The Dutch made lavish use of flowers and greenery on festive occasions.
When Charles II was called home from Holland in 1660 to ascend the empty throne, he received a magnificent farewell entertainment by the States-General. The festivities lasted over several days, and are described in considerable detail by Sir John Lower, who was present. In his book we get an occasional glimpse of the furniture of the day, particularly its disposition on gala occasions. The great sideboards, or cupboards, are mentioned with admiration. The great feasts were given in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, which was the scene of lavish hospitality. Describing one of these entertainments, Lower tells us: “From the centre of the lover or open roof descended a Royal Crown, very gallantly made, in the midst of four lusters or crystal candlesticks, which with many other candlesticks, arms of silver and a great number of torches, enlightened all corners much better than the Sun could have done at midday. They gave particularly a marvellous lustre to the two bottoms of the chimney which is on the left side, where two partitions of painted wood shut up as many cupboards of crystal glasses, and a great store of vessels and of silver plate and vermillion gilt. The Hall was furnished with ordinary Tapestry, which is of crimson damask, and had no other adornments but that here and there there were some fair pictures, and that the ends of the chimnies and the void places above the cross-bar windows were adorned with garlands, leaves and figures of trees loaden with oranges and mingled with all sorts of flowers, which formed not only a very regular compartment, but wonderfully refreshed also the chamber and charmed no less the smell by their perfume than they pleased the sight through the diversity of their rich enamel.”
CHAPTER VII
THE IMPORTANCE OF PORCELAIN
Rise of Dutch Taste in Decorative Art—Influence of Foreign Trade in the Dutch Home—Accounts of Porcelain by Mediaeval Travellers: Edrisi, Ibn Batuta and Shah Rukh; Quotation from Pigapheta—A great European Collection—Monopoly of Trade by the Portuguese—Quotation from Pyrard de Laval—Portuguese Carracks—Voyages to Goa and Japan—Porcelain and Cabinets—Mendoza’s Description of Earthenware—Dutch and English Merchants—Presents to Queen Elizabeth—Dutch Expeditions and Establishment of the Dutch East India Company—Embassy to the Emperor of China in 1655—Descriptions of the Manufacture of Porcelain—Manufacture and Potters of Delft—Quotation from d’Entrecolles on Porcelain and Oriental Trade—Prices—Tea; Tea-drinking—A Dutch Poet on the Tea-table—Chrestina de Ridder’s Porcelain—Prices of Porcelain in 1653.
Until the middle of the seventeenth century, Flanders may be said to have overshadowed Holland in the field of Decorative Art, although, as we have seen, the two most important designers of domestic furniture—De Vries and Crispin van de Passe—were Dutch. The reason of Flemish preponderance was that the sovereigns and regents resided at Mechlin, Ghent, Brussels and Antwerp, and to those courts the ablest men in the arts and crafts naturally flocked. With the decay of Antwerp, we enter the period of the Flemish Decadence, and Amsterdam rises to wealth and power at her rival’s expense. After the death of Rubens, Dutch art is supreme in the Low Countries; and Dutch taste undoubtedly influenced France and England.
The Dutch home of the seventeenth century was profoundly affected by foreign trade. The day of heavy carved furniture was over lightness and brightness are now the prevailing notes. Broad surfaces are veneered and inlaid with exotic woods; and the lathe is freely used in the ornamentation of the supports of seats, cupboards, cabinets, etc. Above all, we notice a predominance of native and Oriental ceramic ware.
The Dutch were as fond of earthenware as of tulips; and no study of a Dutch interior could be adequate if it neglected to take into account the part played by Delft and porcelain.
The three novelties that impressed the Dutch home of the seventeenth century were tea, porcelain and lacquer. The importance of tea, with its table and equipage as a domestic altar, can hardly be overestimated; but its consideration may be deferred for the moment. Porcelain affected the arrangement of furniture and the decoration of rooms. The cabinet assumed new forms and proportions, as porcelain decorated its exterior.
Although Chinese porcelains had appeared in the cabinets of amateurs of the sixteenth century, the comparative rarity of this ware confined its enjoyment to the very wealthy. The magnificent ebony cabinets, armoires, or kasten, with drawers and interior shelves in which women delighted to set in beautiful order miniatures and jewels, enamels and ivories, shells and rock-crystals, medals and coral, now had also to find room for carved ivory and ebony, gods and monsters, jade, porcelain, sandal-wood and lacquer boxes, and all the rarities that were to be found in the stores of the Eastern traders.
Porcelain was early held in high esteem, and a vase was regarded as a fit present from one potentate to another. It was very rare in Western Europe until the Portuguese opened the Eastern gates. Mediaeval travellers had frequently referred to its preciousness. Edrisi (1154) says of Susah: “Here are made an unequalled kind of porcelain, the Ghazar of China.” There was always a certain mystery attached to its composition and qualities till the beginning of the eighteenth century. Ibn Batuta, who travelled in Bengal and China about 1350, gives a more or less fabulous account of its manufacture. He says: “Porcelain in China is of about the same value as earthenware with us, or even less. It is exported to India and elsewhere, passing from country to country till it reaches us in Morocco. It is certainly the finest of all pottery ware.” In 1420 the Embassy sent by Shah Rukh to the Chinese Court mentions a buffet on which were arranged flagons, cups and goblets of silver and porcelain. The scribe also bears witness to the fact that “in the arts of stone-polishing, cabinet-making, pottery and brick-making, there is nobody with us who can compare with the Chinese.”