A Chinese porcelain ‘Arms of Cruz Sobral Alagoa II’ tureen and stand

Of exceptional artistic virtuosity and historic relevance, this Chinese export porcelain tureen on stand is representative of a typology known as pot à oille. Made 1775–1780, in the reign of Emperor Qianlong, it presents enamelled Famille Rose decoration, and a Portuguese armorial shield for Cruz Alagoa / Sobral, inscribed with the Latin motto “Nomen honorque meis” (In my name and on my honour), and surmounted by a sighthound. This collared dog, holding a key to its mouth, a symbolic allusion to Joaquim Inácio da Cruz Sobral fidelity as Keeper of the Crown Treasure.

The configurative genealogy of this tureen seems to originate from a model conceived by Juste-Aurèle Meissonnier (1693/95, Turin-1750, Paris), painter, sculptor, architect, ornamentist and goldsmith of Italian origin working in France, in whose treaty Dixième livre des oeuvres de J.-A. Meissonnier, appears identified as a “Surtout de Table” (plate nr. 61)[1]. Of exuberant design, it is defined by a stylistic repertoire of foliage motifs, volutes and shells, conspicuous in European baroque and rococo creations in a wide variety of fields, from goldsmithing to furniture or ceramics, particularly in France, England, Germany, Austria and Italy, but also in the Iberian Peninsula.

Meissonier would also fulfil commissions for the Portuguese Royal House, motivated by those from the French King Louis XIV in the context of the Versailles universe formulation, and its subsequent adoption by other European courts in the emergence of Absolutism. From the various commissions mediated by Ambassador Luís da Cunha (1662-1749), Portuguese representative in Paris, stands out a celebrated throne (1727) for King João V (r.1706-1750). Comprising of a centre table, a backrest with canopy and dossal, a dais carpet and a royal armchair, which together composed the “Throne”, its decorative composition included important allegorical and symbolic narratives.

Additionally, as a close attribution for the influences evident in this tureen, it is also essential to point out a work by François-Thomas Germain, which has most likely determined the adopted ornamental, botanical and zoological ostentation whose excess of vegetable elements reinforces a “still-life context” -  the set referred to as La Machine d'Argent, or the Centrepiece for a Table (surtout de table),[2] which should be seen as another archetype, particularly clear on the cover, from which stands out the sculptural purpose verbalised by the object. In identical parallelism, it is also relevant to refer another contemporary tureen equally commissioned in Paris by Francisco da Silva Telo e Menezes, 6th Count of Aveiras, later 1st Marquess of Vagos. Made as a pair at Charles Spire’s workshop between 1752 and 1753, it features a cover whose decoration represents a sculptural group allusive to hunting.

This setting, evidencing the identified stylistic contagion, reveals itself once again in the Livre des Légumes, another masterpiece by the same author that must be included in the collection of sources impacting ceramic creation by resorting to natural, predominantly botanical, elements. Although the compilation early core takes up the representation of plants and vegetables, other blocks deal with topics such as architecture, religious implements, decorative objects and even fireworks.[3]

The set’s orderer, and also of some Chinese export porcelain vases (ca. 1755), was Joaquim Inácio da Cruz Alagoa / Sobral (Lisbon 1725-1781), who held prestigious offices in the Marquess of Pombal administration, such as Royal House nobleman to King José I, member of the Council of the Exchequer and Treasurer of the Royal Purse, that would grant him a nobility title as well as opportunities for amassing immense wealth. By royal favour he would also be given the Honorific Lordship of the town of Sobral de Monte Agraço (by letter patent from April 18th, 1771) and later, on December 19th, 1776, the honour of adding the surname Sobral to his name, with the obligation of using it together with the family’s armorial shield.

From the group of six Chinese export porcelain dinner sets featuring the Sobral crest, exceptional number amongst the commissions by the grandest and wealthiest aristocratic families, stands out the tureen herewith described which, by its ornamental grammar, may be linked to the 1st dinner set, said “of carnations”.[4]

Morphological analysis and ornamental features

Tureen, or pot à oille, normally used for holding meat and fish soups, or even ragouts, it contrasts with another, lower shaped typology known as olla podrida, according to the Spanish terminology. According to Raphael Bluteau,[5] “there are various typologies of ollas, such as the above-mentioned olla podrida, whose classification originates from poderidas or powerful, since it was destined to be used by the powerful elites and filled from large cooking pots and casseroles”.[6]

The tureen’s cover gadrooned details, framed by gilt beaded frieze, melt elegantly with its rim waving profile of trellis motifs and interrupted garlands in the Famille Rose ornamental taste, contrasting with the tureen girdled festoons rim - elements repeated in the tureen’s base peripheral edge. The two handles, shaped as striated (crète de coq) and gilt closed volutes, rest on small putto masks attached to the recesses that, in this instance, function as the handle brackets. In essence it adopts an often-used decorative detail that is common in sauceboats, urns and even jugs, but reworked in the rococo taste and also used in Meissen produced wares.

Of central foliage detail inspired by a floral and fruit palmette ornament design, the feet feature two small scrolls (closely analogous to those seen in the tureens from the Musée de la Compagnie des Indes at Lorient, in Brittany, in those formerly in the Ricardo Espírito Santo collection, originally from the Marquess of Ficalho, and in the ones from the Dukes of Palmela collection), which follow the same decorative grammar as the cover, which in turn exhibits the massive vegetal rhetoric characteristic of the display stratagems so specific to François-Thomas Germain compositions - broccoli, mushrooms and peas.

Oblong shaped, the stand features a rather overloaded edge that increases its expressive phytomorphic value, organised as if a garland. Its central ground however, resorts to European floral specimens already seen in the 1st dining set, said of carnations, rather than the Chinese floral motifs used in the previous period, and known as “Indianische Blumen”. This choice may have resulted from the models adopted by Meissen porcelain (deutsche blumen decoration) ca. 1745, and later also by the Strasbourg factory.

In other words, it reflects the transfer of a European botanical orientation onto these oriental surfaces, making the model, subjected to an aesthetic renovation, more updated. For this reason, Chinese made porcelain became known as ‘Chinese Porcelain for the European Market’ [7], in a process of contamination which from this date extended to other major European production centres such as Vincennes, Höchst, Frankenthal and Berlin, but also to Chelsea, Bow, Derby and Worcester, in Great Britain, whose models may have been absorbed from botanical prints, such as those by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741).

This floral decorative programme “in the European manner” must be confronted with that from the covered vases in the Museu Castro Guimarães, in Cascais, which follow the model characteristic of Famille Rose ornamental compositions depicting Chinese floral motifs. The covers, however, feature Foo Dog shaped holders, hence maintaining the archaism, or tradition, that this feature represents.

Joaquim Inácio da Cruz (Alagoa-Sobral) lived in his palace at Rua da Fábrica das Sedas, in Lisbon’s Rato neighbourhood, with his wife, his brother Anselmo Sobral and 35 servants, a fact that in itself would justify the need for large quantities of domestic accoutrements, later moving to the Calhariz palace in the Santa Catarina district. From his younger brother’s José Francisco da Cruz Sobral inventory of the “Lisbon house” (f. 37 a 48), comprising of thirteen rooms and one oratory, and excluding household linens and personal clothing, stands out the large numbers of Chinese porcelain pieces, which included: “India ware, various blue and white plates, blue and gold, enamelled plates, soup tureens, tureens, cups, teapots, beakers, bottles and cruets”[8].

It is plausible that the commissioning of such objects would have happened in the context of Sobral’s fast promotions, as evidenced by the offices he held, and subsequently by the ostentatious wealth he accumulated, first as Ombudsman to the Board of Commerce, a post in which he gets a salary as General Manager for the Sugar Customs in 1768, followed by elected membership of the Treasury Council in 1769, and Director of the Royal Silks Factory and the Covilhã Textiles Factory. Symbolically, in the same year he was also granted the rank of knight nobleman and later, at the highest point of his success he was also awarded the honourable grade of Knight of the Military Order of Christ.

In 1775, on participating in the ceremonial procession for the inauguration of King José I equestrian statue and parading in front of the king’s omnipotent minister, the Marquess of Pombal, Joaquim Inácio da Cruz (Alagoa-Sobral) displays his closeness to the political elites, as well as his own grandeur amongst the Kingdom’s highest hierarchies.

Historiography is unanimous regarding the fact that the 1780s represented an increase in the Asian trade, in what is conventionally known as the “India Trade” resurgence. The Grão-Pará and Maranhão trading company, in whose foundation Joaquim Inácio intervened under the determining patronage of Pombal, succeeded to the Portuguese Asia Trading Company, dissolved in 1756. Towards the end of the 18th century, another brother, Anselmo Joaquim Cruz Sobral (1728-1802), would also amass considerable  wealth and, in association with Joaquim da Costa Quintela, would hold the majority of that company’s shares, thereby maintaining trade with the Far East and  ensuring the importing of Chinese porcelain, a possible reason for the presence of suck large quantities of such wares amongst his possessions, in a context of meteoric social rising.

JMT