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Lot Essay
Chinese wine ewers of this form were first introduced in Europe by the Dutch East India Company around 1635. The painted tulip decoration on the neck suggests this ewer was likely intended for the Dutch market. Two similar jugs, one hallmarked for Utrecht, 1654 or 1679, the other for Leeuwarden, 1665, are illustrated in L. Scheurleer, Chinesisches und Japanisches Porzellan in Europäischen Fassungen, Braunschweig, 1980, figs. 79 and 80. The present example is unique and elevated, though, in its incorporation of enameled gold mounts rather than plain silver or silver-gilt. Only one other example with gold mounts is known, and was mentioned in archives in the estate of Menno Houwerda and Helena van Eysinga of Friesland.
The coat-of-arms enameled on the cover of this ewer is that of Eritia de Blocq (1590-1669), one of the wealthiest residents of Leeuwarden in Friesland. Eritia was first married to lawyer Bocke Jochems Hoppers (b. 1587) in 1612, with whom she had a pair of portraits painted by Jan de Salle in 1622 likely in celebration of their tenth wedding anniversary. Upon the death of her first husband, Eritia married Matthijs van Franckena in 1630. Like her first husband, Van Franckena practiced law and held a number of civic positions, which placed the couple in fashionable and well-connected social circles. These informed acquaintances would have recognized and appreciated the present gold-mounted Chinese jug as the pinnacle of innovation and sophistication. Upon her death around 1669, Eritia established a scholarship of of 200 guilders a year for theology students in Leeuwarden, which exists to this day (Schroder, 2012, cat. no. 59, p. 240).
The coat-of-arms enameled on the cover of this ewer is that of Eritia de Blocq (1590-1669), one of the wealthiest residents of Leeuwarden in Friesland. Eritia was first married to lawyer Bocke Jochems Hoppers (b. 1587) in 1612, with whom she had a pair of portraits painted by Jan de Salle in 1622 likely in celebration of their tenth wedding anniversary. Upon the death of her first husband, Eritia married Matthijs van Franckena in 1630. Like her first husband, Van Franckena practiced law and held a number of civic positions, which placed the couple in fashionable and well-connected social circles. These informed acquaintances would have recognized and appreciated the present gold-mounted Chinese jug as the pinnacle of innovation and sophistication. Upon her death around 1669, Eritia established a scholarship of of 200 guilders a year for theology students in Leeuwarden, which exists to this day (Schroder, 2012, cat. no. 59, p. 240).