Coffee pot on footring, pear-shaped body, wide mouthrim, domed lid with flat rim, a peach as a knob. Wide triangular spout, half-closed at the top, the bottom part modelled as a shell, the sides with foliate motifs. On the opposite side a C-shaped ear with a right-angled, protruding upper part. Decorated in various enamel colours with on either side a rococo panel with two Chinese women in a courtyard near the entrance to a house. A bespectacled man sitting with a child reading a scroll on a rock near a tree. On the lid four panels with flower sprays and garden landscapes.
This type of coffee pot is redolent of German porcelain examples from the period 1730–1750, which are typified by the pear-shaped body and modelled spout. They are referred to in the VOC archives as ‘Saksisch (Saxon) model’. The decoration is characteristic of the group called ‘mandarijn’ (mandarin) in The Netherlands, a generic term used in the West to refer to all Chinese officials. Purple, orange, yellow, a hard pink and brown enamels were often added and decorations consisted mainly of Chinese figures and family scenes. In Groningen, ‘herenmandarijn’ (gentlemens’ mandarin), the variation with gold, as here, was regarded as suitable for the upper classes, while ‘boerenmandarijn ‘ (farmers’ mandarin), without gold, was for the middle and lower classes. The bespectacled man is interesting: spectacles were a popular Western import and were pre-ground to strength according to age. There were spectacles for 40-year-olds, a different strength for those of 50, and so on. Naturally, it did not take long for the Chinese to start making imitations of European spectacles.