A PAIR OF KAKIEMON VASES KNOWN AS HAMPTON COURT VASES, EDO PERIOD, LATE 17TH CENTURY

After centuries of blue and white china, the novel pure white Kakiemon enamelled wares with rightly coloured flowers caused considerable delight in the late 17th century. It contrasted with the interiors of predominantly black hues of fashionable ebony, lacquer and ebonised or japanned furnishings.

James II's interest in porcelain was no doubt fostered by his daughter Mary Stuart. Through her marriage in 1677 to the Dutch Stadtholder William II or Orange shed had become a fanatical gardener and patroness of the Delft factories, which provided the handsome garden pots and vases for her plants. In 1685, when she became heiress presumptive to the English throne, Mary was devoting her attention to the creation of her garden villa at the palace of Het Loo, where she was assisted by the émigré Huguenot Daniel Marot (1661-1752), appointed architect to William of Orange. Mary and Marot created a dazzling cabined of Het Loo wit its paintings hung between pilasters decked with porcelain on gilt rackets. Additional items lined the mantelshelf and were reflected in the landscape-glass, which was surmounted by the pediment-shaped pyramid of porcelain. In the 17th century, sideboard tables or stepped buffets were sited for the display of one's wealth and taste. At times of financial crisis the precious plate could be returned to coinage and their place on the sideboard substituted with porcelain. The publication of Oeuvres du Sr. D Marot (The Hague, 1703 or 1712) helped to popularise the William and Mary style and the fashion of furnishing with porcelain. Fashionable ladies who mimicked the Queen's mania for china, were said to have ruined their families and estates with grievous expenses of their porcelain collecting.