CARRACK PORCELAIN

Chinese blue-and-white export pieces of the reign of Emperor Wan-li (15731620) during the Ming period. When a Portuguese armed merchantman, or carraca, was captured by the Dutch off Canton in 1602, the foundation year of the Dutch East India Company, the booty and subsequent prizes of Oriental porcelain were auctioned at Amsterdam for several million guilders. The Dutch kraakporselein was to have considerable influence on European pottery and taste, being copied at Delft and elsewhere. The vitreous-looking ware appears in many contemporary Dutch still-life paintings and interiors; it is decorated in a grayish blue colour, spontaneously painted and somewhat coarser in finish than China's own domestic ware of the period, and features such subjects as deer, ducks in pairs, rocks, and landscapes.