Chinese Export Porcelain

Ceramic items make me nervous. I always fear bumping into one, knocking it over and watching it smash into a million bits onto the floor. I have a tendency to carry with me a large tote (currently a saucy crimson patent leather number), the width about half my height. But that doesn’t mean I can’t gently put down my tote, and appreciate the beauty of ceramic pieces while I stand very still holding my hands behind my back.

One type of ceramic ware I find of interest is Chinese export porcelain. It has an interesting history and in this market, a mid-range object over two centuries old can be purchased for a very reasonable amount.

The interesting part is that back then Westerners were doing things very similar to what we do today: take a foreign design and adapt it to our needs. And Chinese export porcelain was just that.

Way back in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Chinese porcelain had only an occasional presence in Europe. Exotic and ornamental, it was given as a gift, or accrued as part of a collection by a very important aristocrat. Its influence was intermittent. In 1498, commercial trade with China was facilitated by the Portuguese by opening the sea route around the Cape of Good Hope.

Sotheby's (London) May 14, 2008 offered this old, old plate decorated with the Portuguese royal coats of arms and the monogram IHS surrounded by a crown of thorns. Maria Antonia Pinto de Matos in The Porcelain Route, Lisbon, 1999, suggests a date of 1520-1540.

But by the year 1517, routes had improved and Chinese ceramics were carried off from their ports by large Portuguese ships. Europeans began to take a fancy for these items, along with spices silks and lacquer. In the following century, the Dutch monopolized the trade with China and everyone back at home went crazy for the porcelain “oriental” wares. Chinese forms were not that useful to Europeans. They ate different foods and had different dining practices. The Dutch began requesting European forms such as spittoons, mustard and coffee pots and narrow necked jugs – items they used daily. They would have the Chinese paint their “oriental” designs on these more usable forms.

A Pair of Chinese Export Coffee Pots for the Dutch market, circa 1735-40. Each one illustrates a Dutchman holding a walking stick. I love the serpent spout and scroll handle. Christie's (London) November 17, 1986, yes that long ago and sold for $40,000.

Chinese Export armorial platter circa 1765 with the arms of Hynam. Sotheby's (NYC), January 23, 2009.


By the eighteenth century, they were requesting to have their own family crests painted on the wares. Armorials were a more simple design, but very personal and entire sets of elaborate dinner ware were created. Furthermore, during this century the English, with their superior naval military, controlled the trade. Almost everyone had some – from the middle to the upper classes. They even made their way over to America.

By the last quarter of the century, things began to change as the production of creamware in England grew stronger with a return to quieter tones and therefore hastened the decline of the export trade.



Three blue and white mugs with landscape decoration from the eighteenth century purchased for the realized price of $540. Rago Arts and Auction Center, Lambertville, New Jersey. March 27, 2009.


Export porcelain from the eighteenth century is still readily available at modest sums – blue and white plates or a mug with a decorative dragon-shaped handle can be purchased for a couple hundred dollars.


Christie’s (London) sold this Coffee Pot with Cover on November 21, 2007. The tall tapering form has a branch handle and bird head spout. It went for about $1,000.




On April 25, 2008 Sotheby's (NYC) saw this go for the realized price of $12,500. It is painted on one side with 'The Judgment of Paris'. Supposedly this was one of the most popular European subjects to be painted on Chinese porcelain during the 1740s. This coffee pot is a lot fancier then the one above it.

With this recession coupled with the antique market the only Chinese Export items holding value are figures, animal figurines, tourines and very important armorials.
Pair of Horses. I love these.... a little hoakey, but not the price tag... Christie's (NYC) January 21, 2009.

Animal tureens made a spectacular splash to table services and were very popular in wealthy households during the mid-eighteenth century. Large tureens were made in the form of chickens, boars and ox heads. Smaller vegetable and sauce tureens made in the form of quails, crabs, chickens and ducks.

Christie's (London) July 6, 2005 for the huge realized price of.... $421,818.

Many items are coming up for auction and truly affordable. I decided to feature some of the more, ahem, expensive ones....

The Babies Are Here !

Oh, I've been so worried. For the past two weeks. I've never gotten over March of the Penguins -- my eyes were swollen for days afterwards from boo-hooing. Thank god I watched it from the privacy of my own home and not in the theater. Someone would have had to carry me out of the movie house in a stretcher. I was fetal.


Two weeks ago, I noticed a pair of mourning doves stomping around in my flower boxes and crushing my newly planted pansies. It made me a little cranky, until I realized what was going on. Then I romanticized the whole thing. And felt a little special that they chose my flower box on my balcony. Narcissistic, I know, but it made me happy. It is the little things, at times. Every day I waited and protected the couple looking from my living room window -- through the wind and the rain and shooed any pesky squirrel sniffing around.


I avoided going out on the balcony, and certainly prevented my husband from doing so with his manly voice. He didn't share the same... affection as I did for these little eggs. I didn't want the mother to be scared off. She needed to keep the eggs warm. My thoughts went back to March of the Penguins. And the scene with the cold, cracked egg which the parent penguins mourned. I still get weepy.

When the mourning dove mother needed a break, the father stepped up to take her place and keep the eggs warm. Neither of them seemed to mind my dog, who absolutely insists on sunbathing during warm late afternoons. The cushioned chaise lounge is his. While my husband and I get a metal chair.

Two little baby birds born today. So far a success. I'm still keeping my distance until they are old enough and strong enough to venture out on their own. No BBQ-ing for a bit on the balcony. No loud noises or sudden movements, and certainly no more foul language.

My dog during a mid-afternoon nap before his snack, followed by another light walk down the street, and then to stretch out on his chair outside on the balcony. I cater, I pander, I will do anything this dog wants. After dinner and yet another walk, I put him to bed at night. And then I can finally get some real work done.

Reconsidering the Kast

For years armoire cabinets have served us well. They were a place to organize, store and conceal clothing, bedding, towels and more recently, clunky televisions and stereos. Since we have upgraded to slick flat-screened TVs, iPods and enamored with the minimal look, we have found new ways to keep excess out of sight; we simply don’t want these massive pieces of furniture anymore.

The origin of a large storage piece goes well back in time. In the Netherlands, the Dutch created a similar piece known as the Kast or Kasten. By the seventeenth century, the Kast had become the most important piece of furniture in the house. It was a very functional and very impressive piece of furniture. It signified material success and a well-ordered household – two things the Dutch were known for. Filled with linens, needlework, porcelains, silver and pewter, the kast was kept locked, with the woman of the house in charge of the key.

Pieter de Hooch, Interior with a Woman Besides a Linen Chest

Typically located in the center hallway of a household, the Kast was huge, as much as eight feet in height and six feet wide. Because they were so large, they were often sold rather than moved. The kast was usually constructed in four sections. The upper section had two cupboard doors which opened to reveal shelves. That section was surmounted by a projecting, removable cornice. This upper section rested on a lower case piece which sometimes had a second set of cupboard doors or sometimes merely a single long drawer, or even two short drawers side-by-side for additional storage. The entire piece was raised on a fourth section of molding over bun feet. Often given to a bride before her wedding, a wealthy burgher would purchase one as a symbol of his financial success. It was elaborately adorned, paneled, carved, ebonized or inlaid with exotic veneers.

Cornelis de Man, Interior of a Townhouse

Dutch women had more rights than many other women throughout the Continent. Foreign travelers noted with horror that wives had the right to haul their husbands before magistrates to charge them with wife beating or to find them guilty of entering into a house of ill repute. Husbands could be publicly admonished or barred from taking communion. Women could even get their marriages annulled if a husband returned from sea with a venereal disease. Widows could inherit and administer their husband’s property, bequeath it or transfer it as they liked. Women were the keepers of the house and had the right to toss their husbands out the door for excessive drinking.

Cornelis de Man, Family Group at Dinner Table, 1658

In exchange for all these rights, women were encumbered with strict household duties. They cared for their home, husbands, children; they looked after the cooking, cleaning and outdoor gardens. A clean, well-ordered home was held in high esteem. It was considered free from wanton chaos which was apt to seep into unkempt households. The presence of the kast helped to keep this order.

The seventeenth century was the Golden Age of the Netherlands. Wealth flooded into port cities. The merchant class became prosperous. It was a period of high achievement in the arts and sciences. The Dutch burgher lived a much more affluent life than did any other merchants elsewhere.

The Dutch loved comfort and expensive items. Foreign travelers also noted the love and care that was lavished upon the Dutch home. Many Dutch burghers possessed considerable disposable incomes, and they thought nothing of spending a lot of money and effort to make their home a comfortable retreat.

In America the Kast was the most recognizable symbol of Dutch heritage, particularly in New York and New Jersey from the mid-seventeenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Their designs similar to their European counterparts, although the methods of construction were not as elaborate or sophisticated. Kasts were still very important household items.

Decoration could be painted ornamented with symbols associated with good fortune and fertility. Door panels painted with flowers and fruit, geometric forms often in grisaille which simulated carving on more elaborate and expensive furniture.

As industrialization gained speed in America, the cultural and practical functions of kast diminished. The kast gradually ceased to be made. Preserving and storing textiles became less important in the nineteenth-century household. Factories began producing inexpensive machine-made linens and cottons. Built-in cupboards and closets were designed in houses. The old and outdated Dutch cultural symbols that once decorated the kast no longer seemed relevant to a dynamic young nation. Inevitably with these changes, the kast faded away.

Mildred Bryant Brooks (1901-1995)

I have a thing for etchings created by artists during the 1930s and 40s who belonged to the group, Associated American Artists. I have a collection of them nicely framed and arranged somewhat neatly on my bedroom wall. I am drawn to the array of styles and artists’ subject matter which most often reflected the social ideas of the time. I always keep my eyes peeled for one more that strikes me. Before, searching and obtaining a print would often take precedence over paying bills and or buying daily grocery necessities. In the past eight or so months, I’ve had to reign in that weakness.

But a few months back, I came across one artist who I am crazy for. I don’t know much about her other than what I’ve scoured up on the internet. I believe she wasn’t part of the association but she captured such a mood and feel of her time in her compositions. I don’t have any of her prints but I am memorized by many of her works. Sweet and mournful are the only words I can come up with. And, perhaps, a feeling of being haunted mixed in.

On July 21, 1901 Mildred Bryant Brooks was born in Marysville, Missouri. Her mother was a painter, her father was a scientist. Her family moved to Long Beach, California in 1907. She studied at the University of Southern California and the Otis and Chouinard Art Institutes. Brooks worked for Chryson’s Incorporated as a Christmas card designer in the 1920s. In 1929, she began etching studying under Arthur Millier. It was also the year when she began teaching at the Stickney Art Institute in Pasadena. Her etchings were shown in numerous local and national exhibitions throughout the 1930's until the mid 1940's. She won many awards.

Companions won first prize at the Chicago Society of Etchers in 1937. This was the first time the Society had honored a Westerner, let alone a woman. During the Depression she was able to support her family with her printmaking. (An edition of the above print was posted on eBay.)

In 1946, she was an artist-in-residence at Pomona College. In 1952 and 1954, she taught at the Los Angeles County Art Institute. By this time she lived in South Pasadena. Suffering from failing eyesight, she tried working with large mural paintings. In the later decades, she allegedly also worked as an interior designer and decorator. Intruguing....

Ill health eventually forced her into a Santa Barbara, California rest home, where she died on July 3, 1995.

Spring (1932)
Rachel Davis Fine Arts - Cleveland, Ohio


Moods (1935), Cleveland Museum of Art

The Pines of Monterey (1935), Smithsonian American Art Museum


Her works are in the collections of the LACMA; Laguna Art Museum; Fine Arts Gallery, San Diego, California; Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery, Washington, D.C.; Library of Congress, New York Public Library, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dayton Art Institute, University of Nebraska, Lincoln; University of Vermont, Burlington and the Los Angeles Public Library.

My Friends (1935)

November (unknown date); Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco click HERE to view others.


(Top picture currently available on eBay)

Her titles are somewhat curious, as well as somewhat obvious. Regardless, very mezmorizing indeed.

Yes? No? Maybe So?

Could it be? What is old is new again: antiques are coming back in favor? For about the last decade, modern furniture and interiors have reigned. Modern and contemporary furniture have fetched incredibly high prices at auction and asking prices at retail have been higher than a four-year private college education. Perhaps, people are seeing the warmth, beauty and historical importance of antiques once again?

After all, many “new” furniture pieces by designers have been inspired by old designs. But that is a post for a later time.

Antique furniture has had it rough lately, and especially in the last eighteen months. Although 2008 saw some high prices at the higher end of the market, the middle market tanked. With the collapse of Lehman Brothers, fewer homes sales and a plunging stock market, sales of antique items showed even larger decline. Items were barely moving at auction, and if they did some pieces reached a quarter of the hammer price from just a little over a year ago. Some retail dealers priced their stock significantly lower. By the fourth quarter of last year, the top end of the market has also bombed.

Personally, I was so pleased to read about designers beginning to incorporate antiques into their designs. Wendy Moonan wrote about this in the NY Times on the annual Kips Bay decorator show house. (You can read this here)

So, what do we think? With a little creativity and some cash in our pockets, would any of you incorporate the following items into your homes? What would you pair one of these items with? How would you recover some of these chairs for a cleaner, more stylish look?

1. A pair of Directoire Fauteuils? (Christie’s, Paris - April 7, 2009)

2. A Late George II Giltwood Overmantle Mirror. (Christie's, London - July 12, 2007). Would you use this? It is big – 66” x 66½ “.

3. A George III Satinwood, Mahogany and Amaranth Marquetry Demi-Lune Commode (Christie’s, London - March 18, 2009)

4. A Neoclassical white marble, green-painted, parcel-gilt and faux-marble decorated console table. Swedish? German? (Sotheby’s, NYC April 3, 2009.) Would you put a mirror over this? A painting? A series of etchings or old maps?

5. A Regency Mahogany Daybed (Christie’s, London - June 7, 2007)
Where would you put this? And what upholstery would you recover it in? (I think the lines on this is fab…)

6. A Pair of George III Black Japanned Armchairs (Sotheby’s, London - May 17, 2005)

7. Vargueno?

8. A Swedish Neoclassical ormolu, cut-glass and sea blue twelve-light chandelier, (Sotheby’s, NYC - April 3, 2009). I forgot to document the size, but I recall the diameter was not that big. I was searching for this stuff very late at night. Make up your own size? Would you use this in a saucy bathroom? Bedroom? Foyer? Modern retractable glassed-in room?

9. A Pair of George Mahogany Hall Chairs, (Sotheby’s, NYC - April 5, 2006). Oil the wood a bit and then place them against a wall in a wide hallway and marry it with a bright, bold graphic rug? Yes no? Intriguing or unsettling?

10. Papier-Mâché Table - (Stamford Auction, Norwalk, CT, February 11, 2007). In an all-white room?

11. An English Mahogany Gout Stool from the eighteenth century? (Canterbury Auction Galleries: West Canterbury, Kent, UK - September 16, 2008)

Recover it and push up against the window for a little dog or cat to recline and gaze out to watch the birds outside? Or the traffic? Or so they can watch for that particular mail man that they detest?

Just for fun:

12. Would anyone want this? Those who don't would you at least dare yourself to touch the bellies of these little frogs? (Desert West Auction Service: Mimbres, New Mexico, US - November 22, 2008). Cool or creepy?

Tea Time !

The tea table was a culturally charged piece of furniture. It was first introduced by the Dutch and then the Portuguese princess, Catherine of Braganza, the queen of Charles II introduced it to the English court in the seventeenth century. And then its popularity quickly spread. It was new. It was beguiling. It was ambiguous. Its surface could change. It could be horizontal when in use or vertical when not. It was foldable. It was movable. It was important.

What recession? This early eighteenth century number had an estimate of $12,000-$18,000 back in October of 2008. Someone snagged it for over $48,000 at Northeast Auctions.

Important enough to hold tea and all of the exquisite expensive porcelain and silver items with which to serve it. It signified wealth and good breeding/taste. It smelled of money.

George I walnut tea table. I like the dainty pad feet. Circa 1720 available at Mallett's.

The tea table was a symbol of social rank, civility and family stability. It commanded tightly scripted ceremonies and behavior. During the first quarter on the eighteenth century, wealthy people sat around the tea table and enjoyed their luxurious commodity. They were refined, gentle, and knew proper etiquette. The tea table’s surface was decorated with expensive porcelain to drink the tea from. Drinking tea meant genteel behavior. It meant you were privileged and you could afford it.

Tea items on a tray were arranged in a specific order and served in a particular way based on age, gender and rank. People would huddle around it. So close sometimes that hot water was poured upon their heads. Tea time was formal event, with both men and women or casual with friends. It followed a strict code of etiquette. Tea warmed the body, and caffeine stimulated the mind. The finely polished mahogany of the table was a visual treat for any guest. Little children who placed their greasy fingerprints upon it were scolded. Tea tables varied from square to circular. Some had scalloped edges, and some were japanned.

Clinton Howell.

Over the century the price of tea tumbled and by century’s end, the wealthy merchant class as well as the common laborer was drinking it. Tea was portable and easily prepared and tea tables had to be stylish enough to carry out the performance of tea pouring and tea drinking. The tea table was the stage. The design had to reflect the latest fashions. The people sitting around it had to understand the performance of pouring tea and turning one’s spoon in the cup to drink from just so. Spoon etiquette was very important. One was never to stir one’s spoon, but gently fold the tea slowly from the six o’clock position to the twelve.

Tea cups with a handle were held by placing one’s fingers to the front and back of the handle with one’s pinkie up. This allowed for balance. In order to drink a cup with no handle, one only needed to place one’s thumb at the six o'clock position and one’s index and middle fingers; you could at the twelve o'clock position, but again one must gently raise one’s pinkie for balance. And never ever pick up a sugar cube with your fingers, only use sugar tongs or else risk loosing your reputation. These codes of behavior were a way to weed out those who did not belong: The bourgeoisie. The working class.

Available at Michael Lipitch (Knees on the legs look to be carved at a later date...)

Toward the end of the eighteenth century, as the price of tea dropped more modest and affordable tea tables were produced. The elite did not like this. Accusations of over indulgence, negligence and flouting of natural social order were heard. Doctors and philanthropists published articles raging against classes other than the wealthy drinking tea. They stated it was bad for the lower classes health. Hot tea would make the blood boil and even cause death. Many of the wealthy of the time believed that the social habits of the poor must be controlled. An anonymous writer wrote a pamphlet and circulated it widely. Drinking tea in the afternoon was believed to encourage “artful husseys” to drink spirits and to vent their emotions by complaining about their husbands.

Available at Charlecote.

To the elite, the practice of tea-drinking in the afternoon among working class women meant they were neglecting their knitting and daily household duties; and instead spending what their hard working husbands had earned as they wasted time sitting around the tea table gossiping and leaving their children in rags gnawing on crusts of bread.

George III rosewood tea table with an octagonal top with satinwood banding.

Tea drinking has changed since then. Most of us enjoy the taste -- served hot or cold over ice. Brewed by the hot afternoon sun or quickly made with a convenient little bag steeped in water for a matter of minutes. Add a little lemon or dab of honey and most of us are just fine regardless what we drink it from or where we come from.

Nefertiti Phone: I have no positive comment

It’s the little things in life that can help our mood for the day. Things as small as making every green light when we are driving like a bat out of hell late for work. Or watching our dog happily stretch out on the green fluffy grass and bask in the sunshine. Waking up to find all the tulips have bloomed. Or a little retail therapy -- buying a new object we have coveted for some time (especially after a bad week or month? Several months?). Some of these objects can be so small and exquisite. Not for everyone to see, but we carry the item with us hidden in a pocket or a handbag. This isn’t anything new. Throughout time people have always desired the latest snuff box, bonbonnière, match safe or etui willing to pay a high price for an item crafted from precious materials or painted with exquisite scenes. These items were things used everyday. Today we have a cell phone or blackberry -- the more expensive, the better, we are told. (I find the more expensive, the more apt to break.) The fashion forward are always searching for the latest ‘must have’.

Well… last year (I’m always behind on the latest electronic), Givori introduced the exclusive, limited edition Nefertiti phone. “Inspired by the great royal wife of the Pharaoh known for her beauty throughout Egypt,” it “exudes the decadence and mystery of a bygone era.”

(Not seeing it… but that is only my opinion…)

Only fifty of the Nefertiti phones were created and each one designed differently with its own limited edition number. The individual phones feature “vintage 1930's collectibles (not sure what that means other than those plastic bits glued on) and 24 carat gold coated Swarovski crystals”. And it is available in luxury stores in Dubai for approximately $4440. (Ouch.)

A collectible investment for the future? Or an absolute eyesore?

Like a beautiful piece of jewelry? Or a bunch of crusty old barnacles?

(Interesting info about the barnacle I was completely unaware of can be found here –- be sure to scroll down to the photo to read below.)

Queen Anne: Loyal and Unfortunate

Following the death of her sister Mary from smallpox in December of 1694, Princess Anne of England quietly waited. She should have become Queen in her own right on that day, but her brother-in-law William III continued as sole monarch until his own death in 1702. He was thrown when his horse stumbled on a molehill breaking his collar bone. Shock hit his system and tuberculosis set in. He was two weeks later. Anne’s patience was rewarded. Now crowned as queen, it was the moment she had worked for and waited all her life.

Separated when she was very young from her parents and sister, she had only the affections of her nursery servants. She grew up in an atmosphere of controversy. She had witnessed the deaths of her mother, grandmother and aunt. She betrayed her Catholic father for her Protestant religion. She broke ties with her only sister. She suffered financial humiliation by her brother-in-law. Anne’s one great friendship with Sarah Churchill proved to be baneful, manipulative and ensnaring. She endured nearly two decades of 18 pregnancies and watched her only living child slowly die at the age of eleven clinging to the hope she was pregnant again only to realize it was false. An invalid by 37, her life was filled with mental anguish, physical pain and emotional turmoil. Having a great deal of self-restraint, she was described as "very hard" and "not apt to cry."

In 1683, Princess Anne married the Protestant Prince George of Denmark. An unpopular union viewed by the people, but a very good one for the two of them. She was seen as completely fulfilling gender expectations for women of the time -- an obedient and dutiful wife, who liked to play cards quietly and sew. George was characterized as a fat, lazy and drunk who had little aspirations submitted to the wishes of his wife. Charles II, the Merry Monarch, famous quip about George:

"I have tried Prince George sober, and I have tried him drunk; and, drunk or sober, there is nothing in him."

Never to be crowned king, Anne was devoted to him her entire married life and he to her. He was comfortable with the fact that she was the head of the household. They enjoyed quiet retreats together. And he stood by her during the wrenching times she lost her children.

Unlikely to rule as queen, she received a limited education similar to that of other aristocratic girls of the time: learning languages, music and sewing. Her knowledge of history was basic and she received no instruction in civil law or military matters. She was misunderstood. She was said to be weak from her gender, suffered from poor eyesight and mediocre intelligence. Her personality was shy and reticent and she often isolated herself. In reality, Queen Anne had great common sense, forethought and worked with her personal servants to seek information withheld from her by government ministries. Although short, Queen Anne’s reign would be pivotal. It was one of the most brilliant and critically important periods in British history.

On the morning of the first day of August, 1714, Queen Anne died. She was only 49. Her swollen body from a bacterial infection remained unburied for three weeks as preparations were made. Her physician said Anne's life was shortened by the "scene of contention among her servants. I believe sleep was never more welcome to a weary traveller than death was to her."

Queen Anne reigned over Great Britain for 12 years. It was a time of great watershed from the violence of the seventeenth century and into the stability and prosperity of the eighteenth century. A distinctively English style in furniture and decorative arts developed under the Queen marked by soft and simple curved lines.

Portraits of Queen Anne by Edmund Lilly (1703); Peter Lely (1667-68); Peter Lely (1678); at the time of her marriage in 1683; with her only surviving son Duke of Gloucester.