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Lot Essay
In the year 1700 Philip, Duke of Anjou, just 17 years old, was placed on the throne of Spain by his powerful Bourbon grandfather, Louis XIV. Within a year the resulting War of the Spanish Succession had drawn in nearly all of Europe. When conflict finally ended in 1713 Philip was stripped of Spain's European possessions - but Spanish America and the Philippines remained. Under Philip's patronage Spain's reach into these lands solidified. Silver mines reached record outputs and the galleon trade between Manila and New Spain, its ships laden with Chinese goods, flourished.
During this period Philip named Captain Fernando de Valdes y Tamon his Governor-General of the Philippines. Valdes y Tamon seems to have been an active minister, negotiating a treaty with the Muslim sultanate in 1737 and bolstering the armaments of key Spanish forts in 1739. At some point during his posting he ordered these majestic sets of Chinese porcelain vases, one for himself, with his coat-of-arms, and one for his patron, the King. Sadly, Valdes y Tamon died in Cuernavaca, en route back home to Madrid, before he could deliver this magnificent gift.
Philip, born at Versailles and raised in the French court, would have been aware of the sumptuous Chinese porcelain ordered by French nobility. He himself had a Chinese dinner service displaying his coat-of-arms. One of the only pieces to survive is now in the Casita del Principe of the Escorial, Spain (see M. Beurdeley, Chinese Trade Porcelain, p. 86.) One pair of Valdes y Tamon's soldier vases (each set may have comprised four or six originally) remains in Mexico, though with replacement covers, and is illustrated by J. Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in America, p. 48.
The arms of the Spanish Bourbons as seen on these splendid vases are themselves a brief geo-political history of the Spanish throne, reflecting elements of Leone and Castile, Aragon and Aragon Sicily, Austria, Old Burgundy, Modern Burgundy, Brabant, Granada, Flanders, Antwerp and France.
During this period Philip named Captain Fernando de Valdes y Tamon his Governor-General of the Philippines. Valdes y Tamon seems to have been an active minister, negotiating a treaty with the Muslim sultanate in 1737 and bolstering the armaments of key Spanish forts in 1739. At some point during his posting he ordered these majestic sets of Chinese porcelain vases, one for himself, with his coat-of-arms, and one for his patron, the King. Sadly, Valdes y Tamon died in Cuernavaca, en route back home to Madrid, before he could deliver this magnificent gift.
Philip, born at Versailles and raised in the French court, would have been aware of the sumptuous Chinese porcelain ordered by French nobility. He himself had a Chinese dinner service displaying his coat-of-arms. One of the only pieces to survive is now in the Casita del Principe of the Escorial, Spain (see M. Beurdeley, Chinese Trade Porcelain, p. 86.) One pair of Valdes y Tamon's soldier vases (each set may have comprised four or six originally) remains in Mexico, though with replacement covers, and is illustrated by J. Mudge, Chinese Export Porcelain in America, p. 48.
The arms of the Spanish Bourbons as seen on these splendid vases are themselves a brief geo-political history of the Spanish throne, reflecting elements of Leone and Castile, Aragon and Aragon Sicily, Austria, Old Burgundy, Modern Burgundy, Brabant, Granada, Flanders, Antwerp and France.