plate BM-Franks.937.+

Period:Qing dynasty Production date:1720 (circa)
Materials:porcelain
Technique:moulded, glazed, painted,

Dimensions:Diameter: 22.10 centimetres

Description:
Five Chinese porcelain plates, painted in Holland. These five Chinese porcelain plates are each carved with overall floral scrolls under a blue-tinged glaze, and have barbed rims. They were over-painted in Holland with flowering creepers around the rim, and with Dutch figures and Dutch inscriptions in the centre. The first plate portrays a gentleman in a blue frock coat, holding a document in one hand, standing among rats with the inscription ‘mijn bank is [rot]. Ik sot’ (‘my bank is [rotten]. I am stupid’). Another one depicts a farmer with a bunch of carrots tied around his waist, and inscribed with ‘op hooren is mee vech verlooren’ (‘on hearsay much is also lost’). A third plate depicts a gentleman in a red frock coat with a coin in one hand and a document in the other, standing among bags of coins, with the inscription ‘het is alle gewonn geld’ (‘it is all earned money’). The fourth shows a weeping man seated on a stool, with the inscription ‘de treurend knegt’ (‘the mourning servant or knave’). The last plate is painted with a man holding a dagger and wearing a belted pink tabard which bears three coats of arms, those of Amsterdam (three crosses arranged vertically), Leyden (crossed keys) and Haarlem (a dagger between four stars topped with a cross); the plate is inscribed ‘Op mijn tris. Ben ik bis (sic)’ (‘through my threesome. I go to the deuce’).
IMG


Comments:Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:These plates belong to a series depicting Dutch shareholders, some holding share certificates or clutching coins, in despair over a financial crisis. The second decade of the 18th century saw a period of immense speculation in the trading of financial shares in Europe. Many people in the Netherlands were ruined as a result of the collapse of the financial markets known as the ‘Bursting of the South Sea bubble’ after the collapse of the South Sea Company. This subject features in numerous contemporary satirical cartoons and prints which appeared in books, pamphlets, newspapers and on playing cards.The source of the designs on the present plates are caricatures of Dutch shareholders from a pack of 54 ‘fashionable’ playing cards entitled ‘April-Kaart of Kaart Spel van Momus Naar de Nieuwste Mode’ (‘April card or Momus’s Game at Cards after the newest fashion’), published in Amsterdam in 1720. Two of the engravings for the cards are also in the British Museum: the Six of Spades which corresponds with the first plate to be described, and the Three of Diamonds, after which the last plate to be described was painted (BM 1858.0213.86). These cards are published as a single uncut print in a collection of Dutch satirical prints called ‘Het Groote Tafereel der Dwaasheid’ (scenes of great folly; George, 1935, vol. II, no. 1642).These plates were made at Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province, and were over-painted in Holland. Relatively little is known of individual Western enamellers or the workshops where such decoration was added. Plates painted with such designs are very rare and other examples with similar figures of shareholders and Dutch inscriptions include seven plates in the Fries Museum, and one in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden, Netherlands (Hervouet and Bruneau, 1986, nos. 16.55-16.62). Another more finely painted series was in the Hervouet collection (ibid., nos. 16.63-16.71).