CIRCA 1740-1750

Details

A rare Batavia plate
Circa 1740-1750
Painted en camaïeu and gilt with a scene depicting an allegory of the Dutch East India Company, in the centre a seated lady holding a flag with V.O.C. initials, surrounded by Oriental merchants offering tributes, Mercury (the God of Commerce), a maiden, the lion of Holland at her feet and a cherub pouring ducats from a cornucopia, the foreground inscribed 'BATAVIA' beside crowns and jewellery, in the background palm trees and a waterfront with European ships, surrounded by a floral garland in gilt around the well and four flower sprays on the scalloped rim, fine star crack to the base
22.8 cm. (8 7/8 in.) diam.

Provenance

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 18 March 1980, lot 144 (to Dreesmann).
Dr Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inventory no. J-90).

Special notice

Christie's charges a Buyer's premium calculated at 20.825% of the hammer price for each lot with a value up to €90,000. If the hammer price of a lot exceeds €90,000 then the premium for the lot is calculated at 20.825% of the first €90,000 plus 11.9% of any amount in excess of €90,000. Buyer's Premium is calculated on this basis for each lot individually.

Lot Essay

This allegorical scene personifying the V.O.C. is after engravings of 1739 by J. Punt (1711-1779), which accompagnies the long poem Batavia by Jan de Marre (published in 1740) which brings tribute to the Company and its government in the East Indies. A similar example is illustrated by C.J.A. Jörg, Chinese Ceramics in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1997, p. 290, pl. 338 a. and b.; and by the same author an article in the Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum, no. 4, 1982; Howard and Ayers, China for the West, vol. I, p. 200, pl. 198; and Hervouët et Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental., Paris, 1986, p. 14, pl. 1.5

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