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As some of you will recall, we had an in depth discussion about this armorial basket and plate I recently posted. Not everyone was convinced of their authenticity. I was pretty certain they were the real deal, but I had indicated that I was going to reach out to the experts over in England responsible for the Howard armorial reference book that seems to be the gold standard for Chinese armorial research and collecting. I sent them pictures and let them know there was some debate about the authenticity and origin of the pieces and asked if they could provide some historical information to help us clarify things. Here are a couple pictures to remind everyone of the pieces in question
It turns out that they had responded to my email within a few days of receipt but it had been sent to my junk email and so I had not seen it. Angela Howard was kind enough to send me another email just today to ask if I had not gotten her response from nearly a month ago. When I told her I had not received it she kindly resent her original email which I wanted to share with you all. I'm sure you will find it as educational I did. She also sent some pictures of a nearly identical basket and stand she currently is in possession of which is from the same set, as well as pictures of relevant pages from the Howard book, and so I will include those at the bottom after her letter.
Here is what she wrote:
Apologies for a few days’ delay in replying to your email and attachments. I am very familiar with your pieces since I currently have a virtually identical basket and stand from the same service in my gallery for sale. I am attaching some photos for you to see. In fact the scene on my basket is the same as your under-dish. I am completely mystified as to why your associate would think that they are ‘quite unique’ (and by inference in some way suspicious or not authentic), not of Chinese origin and not of first quarter 19th century date. I would say that he was wrong on all counts and I would be interested to hear his reasoning, and what these concerning ‘design elements’ are.
There are several factors that contribute to identification and dating of armorial porcelain: the heraldry and the style in which the armorial is painted; the context of the historical background of the period and any connection that the family might have with the East India Company are all of paramount importance. Then stylistically: the border decoration, the shape, and comparison to other similar pieces which can be dated are also significant. Clearly it is also necessary to understand and assess the porcelain itself to make sure that it is hard paste Chinese export porcelain and not a later copy or fake (whether European or Chinese). Your pieces are definitely not unique in either decoration or form, and there are many comparable pieces of that date. They are also definitely not later copies or fakes.
In this Seton service the heraldry is absolutely precise and has been very accurately painted on the porcelain. These are the arms of Seton of Touch and later of Abercorn, for which Scottish family a baronetcy (hereditary title) was created in 1663. I am attaching a pdf of the double page spread in my late husband’s second volume of Chinese Armorial Porcelain (CAP II) which you said you had not seen. The third entry down will explain more about this service and the family. The armorial on this service has the ‘supporters’ (greyhounds on either side of the shield) which can only be borne by one person: the baronet himself and no one else. As you will see from the pdf, the 4th and 5th baronets both had armorial services, and if you assume that this service stylistically was almost certainly made after the 5th baronet’s death in 1810, then it has to be for his son Henry John Seton, who held the title of 6th baronet from 1810 to his death 58 years later. I am also attaching two photographs of the family entry in the 1878 edition of Burke’s Peerage. I have put arrows by the names of these three baronets. You will read in this that both the 5th baronet (Sir Alexander) and three of his sons served in India in the East India Company, and were thus ideally placed for ordering porcelain directly from Canton. Four services were ordered for this family in the space of about fifty years.
The style of decoration. By the end of the 18th century the EIC had stopped trading on their own account in porcelain from China, and the Private Trade (which included all armorial porcelain orders) had also diminished considerably. The reasons included heavy import duties of 109% levied by the British government in the 1790s to protect the English porcelain manufacturers, and war with France which extended to the Indian ocean and included blockading of ships trading with China. As a result there were suddenly far fewer British orders for Canton which caused some problems for their workshops. Most first half 19th century orders were made either for the American market, or for the British colonial officers still serving in India, particularly Scotsmen. This coincided also with the end of the reign of the Qianlong emperor. The new styles of decoration in the Chinese workshops during the Jiajing period (1796-1820) and beyond were totally different – far less European influence, more creativity and the use of Chinese scenes (sometimes from literature but often generic) and Chinese decorative motifs on the borders. The armorial services of the first 20 years or so were particularly characterised by different scenes on pieces within the same service. The Jiajing period and first decade of the next reign was probably artistically the high point, quality starts to go downhill thereafter and by mid century the decoration has become cruder and more repetitive. If you look at the attached pdf from CAP and compare the other six services on the page (there are obviously other pages too) you will see that they all share similar central scenes and butterfly/flower borders. It is very typical of this date. Your Seton porcelain is not unique in design, and neither is it very likely to be more than about 5 years outside of 1820.
Hope this is of some help.
Best wishes
Angela Howard
Hi John.
So nice to see Angela did that effort to help you with providing such an elaborated answer.
I'm very happy to admit I was wrong something around 120 years 🙂 And I am really glad you have genuine pieces with interesting story behind, now revealed in detail!
Thank you for sharing this great news.
Kind regards,
Adrian
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