Lot 144
Chinese Export Japan Pattern Armorial Soup Plate, from the Wolterbeek Service, c.1818
Lot 144 Details
Chinese Export Japan Pattern Armorial Soup Plate, from the Wolterbeek Service, c.1818
in the Worcester manner, painted in colours and gilt with alternating floral and diaper panels, the centre with monogram ‘CJW’ on a pale blue shield supported by an elephant and yellow tiger above a pink banderole inscribed ‘Mallacca’
diameter 9.8" — 25 cm.
Estimate $300-$500
Literature:
Dr. Jochem Kroes documents the ‘Wolterbeek’ service in Chinese Armorial Porcelain for the Dutch Market, pages 519-520, no. 443
“According to family tradition this armorial service was given to Constantijn Johan Wolterbeek in 1818 by the Sultan of Malacca. At the time the British ceded the colony to the Dutch after 23 years of interim rule. The transfer took place on the frigate “H.M. Tromp” on 21 September 1818 concluded by a peace treaty between the Sultan of Malacca and the Dutch which was when the Sultan would have given this service to Wolterbeek.
Constantijn Johan Wolterbeek (born Steenderen 5 April 1766; died The Hague, 23 May 1845) belonged to a patrician Dutch family living in the Republic from the late 17th century. They were ministers and local judges, among other things. Constantijn Johan chose a naval career, in 1782 starting as a cadet on the ship “Schiedam” sailing for the Rotterdam Admiralty. After 1788 he went to the Indies where he was promoted captain in 1799. In 1810 he went home and settled in his country seat De Bronckhorst, near Steenderen, eastern Gelderland. In 1817 he was back in naval service heading for the Indies, first as rear-admiral and from 1818 as governor of Malacca; he resigned in 1820. After that he served for some years in the Mediterranean, but in 1930 he was promoted director of the “Directoraat Marine” or Naval Directorate in The Hague, followed by his appointment in 1840 as director-general of the Colonial Office, which included the Naval Office. In 1831 he was promoted vice-admiral.
He married Johanna Engberts (1771-1855) and had one daughter, baptized Isabelle Pauline (1804-1883). She married in 1832 Dirk Gerhardus Muller (1796-1866) and became the ancestor of the Wolterbeek Muller line with descendants in both the Netherlands and in the Dutch East Indies. Several pieces of this armorial service are still the property of members of the Wolterbeek Muller family.”