A Small Ming Wanli Kraak Porcelain Bowl

Wanli 1572 - 1620

A Small Wanli Kraak Porcelain Cameelscoppen or Camel-Cup, Late Ming, Wanli Period 1572-1620. Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, perhaps Guanyinge Kilns. This thinly potted moulded bowl is painted with typical Kraak ware panels of butterflies in landscapes, alternating with panels of flowers and bamboo.  The well of the bowl depicts a bird on a rock. Kraak porcelain bowls of this type were referred to as ‘Crow Cups’ after the Dutch term Kraaikops. These small often lightly potted moulded porcelain bowls with gently curving sides and an everted foliate rim are painted with a bird on a rock to the well of the bowl. The birds are mentioned in the records of the V.O.C. (1603 in a current price list in Amsterdam) but are described as parrots. Cynthia Viallé has found a record describing them as Cameelscoppen or Camel-Cups in the V.O.C. records. In this list various shapes are mentioned, and four sizes given. So the new correct term is now Cameelscoppen or Camel-Cups. However, the late Tijs Volker said that in the V.O.C. recorded Kraak ware bowls of this type as Candeelscoppen or Caudle Cups but Cynthia Viallé hasn’t been able to find any evidence of this. A fragment, the base of a bowl with a bird on a rock was excavated at the Guanyinge Kiln site, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province. This description is primarily based on the excellent new book : Jingdezhen to the World, The Lurie Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Late Ming (Teresa Canepa, 2019. ISBN 978-1-912168-09-5).

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See Below For More Photographs and Information.

 

 

Condition
In excellent condition, one minute glaze frit to the rim.
Size
Height 7.9 cm (3.1 inches). Width 9.6 cm (3.78 inches)
Provenance
From a Dutch Private Collection.
Stock number
27181

Photos

Information

Kraakware Bowls ; Cameelscoppens, Candeelscoppen or Kraaikops

In the decades I have been looking at Chinese ceramics so many terms have changed, the history of Chinese porcelain is still in flux and so much facinating information is still being unearthed. Kraak porcelain bowls of this type were refered to as 'Crow Cups' after the Dutch term Kraaikops. These small often lightly potted moulded porcelain bowls with gently curving sides and an everted foliate rim are painted with a bird on a rock to the well of the bowl. The birds are mentioned in the records of the V.O.C. (1603 in a current price list in Amsterdam) but are described as parrots. Cynthia Viallé has found a record describing them as Cameelscoppen or Camel-Cups in the V.O.C. records. In this list various shapes are mentioned, and four sizes given. So the new correct term is now Cameelscoppen or Camel-Cups. However, the late Tijs Volker said that in the V.O.C. recorded Kraakware bowls of this type as Candeelscoppen or Caudle Cups but Cynthia Viallé hasn't been able to find any evidence of this. A fragment, the base of a bowl with a bird on a rock was excavated at the Guanyinge Kiln site, Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province. This description is primarily based on the excellent new book : Jingdezhen to the World, The Lurie Collection of Chinese Export Porcelain from the Late Ming (Teresa Canepa, 2019. ISBN 978-1-912168-09-5).

Still Life including Kraak Porcelain. Jacob van Hulsdonck (Antwerp), 1582 – 1647. Sotheby’s
Still Life including Kraak Porcelain. Jacob van Hulsdonck (Antwerp), 1582 – 1647. Sotheby’s

 

Jan van Kessel (1626-1679)
Jan van Kessel, still life with fruit and a Kraak porcelain bowl (1626-1679)

 

Kraak ware bowl with dishes and a Japanese kraak style V.O.C Dish - Robert McPherson Antiques.
A 17th or 18th Century Japanese Kraak Style V.O.C Dish - Robert McPherson Antiques - 25997

 

Still Life with Fruit, by Osias Beert, c.1600
Still life with fruit and glasses, by Osias Beert (1580-1624), oil on wood.

 

Ming Kraak Porcelain Painted by Tom McPherson
Ming Kraak Porcelain Painted by my brother Tom McPherson in the 1980s.

 

From the wreck of the Witte Leeuw a Dutch VOC ship sunk in 1613 - Rijksmuseum
From the wreck of the Witte Leeuw a Dutch VOC ship sunk in 1613 - Rijksmuseum

 

Photograph by Maaike Eijgenram

 

Willem Kalf c.1662
Willem Kalf
(Rotterdam 1619 – 1693 Amsterdam)
Still life with a Chinese porcelain bowl
. After his return from Paris in 1645/46 Willem Kalf began to paint a new type of still life, which he would continue to produce for the rest of his career: a few valuable objects, carefully arranged, that sparkle against a dark background. The central element in this painting is a blue porcelain bowl from the reign of Emperor Wan-Li (1573-1619), a specimen of the precious exotic pottery that was enthusiastically collected by the wealthy burghers of Amsterdam, where Kalf settled in 1653. The work is generally thought to date from around 1662 because of its similarities to two still lifes in Berlin and Copenhagen which bear that date. Canvas, 52.5 x 41.8 cm; signed
Acquired in 1919; inv. 388
Fondation Custodia / Collection Frits Lugt 121 rue de Lille 75007 Paris.

 

An anonymous sketch of Chinese porcelain added as loose sheets to the ships journal of the VOC ship the Gelderland, 1601-1603 (National Archief, Den Haag, The Netherlands.
An anonymous sketch of Chinese porcelain added as loose sheets to the ships journal of the VOC ship the Gelderland, 1601-1603 (National Archief, Den Haag, The Netherlands.