Antiques Dealer Guide - Articles
17th Century Chinoiserie
From the 1520s considerable amounts of Ming porcelain were shipped into England. The designs on these items – from costumed figures to pagodas, plants, and animals – were all Europeans know of Oriental life and so when they tried to imitate the style they copied the image rather than the reality. This practice worked reasonably well on pottery, and became an amateur as well as professional activity in the faux-lacquer decoration of furniture. But in silver it had a short and limited production, hence its current rarity. English 17th century silver in the Chinoiserie taste is in one style only and is created by chasing, ie the design is visible on the reverse without altering the profile.
The popularity of cloth from India and China continued to grow and by the early 1660s European dignitaries were sending their own patterns to be printed or woven into the material.
The obsession for Chinoiserie waned around 1700, apart from tea drinking, and it was only lacquer, or japan, that spanned the gap between the first Chinoiserie period and the next, which began in the 1720s. Despite a lack of authentic materials, lacquer was the one medium that Europeans were able to imitate in England, thanks to the publication of A Treatise on Japanning and Varnishing by John Stalker and George Parker in 1688.
The popularity of cloth from India and China continued to grow and by the early 1660s European dignitaries were sending their own patterns to be printed or woven into the material.
The obsession for Chinoiserie waned around 1700, apart from tea drinking, and it was only lacquer, or japan, that spanned the gap between the first Chinoiserie period and the next, which began in the 1720s. Despite a lack of authentic materials, lacquer was the one medium that Europeans were able to imitate in England, thanks to the publication of A Treatise on Japanning and Varnishing by John Stalker and George Parker in 1688.