MID-18TH CENTURY

The crowned figure in this scene has traditionally been identified as Peter the Great, Emperor of Russia, who arrived in Amsterdam in 1697 and worked incognito at the small Dutch port of Zaandam. Various scenes with this crowned figure working on riverside wharves are recorded. See Hervouët and Bruneau, La Porcelaine des Compagnies des Indes à Décor Occidental, Paris, 1986, p. 360, fig. 15.56 for a very similar plate.