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Case 13 2010-11 : A lacquered Imari porcelain garniture Expert Adviser’s Statement Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that the illustrations referred to have not been reproduced on the MLA website 1. Brief Description Five-piece garniture comprising three lidded oviform jars and two trumpet vases Porcelain painted in underglaze blue and overglaze enamels; black lacquer with gold hiramaki-e (‘flat sprinkled picture’) decoration; black lacquer with all- over covering of mother-of-pearl; some areas of European japanning Lidded jars each 90 cm high Trumpet vases each 62 cm high Porcelain: Japan, Arita kilns, Imari type, maker unknown, 1690-1720 Lacquerwork: Japan, probably Kyoto, workshop unknown, contemporaneous with porcelain Japanning: Europe, workshop(s) unknown, 18 th century and/or later Other than some damage to the covers of the jars, partially made good by European japanning, the condition of the jars is good. While porcelain does not deteriorate with age, lacquer is susceptible to damage through exposure to light, UV radiation in particular, and changes in temperature and relative humidity. Long years of exposure to fluctuating environmental conditions have taken their inevitable toll on the lacquer decoration, the areas of black having lost much of the gloss they would have had when the garniture was new. There is also damage by abrasion, which is again inevitable in the case of lacquer, which scratches relatively easily. 2. Context Althorp House, Northamptonshire; possibly Sarah, 1st Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744) and thence by descent through her daughter Anne (1683-1716), wife of Charles, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1675-1722) to her favourite grandson Hon. John Spencer (1708-46), father of John, 1st Earl Spencer (1734-1783). W.B. Honey, Catalogue of the Porcelain and Pottery both Oriental and European in the Collection of the Earl Spencer at Althorp , 1937, no. 338 C. Spencer, Althorp, The Story of An English Country House , London, 1998, p. 83 (illustrated in situ in the Great Dining Room) 3. Waverley criteria The garniture meets all three Waverley criteria as follows: History The garniture’s close association with Althorp House and the Spencer family, to the extent of possibly being the ‘five China Jars and Covers’ recorded in the Picture Gallery at Althorp in Benjamin Goodison’s inventory of 1746, compiled two years after the death of Sarah, 1 st Duchess of Marlborough, places it firmly at the centre of the history of one of Britain’s most prominent families and their family seat. Aesthetics The garniture is among the largest and most spectacular of all known examples of Imari ware, porcelain made in Arita in western Japan and shipped to Europe by the Dutch East India from their factory on the island of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay. It is extremely unusual for the way in which large parts of the jars’ and beakers’ surfaces are covered in black lacquer with mother-of-pearl and gold hiramaki-e (‘flat sprinkled picture’) decoration. Porcelain and lacquer were among the most highly sought after of Japanese commodities in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Europe. Having the two combined as in this garniture represents the very pinnacle of extravagance. It is of considerable additional interest that the combination of maki-e and mother-of-pearl decoration on what is a late seventeenth or early eighteenth century object, harks back to a style of decoration that had been popular on Japanese export lacquer during the late sixteenth and early seventeenth century. Scholarship The garniture is a remarkable and, from what it has been possible to establish, possibly unique survivor that is extremely important for the study of Japanese lacquer and porcelain production, for the study of the history of trade between Japan and Europe, and for the study of the consumption of luxury items in Britain. Expert Adviser: Mrs Ming Wilson, Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum Author of report: Dr Rupert Faulkner, Asian Department, Victoria and Albert Museum 21st December 2010 ______________________________ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1. Brief Description of item(s) Five-piece lacquered porcelain garniture in the style known as Imari ware, with underglaze blue, overglaze red and gold enamels; and black, gold and mother- of-pearl inlaid lacquer decoration. Made in Arita, Japan, late 17 th to early 18 th century. Trumpet vases H.62cm; Lidded jars H.90cm The garniture is in good condition. 2. Context The garniture was owned by the Spencer family, at Spencer House or Althorp before being submitted to Christie’s for sale on 8 July 2010. It possibly equates with the ‘fine China jars & Covers’ recorded in the Picture Gallery at Althorp in an inventory of 1746 by Benjamin Goodison. 3. Waverley criteria The garniture meets all three of the Waverley criteria. 1) Its Spencer family provenance, with a possible connection via the 1746 inventory to Sarah, first Duchess of Marlborough, gives it historical significance. 2) This rare type of Imari porcelain, with its elaborate and spectacular combined enamel and lacquer decoration, is of outstanding aesthetic importance 3) The garniture, given its rarity and provenance, is also highly significant for the study of Japanese lacquer and porcelain production and also for the study of the history of trade between Japan and Britain. DETAILED CASE 1. Detailed description of item(s) if more than in Executive summary, and any comments. The vases in the garniture are decorated in a matching design. Each vase is decorated at front and back with panels of black lacquer with gold maki-e (‘sprinkled picture’) designs of peonies and chrysanthems. Within the lacquered panels, fan-shaped cartouches are left unlacquered and decorated instead with underglaze blue, overglaze enamel and gold designs of Japanese temple buildings among spring cherry blossom and autumn maple leaves. The remaining areas are decorated with black lacquer inlaid with pearl shell. While Imari-style garnitures were a relatively common high-end export item and lacquered wooden vases made in similar shapes to their porcelain counterparts were also produced, lavish lacquered porcelain sets such as this one were extremely rare and would have been extremely expensive, ‘top-of-the-range’ products produced in relatively small numbers. I am not aware of similar sets or even single vases in UK collections, either public or private. 2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item(s). During the 17th and 18th centuries, lavishly-decorated Japanese porcelain and lacquer played an important role in the decoration of European stately homes and palaces, where it symbolized the wealth and superior taste of its owners. This spectacular garniture is of historical significance for its close association with the Spencer family. Indeed it may even be the ‘five China Jars and Covers’ recorded in the Althorp inventory written by Benjamin Goodison in 1746, compiled two years after the death of Sarah, 1st Duchess of Marlborough (1660-1744), a wealthy and influential woman and important eighteenth-century art collector. While Imari-style porcelain garnitures and lacquer vases in various shapes were relatively common, the combination of the two techniques is very unusual, and the set would have been an extremely expensive, luxury item. The landscape designs within the cartouches are also most unusual on Imari porcelain, where floral designs are more common, but reminiscent of designs commonly found on lacquerware While there are many Imari-style porcelain garnitures in the UK, I am not aware of any lacquered Imari vases in this country, let alone a complete garniture. However, a small number of related but very different items do exist. In the Ashmolean Museum, for instance, there is an extraordinary trumpet-shaped porcelain vase with gold lacquer decoration and added wire birdcage, similar to twelve similar vases displayed in the Japanese palace of Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony in the early 18 th century. There is also a lidded jar in a similar shape but made entirely of lacquered wood, c. 1680 (see Appendix attached). Because of its aesthetic appeal, rarity, and importance for the study of the trade between the UK and Japan in the 17 th and 18 th centuries, I would say that the garniture is of national importance. Name of Expert Adviser and Institution Dr Clare Pollard, Ashmolean Museum Date 24 December 2010 .

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