese export ware was Kraak porcelain.

Hard paste porcelain, export type fuyo-de

2 3/8 x 15 3/8 in. (6 x 38.9 cm)

Floyd A. Naramore Memorial Purchase Fund

75.78

Photo: Susan Cole

Not currently on view

Resources

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum", October 7, 2007 - January 8, 2008

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "A Thousand Cranes: Treasures of Japanese Art", February 5 - July 12, 1987

Seattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, "Porcelain Stories: From China to Europe", February 17, 2000-May 7, 2000

Published ReferencesEmerson, Julie, Jennifer Chen, & Mimi Gardner Gates. "Porcelain Stories, From China to Europe." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2000, p. 105

Shirahara, Yukiko. "Japan Envisions the West: 16th - 19th Century Japanese Art from the Kobe City Museum." Seattle, WA: Seattle Art Museum, 2007, pl. 139, p. 176

"Chinese Porcelain an Export to the World", Joint Publishing Company, (H.K.) Co. Ltd., 2008, p. 46

Finlay, Robert. "The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History". Berkeley, Los Angeles and London: University of California Press, 2010, illustrated pl. 19

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