A Chinese export porcelain dish with Dutch decoration of a VOC ship

Circa 1700-1710, the Dutch decoration circa 1720-1730

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Diam. 21.5 cm

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Originally left white, this Chinese dish was painted in overglaze enamels in red, turquoise, yellow and black in Holland with a Dutch East-Indiaman with the arms of the province of Zeeland. It has a lion emerging from the waves (Luctor et emergo), on the stern, dated 1700, and flies the flags of the Dutch Republic and the city of Middelburg (a castle on a red ground) on the bowsprit, sailing on choppy turquoise waters. The dish has a red, white, black and green lappet border, a sticker at the reverse reading “brought from abroad 100 years ago, 1888”, and an old rivet restoration.

Identical dishes are held in the British Museum in London (inv.no. F 597 A) and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (D.F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain- Chine de Commande, London 1974, pl. 355).