Jug and cover (Pitcher and Cover)

Description

From the early 1600s, the trading venture known as Dutch East India Company (VOC), based in Amsterdam, was among the most important one of the most important conduits for the movement of Chinese and other Asian objects across the world. Such items dramatically influenced worldwide design trends. Few specific artists can be identified in this trade. An exception is the designer Cornelis Pronk, who created for the VOC designs that would be sent to China for reproduction on that country's export-market porcelain. Pronk commonly "tweaked" what were considered Chinese motifs to tailor them more specifically to the Dutch market. Once the jug arrived in the Netherlands or perhaps Germany, it received its hinged silver lid. The female figure on the jug resembles those commonly displayed in Pronk's "Lady with the Parasol" (or Le Dame au Parasol) designs. For two Chinese export dinner plates displaying that motif, please see 2000.0061.021 and 2000.0061.124. To see all of Winterthur's porcelain bearing Pronk designs, please enter Pronk in the search field.