A Ming Blue and White Porcelain Mustard Pot from the Hatcher Cargo c.1643.
An Unusual Late Ming Mustard Pot Perhaps Made for the Dutch Market, Chongzhen Period c.1643. This small Ming porcelain mustard pot and cover comes from The Hatcher Cargo of c.1643. It is thought that this is an early example of a western form made in China, that was meant for the Dutch market. The subject matter of the blue and white decoration is purely Chinese and consists of rocks, bamboo, grasses, flowering plants as well as flying insects. The barrel form has a notch to the top rim made prior to firing, this very narrow gap would have held a thin spoon that could be used to serve the mustard. It seems this form pre-dates silver mustard pots made in Europe. There were large Chinese mustard pots of globular form standing on a high foot from around 1640, some have 17th century silver mounts. I haven’t been able to find an European original form could have been based on, but it is known that the V.O.C. send wooden models that the Chinese could copy and then send back. That would explain why no original is known and why the decoration is entirely Chinese.
See Below For More Photographs and Information.
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- Condition
- In excellent condition, the glaze is in very good condition for Hatcher Cargo Porcelain.
- Size
- Height 9.1 cm (2.43 inches).
- Provenance
- Hatcher Collection, Christie's Amsterdam, June '84. Red label printed in black to the base. From a private English Collection, West Country.
- Stock number
- 26347
- References
- For other Hatcher cargo mustard pots, see below, after the Photograph Gallery.
Photos
Information
A Group of Hatcher Cargo Mustard Pots c.1643.
At the British Museum.
Exhibited:
1995 27 Jan-26 Mar, London, BM, G91, East Meets West: Chinese Trade Ceramics in the British Museum.
Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:
This vessel, along with BM 1984.0303.6, 8, 10, 16, 19 and BM 1985.1119.38, belongs to a group of 23,000 underglaze-blue decorated pieces recovered from the wreck of an unidentified Asian ship in the South China Sea (Sheaf and Kilburn, 1988, pp. 12 - 80). Its cargo consisted basically of two different types of ware made at Jingdezhen at the end of the Ming dynasty: very late versions of 'kraak' porcelain, such as the dish in the present group, and examples of 'Transitional' porcelain, such as the jar and mustard pots. The discovery of two covers for oviform jar's inscribed with a cyclical date corresponding to 1643 make a fairly precise dating of the wreck possible. This ship may have been on its way to Indonesia, probably carrying besides porcelain, also spices, silk and other commodities for sale to the Dutch, whose East India Company had offices in Batavia, modern Jakarta, Indonesia.
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