KAKIEMON
After the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644 more than thirty years
elapsed before the Manchus under the Emperor Kangxi were able to re-establish
the thriving business of exporting porcelain made at Jingdezhen to the
West The Dutch, who at this time were the chief merchants in the Far East,
turned to the Japanese. They were the only Western nation allowed to trade
there and had their factory on Deshima Island in Nagasaki harbour. The
manufacture of porcelain in Japan had only started half a century earlier
before the first East Indiaman fully laden with Japanese porcelain
arrived in Holland. The brightly enamelled pieces were a revelation as
up to that date very few coloured Chinese wares had reached the West. The
other European countries were buying these through Chinese merchants who
were also trading with the Japanese1.
All the earlier Japanese porcelain made in Arita province had a bluish
or grey tinge due to the iron in the kaolin but a very pure white body
was evolved between 1660 and 1680 called nigoshide. The Kakiemon palette
evolved between 1670 and1690 and was invariably used on this white body.
In the 1680's the Chinese revived the kilns at Jingdezhen and produced
a fine white bodied ware much more cheaply than the Japanese. Kakiemon
however, despite its price, was the preferred style in the princely palaces
of Northern Europe, and was the style most copied there in the second quarter
of the 18th century. It is a Japanese version of Chinese style painting
with flowers, birds and insects being much the most popular, though there
are some very popular patterns with landscapes and figures.
Kakiemon was virtually never copied by the Chinese, while Chinese Imari
is nearly as common as its Japanese original. The first copies were made
by Dutch decorators who used both Chinese and Japanese white porcelain,
and from the late 1720's Meissen and other European porcelain. In the Gilbert
Collection shortly to be on show at Somerset House there are a pair of
tea caddies with Paris hall-marked silver mounts of c. 1710. The porcelain
is Japanese but the decoration is a typically Dutch copy of a Kakienion
pattern. The Dutch also introduced a pink enamel on some of their early
Kakiemon copies, a colour which was to become so famous in China as famille
rose.
It was not until the late 172Os that Meissen, which had previously been
producing beautiful
Chinoiseries under the direction of J. G. Herold, started to make direct
copies of Kakiemon. This was under the influence of a dubious Parisian,
Rodolphe Lemaire, who wished to pass off Meissen as the original Kakiemon.
He obtained a contract in September 1729. In the spring of 1731 his patron
Graf von Hoym fell into disgrace. Therefore the beaker which, if unmarked,
might still be mistaken for Japanese must date to C. 1730. The blue enamel
crossed swords and Japanese Palace inventory marks were added in 1731 or
1732. Kakiemon designs continued to be made throughout the 173Os, though
many of the shapes and some of the designs were European or European adaptations
of Oriental originals.
In 1725 Chantilly was founded under the patronage of Louis-Henri duc
de Bourbon who already had a large collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain,
particularly Kakiemon, but it did not receive its patent until 1735. Some
pieces like Meissen were direct copies of the Japanese, some copies of
Meissen, while many were of typical Chantilly shape with the designs also
taken from drawings in the Kakiemon style by Jea-Anttoine Fraisse.
A number of other European factories copied Kakiemon, but this was on
the whole the exception. Up to c. 1755 the Chelsea factory devoted much
of its production to copying Kakiemon, both directly from Japanese originals
and from the Meissen. The 1755 catalogue lists no less than thirteen different
Kakiemon designs though the height of the fashion lasted from 1749 to 1753.
Bow also produced large numbers of wares in the Kakiemon style starting
in the early 1750s. By far the most popular was the partridge pattern,
and in the exhibition are fourteen examples, all of different shapes. The
origin of this design is of interest as the Japanese originals represented
quail which in the 18thi century were hardly known in Britain, while the
partridge was a native bird. They were originally reproduced in their natural
colours possibly based on a scroll painting of the Tosa School. By the
beginning of the 18th century a Kakiemon School artist had originated the
typical red and blue quail beside a flowering prunus. This was copied in
Holland, Meissen and Chantilly. It appears that the red and gilt floral
border was an original Bow idea as in the mid 18th century it was felt
that the very sparse Kakiemon style was too plain. This was subsequently
copied at Worcester; Plymouth and Longton Hall also used this pattern but
without the border.
Other English factories occasionally used the Kakiemon designs and the
exhibition also has a Derby example as well as a Limehouse teapot. The
argument is still continuing whether this last was decorated in Holland
or in London, perhaps by a Dutch decorator. Most of the Worcester Kakiemon
designs of the 1760s incorporate strong European ideas such as coloured
grounds. Thereafter while imari designs never stopped being made Kakiemon
designs were virtually never used except when making replacements for existing
services. Marcolin Meissen and Coalport were two factories known for
this.
Anthony du Boulay |
