Offered by Franck Baptiste Paris
Rare Japanese Arita porcelain coffee fountain with a mercury-gilt bronze mount.
The cylindrical fountain is topped with a removable lid. The whole features a beautiful underglaze cobalt blue decoration, with highlights of green, yellow, khaki, and red enamels on a white background; phoenixes in a setting of peony branches and rocky mounds.
A rich, finely chiseled and gilded bronze mount adorns the porcelain. It includes a base supported by rooster feet, a tap in the shape of a sea monster, and a lid opening handle decorated with a shell and a rearing lion.
In the greatest Nordic tradition, it symbolizes the four elements: air (rooster feet), earth (the lion), water (the dolphin), and fire (the porcelain, which is fired at a high temperature).
Very well preserved, with a previous restoration on the lid.
Porcelain, Japan, Edo period, Saga Province, Arita kilns, circa 1720.
The mount, United Provinces, Amsterdam or The Hague workshops, circa 1720-1730.
Dimensions:
Total height: 40 cm; Width: 26 cm
Porcelain height: 28 cm
Similar models:
-Lorient East India Company Museum. Featured on the poster for the exhibition "Coffee, Pleasure with a Bitter Taste," which ran from April 130 to December 15, 2022.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Inv. No. 79.2.176a)
- Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Inv. No. EA1978.1090)
- Christie's, Paris, May 1, 2016, Lot 529
- Christie's, London, July 7, 2016, Lot 57
Our opinion:
The coffee fountain we are presenting is one of the first examples delivered to Europe at the very beginning of the 18th century, at a time when coffee was appearing on the tables of princely courts.
It allowed the drink to be kept warm on a small stovetop, and then allowed everyone to serve themselves as they wished. The coffee trade, which was then the almost exclusive preserve of the Dutch East India Company, was enjoying considerable success, particularly due to its properties considered aphrodisiac.
The coffee ceremony became a ritual at the end of a meal, but also began to punctuate mornings and afternoon teas, where it competed with tea and chocolate.
This moment of conviviality was also a time when the coffee maker displayed its wealth and power by offering a society elite not only a very expensive exotic beverage but also rare porcelain and oriental lacquerware, which were little known in Europe.
Porcelain was highly sought after at the time, for its ability to retain heat and its easy cleaning, but also and above all for its visual appeal and preciousness.
In the 17th century, it was considered a magical material, derived from the expertise of oriental alchemists who inspired the European nobility. The East India Company capitalized on this success by marketing the rare commodity of coffee, as well as all related utensils, since it was the only company authorized to trade with Japan since the country's closure and exclusion of the Portuguese in the middle of the century.
The Land of the Rising Sun was the sole supplier of porcelain and lacquerware at this time, as China was barely emerging from the turmoil resulting from the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644.
The precious porcelain was transported from the port of Kyoto in the company's ships to warehouses in Amsterdam or The Hague, where it was mounted in bronze by goldsmiths from the province of Augsburg, then marketed directly by the company through its stores or by specialized merchants located in major capitals. This mastery of the entire chain, from production in Asia to marketing in Europe, enabled the famous "VOOC" to become the largest company in the world, both in terms of wealth and the number of ships and employees.
Few of these primitive fountains dating from the 17th and early 18th centuries have survived; today, most of them are preserved in the greatest international museums.
