Region: Hubei
Bibliography
Primary sources
Coen, Cornelis Janszoon. Voyage to Cathay, Tartary and the Gold- and Silver-Rich Islands East of Japan, 1643 : The Journal of Cornelis Jansz.. Amsterdam: Philo Press, 1975.
Dapper, O. Gedenkwaerdig Bedrijf Der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Maetschappije Op De Kuste Van Taising of Sina. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1670.
Montanus, Arnoldus. Atlas Chinensis. London: Printed by T. Johnson for the author, 1671.
Nieuhof, Johan. Het Gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie aan den Grooten Tartarischen Cham, den Tegenwoordigen Keizer van China, waar in de Gedenkwaerdighste Geschiedenissen, die onder het Reizen door de Sineesche Landtschappen, Quantung, Kiangsi, Nanking Sedert den Jare 1655 tot 1657 zijn voorgevallen, Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1665. Electronic Version.
In 1654, for the VOC’s first mission to China, Johan Nieuhof was assigned hofmeester (steward) to the embassy. He was expected to make depictions of all cities, towns, villages, rivers, and other features seen in China. Upon returning to Europe in 1658, he gave his notes and drawings to his brother Hendrik, who published the notes along with engravings based upon the drawings. This account became immensely popular and was translated into French, German, Latin, and English. Nieuhof’s detailed and descriptive account can be understood as a foundation upon which many Europeans from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries based their knowledge of China. In addition, the illustrations served as inspiration for artists creating chinoiserie designs, popular in the eighteenth century. [Ashley Mason]
Valentijn, François. Oud En Nieuw Oost-Indiën : Vervattende Een Naaukeurige En Uitvoerige Verhandelinge Van Nederlands Mogentheyd in Die Gewesten, Benevens Eene Wydluftige Beschryvinge Der Moluccos, Amboina, Banda, Timor En Solor, Java, En Alle De Eylanden Onder Dezelve Landbestieringen Behoorende : Het Nederlands Comptoir Op Suratte, En De Levens Der Groote Mogols : Als Ook Een Keurlyke Verhandeling Van 't Wezentlykste Dat Men Behoort Te Weten Van Choromandel, Pegu, Arracan, Bengale, Mocha, Persien, Malacca, Sumatra, Ceylon, Malabar, Celebes of Macassar, China, Japan, Tayouan of Formosa, Tonkin, Cambodia, Siam, Borneo, Bali, Kaap Der Goede Hoop En Van Mauritius : Te Zamen Dus Behelzende Niet Alleen Eene Zeer Nette Beschryving Van Alles, Wat Nederlands Oost-Indien Betreft, Maar Ook 't Voornaamste Dat Eenigzins Tot Eenige Andere Europeërs, in Die Gewesten, Betrekking Heeft. Franeker: Van Wijnen, 2002.
This book, written by François Valentijn, discusses the different countries that the Dutch East India Company traded with in the Far East. Valentijn spent sixteen years in the East Indies as a minister, and he lived in tropical locales such as Java and Ambon. This book contains more than a thousand illustrations, including the most up-to-date maps of the eighteenth century. [Tami Latta]
Secondary sources
Carlson, Edith F. "Chinese Export Porcelain." Bulletin of the City Art Museum of St.Louis 30, no. 3 (August, 1945): pp. 32-35.
Corbeiller, Clare Le. "China into Delft: A Note on Visual Translation." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 26, no. 6, Art Forgery (Feb., 1968): pp. 269-276.
Corbeiller’s short article discusses the Dutch’s first encounter with Chinese porcelain in 1604 when 100,000 pieces of blue and white ware were discovered on the carrack Catharina – a captured Portuguese ship. For decades, European-made porcelain designs did not deviate from Chinese prototypes until overwhelming demand and limited supply forced Dutch manufacturers to innovate. Although Chinese-inspired, the resulting Delft blue porcelain became an independent decorative arts motif. [Nathan Popp]
Drummond, Sarah. "Antiques: Dutch Delftware Pictures." Architectural Digest 45, (August, 1988): 170-175.
Frelinghuysen, Alice Cooney and Clare Le Corbeiller. "The European Trade." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 60, no. 3 (Winter, 2003): 6-35.
This publication accompanied the 2003 exhibition of “Chinese Export Porcelain” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The first half of this article surveys the Metropolitan Museum’s extensive collection of Chinese porcelain created for European markets and highlights the varying techniques, colors, and decorative elements in objects from the mid-sixteenth century until last quarter of the nineteenth century. Drawing from extensive written records and correspondence from the Dutch East India Company, museum curators Clare le Corbeiller and Alice Cooney Frelinghuysen ask what role, if any, Chinese painters played in the interpretation of Western styles for the Dutch market. This article pays close attention to the Dutch interest in obtaining objects that satisfied a demand for Western utility that suited their domestic customs as well as standardized Chinese imagery that appeared exotic. [Amanda Strasik]
Honey, W. B. "Dutch Pottery and Glass." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 81, no. 477 (Dec., 1942): pp. 295-301.
Impey, Oliver, Chinoiserie: The Impact of Oriental Styles on Western Art and Decoration. London: Oxford University Press, 1977. 208 pages, 15 mostly colored plates.
Impey casts a wide net in his effort to describe and illustrate chinoiserie, the type of European decorative art dominated by Chinese or pseudo-Chinese ornamental motifs originating from the second half of the seventeenth century to the early nineteenth, when trading contacts between Europe, particularly between the Dutch and East Asia were at their height. Organized into two sections, the first part of the book sets the scene by tracing the meeting between the East and the West, addressing in perhaps in too much detail the early contacts and later struggles among the merchant powers to obtain a foothold in the Orient. Although Part Two adequately examines the motif in painting, textiles, ceramics, furniture, architecture, metalwork and interior decoration, there is too much to cover in this volume of 208 pages and 15 plates. Overall, however, this is a sympathetic and scholarly survey on this amusing depiction of fanciful figures and landscapes from an imagined and exotic East. Chinoiserie is delightful folly that continues to endure in European-inspired arts and craft. [Elizabeth Schmid]
Iröns, Neville John. "Chinese Blue and White." Irish Arts Review (1984-1987) 2, no. 3 (Autumn, 1985): pp. 40-48.
Jörg, Christiaan J. A. "Treasures of the Dutch Trade in Chinese Porcelain." Oriental Art 48, no. 5 (2002, 2002): 20-26.
Kops, Henriette Rahusen-de Bruyn. "Not such an 'Unpromising Beginning': The First Dutch Trade Embassy to China, 1655-1657." Modern Asian Studies 36, no. 3 (July, 2002): pp. 535-578. Full-Text JSTOR
Since the Dutch East India Company (VOC) started trading in Asia, it became quickly apparent that they would need to start direct trades with China, preferably free trade. However, with little to no success using force to get a solid foothold on the Chinese coast, the Dutch settled for a fortified settlement on the Island of Taiwan. The text covers the first full-fledged Dutch diplomatic effort in China during the rise of the Qing Dynasty. Led by Jacob de Keyser and Pieter de Goyer, the text explores the methods and negotiations the diplomatic envoy used to gain the permission of the Qing dynasty emperor. [Arjun Ahluwalia]
Reitz, S. C. Bosch. "Two Different Kinds of Ming Porcelain." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 14, no. 11 (Nov., 1919): pp. 236-238.
This article describes a collection of Ming porcelain that was acquired in 1919 from Holland. Ming porcelain was thin and colored in blue. The article explains how the porcelain was imported to Holland and how it became more popular as tea was being import to Holland. The major two places that manufactured porcelain in China were Ching-te-Chen and Lung-ch’uan. The porcelain was all made in small factories. However, there are differences between those made in Ching-te-Chen and Lung-ch’uan. Those made in Ching-te-Chen are more detailed, thin, refined and better quality, compared to the ones made in Lung-ch’uan, which is much rougher and thicker. The article also mentioned the circulation of Ming Porcelain not always from trade, but as gifts from the Ming Emperor. The Emperor received gifts from neighboring countries and usually the Emperor would sent gifts back; porcelain was usually one of the items. The author also mentioned cracked porcelain developed as a style during Sung dynasty which is earlier than Ming. [Shu Wun Chan]
Stokstad, Marilyn. "Chinese Art After 1280: Decorative Arts and Gardens." In Art History. Revised 2nd ed. Vol. 2, 808-809. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.
---------. "Eighteenth-Century Art in Europe and North America: Decorative Arts and Sculpture." In Art History. Revised 2nd ed. Vol. 2, 908. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2005.
Townsend, Horace. "Early Dutch Tiles." Art & Life 11, no. 5 (Nov., 1919): pp. 253-261.
Volker, T. Porcelain and the Dutch East India Company: As Recorded in the Dagh-Registers of Batavia Castle, Those of Hirado and Deshima and Other Contemporary Papers; 1602-1682.