The Dutch connection: Asian export art in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries

Magazine Antiques, March, 1998 by Christian J.A. Jorg

In addition to comptoirs the Dutch acquired various other forms in lacquer, some made after Western models, such as coffers with domed lids, and kisten, which were chests with flat tops and with or without drawers (see Pl. XII). Plates, dishes, ewers, bowls, cups, checkerboards, shaving bowls, tables, and walking sticks were all made in lacquer, as were, more rarely, palanquins (enclosed litters), chairs, shields, splendid beds, and howdahs (for riding on elephants).

The decoration on Japanese export lacquer changed considerably over the course of the seventeenth century. Initially, the Dutch bought lacquer decorated in the so-called Namban style, incorporating leaves, geometrical designs, and occasionally depictions of animals all done in gold and inlaid mother-of-pearl against a black ground. Namban decoration is often divided into panels or cartouches surrounded by decorative borders made up of painted scrolls or bands with geometrical designs of inlaid mother-of-pearl. In the 1630s and 1640s the mother-of-pearl gave way to painted designs in which the cartouches were more prominent but the over-all pattern was less crowded. By the middle of the seventeenth century this pictorial style had fully developed, occasionally incorporating human figures but usually depicting landscapes with mountains, pines, pavilions, birds, and flowers painted in gold lacquer on a shiny black lacquered ground. The gold often has raised parts giving the pictorial elements depth and plasticity. Many of the most exuberant and costly pieces of Japanese export lacquer are decorated in this style and are among the most lavish pieces made for the Dutch. In this context it is interesting that no pieces are known bearing European scenes, although some examples exist that are decorated with names or coats of arms. The same holds true of Oriental export porcelains of the period, suggesting that for the Dutch, the decoration of an object, not its shape, was the primary bearer of exoticism.

Japanese lacquer, which was regarded as superior to Chinese, was expensive and, in the end, turned out to require more time and energy to acquire than the VOC was willing to expend on it. Toward the end of the seventeenth century, the price of lacquerware had risen, and the VOC ceased buying it, although private Dutch merchants continued to import it throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.(11)

The scarcity and high cost of Japanese lacquer created a market for cheaper imitations in the Netherlands. In fact, even before the first Japanese lacquer imported by the VOC arrived in Amsterdam in 1610, Willem Kick (w. c. 1609-1619) was apparently using shellac or varnish to give objects the appearance of lacquer, suggesting that private trading companies had already been importing the real thing to the Netherlands. The States-General gave a large chest made by Kick to the sultan of Turkey in 1612, which is an indication of the high quality of his work, none of which is known to survive today. Without evidence to the contrary, it is tempting to hypothesize that Dutch imitations of Japanese lacquer followed the same pattern of development as ceramics; namely that initially they were more or less exact copies of the originals but that by the second half of the seventeenth century Western makers had combined Eastern elements in a Western fashion, resulting in an Orientalizing synthesis.