CHINA - Lot 35

CHINA Pair of large round porcelain dishes with polychrome decoration in famille rose enamels in the center with the coat of arms of the Valckenier d'Amsterdam family, and gold flowering branches on the rim. Yongzheng period, circa 1735. D. 40 cm. Illustrated in : Qing Export Porcelain, A. Varela Santos, 2015-2016, n° 60. Bibliography : For three dishes from this service see China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange, C. Le Corbeiller, New York 1974, pp. 86/88,no. 34; see also, China Trade Porcelain, J.G. Phillips, p. 95, plate 22 The Choice of the Private Trader, D.S. Howard, Minneapolis 1994, p. 79, no. 62; Chinese Ceramics in the Collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, C.J.A. Jörg, London, 1997, p. 303, no. 355. Several members of the influential Valckenier family were engaged by the Dutch East India Company and commissioned armorial porcelain, the most important being Adriaan Valckenier, Governor General of the Indies from 1737 to 1741. Adriaan Valckenier was born in Amsterdam on June 6, 1695 and died in Batavia on June 20, 1751. He left Amsterdam in 1714 for Batavia, where he began his professional life as a young merchant, then became senior merchant, city alderman (1726-7), accountant general (1727), councillor extraordinary (1730), councillor ordinary (1733) and, on August 20, 1736, he was appointed first councillor and director general of the Dutch East Indies (VOC). He resigned in 1741 because of his role in the riots of 1740, during which many innocent Chinese were killed. When the Amsterdam sank in 1741 near the Shetland Islands, almost 2,400 pieces of porcelain decorated with his coat of arms were lost. It is known that he commissioned seven dinner services with a total of 15 varieties of border motifs. The family has worn this coat of arms since 1630. This lot is the subject of a temporary import. The buyer must pay import duties of 5.5% (6.6% incl. VAT) of the hammer price, in addition to the usual fees. These additional costs may be refunded to the buyer on presentation of customs documents for export outside the European Union.