Japanese Porcelain Coffee Fountain, circa 1680-1690

Rare Japanese Imari porcelain coffee fountain with a mercury-gilt bronze mount.
The cylindrical fountain is topped with its lid. The whole piece features a beautiful cobalt blue underglaze decoration on a white ground depicting a phoenix amidst peony branches and rocky mounds.
A rich, finely chased and gilt bronze mount adorns the porcelain. It includes a base supported by four dolphins, a tap in the form of a sea monster, and a lid handle decorated with a seashell and a rearing lion.

Old restorations to the fountain body and lid.

Porcelain, Japan, Edo period, Saga Province, Arita kilns, circa 1680-1690.

The mount, United Provinces, workshops of Amsterdam or The Hague, circa 1700.

Dimensions:

Height: 38 cm; Width: 20 cm

Similar models:

- Museum of the East India Company, Lorient.

Featured on the poster for the exhibition "Coffee, Pleasure with a Taste of Bitterness," which ran from April 13 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 very first delivered to Europe at the end of the 17th century, a time when coffee was making its appearance on the tables of princely courts.

It kept the beverage warm on a small warmer, allowing everyone to serve themselves as they pleased.

-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 very first delivered in Europe at the end of the 17th century, a time when coffee was appearing on the tables of princely courts.

It kept the beverage warm on a small burner, and then allowed everyone to serve themselves as they pleased. The coffee trade, then almost exclusively controlled by the Dutch East India Company, enjoyed considerable success, largely due to its perceived aphrodisiac properties.
The coffee ceremony became a ritual at the end of meals, but also began to punctuate mornings and afternoon teas, where it competed with tea and chocolate.
This convivial moment was also an opportunity to display wealth and power by offering an elite segment of society not only an expensive exotic beverage but also rare porcelain and lacquerware from the Orient, which were little known in Europe.
Porcelain was highly sought after for its ability to retain heat and its ease of cleaning, but also, and above all, for its visual appeal and preciousness.
In the 17th century, it was considered a magical material, born from the expertise of Eastern alchemists, which captivated 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 after the country's closure and the exclusion of the Portuguese in the mid-17th century. At that time, the Land of the Rising Sun was the sole supplier of porcelain and lacquerware, as China was still recovering from the turmoil following the fall of the Ming dynasty in 1644. The precious porcelain was transported from the port of Kyoto on the company's ships to warehouses in Amsterdam or The Hague, where it was mounted on bronze by goldsmiths from the province of Augsburg. It was then sold directly by the company through its stores or by specialized merchants located in major capitals.

This control of the entire supply chain, from production in Asia to marketing in Europe, allowed the renowned VOOC to become the world's largest company, both in terms of wealth and the number of ships and employees. Few of these early fountains dating from the 17th century have survived; most are now housed in major international museums.