Plate LI.—Mirrors, Console Table and Candlesticks, by Marot.
Under William and Mary, London swarmed with Dutch merchants and refugee Huguenot arts and craftsmen, and was almost as much of an Eastern bazaar as Amsterdam was. Mary set the pace, and wealth and aristocracy gladly followed. As an example of the vogue, we cannot do better than take the diary of the wealthy John Hervey, afterwards Earl of Bristol, and quote a few entries of expenditure.
He was always buying porcelain and other Oriental wares “for dear wife.” On July 6, 1689, he notes: “Paid to Katherine Scott for 12 leaves of cut Japan skreens, 2 pieces of India damask and 6 Dutch chairs, £65.” In the following July, he also bought from John van Colima, a Dutchman, who had probably followed William III to London, “a parcel of old China for £3 2s. 6d.” Though the Earl dealt more extensively with “Medina ye Jew,” “Leeds ye mercer,” “Seamer ye goldsmith” and many “India houses” in the New Exchange, we find him still patronizing the Dutchman after the death of his first wife, as is shown by the following entries: “1696, Jan. 11: Paid Calama, ye Dutchman in Green Street, for a parcell of china for my dear wife, £31 8s. 4d. May 4: Calamar, ye Dutchman, for another parcel of China, £10 4s.” Two years later he also pays “John Van Collema, for an Indian trunk, £35.” Another Dutchman who enjoyed this nobleman’s patronage was “Mr. Gerreit Johnson, ye Cabinett-maker,” who, on May 25, 1696, was paid £70 “for ye black sett of glass, table and stands, and for ye glasses, etc., over ye chimneys and elsewhere in my dear wife’s apartment.”
Gerreit Johnson, whom the Earl patronized, was a fashionable cabinet-maker who made the china-cabinets for Queen Mary that were placed in a room at Hampton Court called “the Delft Ware Closett.” It is interesting to note that the mirrors and cabinets in the Countess of Bristol’s boudoir had black japanned framework.
His diary and expense account shows that his purchases of furniture and bric-à-brac faithfully reflected the prevailing taste for Oriental wares and the style refugié. He did not exclusively patronize Dutchmen.
In 1688, he paid “to Frenoye, the silkman, for the fringe of the bed, edgings for the window curtains, etc., £155”; “to the joyner who made the chairs, stools and squabs for my wife, £19”; and “for gold and crimson fringe for the India bed quilt, £17.”
In 1689, he bought “for dear wife” a white teapot and basin, £4 16s. 9d.; two china basins, £1 1s. 6d.; an India trunk, £7; India quilt for a bed, £38; a “brockadal hanging in my wife’s anti-chamber, £11 10s.”; and “to a French varnisher for ten chairs, a couch and two tabourettes, £12.”
In 1690, his purchases included “silver andirons, for my dear wife her closett chimney, £13 5s.“; “a glass screen, £1 1s. 6d.”; “two pair of basins for dear wife, £1 12s.“; “a large China punch-bowl, with a large jarr and two white cupps, £3 5s.“; “sett of cupps and saucers, £2”; six other saucers, 10s.; “two china beakers, £2 11s.“; two great jarrs of china and two smaller ones, “with one very little one,” £7 3s.; a parcel of old china, £21; another parcel of old china, £6 10s.; “another sett of old china for dear wife, £22”; “a pair of old china roul wagons” (large blue and white vases), £7 10s. 6d.; a pair of china cupps and a little jarr, £1 6s.; for a china teapot basin, £1 1s. 6d.; an old china bottle and two china dishes, £1 15s.; “at a curiosity shop, 10s.“; “a rich piece of India atlas, £13 10s.”; “a parcel of Indian things, £5 7s. 6d.”; and “a pair of china jarrs, £1 4s.”
Plate LII.—Tables and Mascarons, by Maret.