Tureen with lid

Tureen with lid

Japanese, late 17th century
Porcelain

Our September Object of the Month is this large porcelain tureen made in Japan for export to Europe. It is in an octagonal form and is decorated with a rich underglaze blue design of waterfalls, bamboo forests, and sea creatures. The handle on the top of the lid is in the form of a karashishi, a mythical Chinese lion-dog. Karashishi were believed to be guardians – statues of karashishi are often found at the entrance of temples and other sacred or important spaces. The tureen is one of a pair, and would have been used either for decoration or for serving food in formal dining settings.

According to an old Castle guidebook from 1973 when Denys Eyre Bower still lived here, the pair of tureens were formerly in the collections of the Dukes of Newcastle at Clumber House in Nottinghamshire. Denys did not record where all the objects in his Japanese collection came from. He tended to only make a note if the object previously belonged to a famous or important person. In the case of the tureen, we have the rare opportunity to find out more about its history because Denys appears to have been particularly proud of it. Clumber House was demolished in 1938, and most of its contents were sold around that time. In the 1920s onward when Denys started collecting, he benefitted from the sale of large collections from grand country mansions that were being sold and demolished at the time. Due to factors such as tax increases, wartime requisition, and industrial or urban development, many country mansions were sold or demolished from the 1920s to the 1940s. Denys had the opportunity to buy high quality Japanese objects which had been imported when they were the height of fashion from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Frogmore House: The Japan Room, c. 1819, Charles Wild (1781 – 1835), watercolour and pencil, Royal Collections Trust, Wikimedia commons

We know that this tureen was made in Japan for export to Europe because of its design and form. Large tureens with lids were not used in homes or for dining in Japan at the time, but they were a feature of formal European dining. The design with the lion dog handle and landscape was based on Chinese models, as was the use of porcelain decorated with underglaze blue. Porcelain began to be produced in Japan hundreds of years after it was produced in China. Chinese export porcelain was highly prized in the West. It required advanced high temperature firing techniques and particular materials. The technique was not reproduced in Europe until the early 18th century. Chinese export production was impacted by political unrest in China in the 17th century. The Japanese porcelain industry had only recently been developed by Korean potters living in Japan at that time. Dutch traders encouraged the development of the Japanese export porcelain industry as a replacement for Chinese export porcelain to meet European demand. The Dutch sent models or designs to Japan that they thought would appeal to their European customers to be recreated in Japanese porcelain.

Tureen with landscape, porcelain, Japan, late 17th century, Metropolitan Museum, object number 2002.447.47a,b

In Europe, Chinese and Japanese porcelain became a symbol of wealth and taste in the 17th and 18th centuries. Export porcelain vessels were the first kind of Japanese items that many Europeans encountered. Denys’ first introduction to East Asian art was also through porcelain, as his father collected Chinese porcelain in the 1920s. Porcelain and ceramics only make up a small proportion of Denys’ Japanese collection, but he was able to find some high quality and rare examples like this tureen. The tureen is currently on display in the Castle’s North entrance hall. Unfortunately the Japanese Room is still closed for repairs, but we are running regular Japanese object viewing sessions so please refer to our what’s on page for upcoming dates.

Photography of the tureen by Keith Lovegrove

This object is just one of the many objects that form part of Denys Eyre Bower’s five impressive collections which include Ancient Egyptian, Japanese, Buddhist, Stuart and Jacobite, and Books. For more information on these objects, review our Object of the Month series, visit the Historic House and Collections or contact our Curator, Naomi Collick by email or by calling 01892 870347.