CIRCA 1765

The Nieuwe Stadsherberg (or de Stadts-Herbergh) was a public house built in 1662 and demolished in 1872. It was situated on the River Ij in Amsterdam and was a popular place for sailors of the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) to spend their last hours before leaving the port for the Orient, and often their first hours when they returned from their voyage. It has been suggested that plates with this design may have been commissioned to mark the centenary of the Nieuwe Stadsherberg. No exact print source for this decoration has been found, but several similar views can be found on engravings: C. Le Corbeiller illustrates one (published 1664) in China Trade Porcelain: Patterns of Exchange, New York, 1974, p. 108, together with a plate of this design in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer illustrates another (published 1769) in an article, 'De Nieuwe Stadsherberg in het Ij voor Amsterdam op Chinese porselein', Antiek, May 1968, pp. 484-486, where he clarifies the correct attribution of location for this design and illustrates a cup and saucer with additional coronet and wreath. See also the Mottahedeh example, illustrated by D. Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, London and New York, 1974, vol. I, no. 190, p. 193. Other plates, from the Philip Suval Collection is ilustrated by F. and N. Hervouët and Y. Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, fig. 1.3; from the Stodel Collection, Amsterdam, is illustrated by D. F. Lunsingh Scheurleer, Chinese Export Porcelain, London, 1974, fig. 243 and p. 223; and yet another from her own collection is illustrated by E. Gordon, Collecting Chinese Export Porcelain, London, 1978, p. 16.

A very similar plate was sold in our New York Rooms, 21 January 1999, lot 84; and another in the same Rooms, 25 and 26 January 2000, lot 162.