Tray

Wealthy and educated Europeans became fascinated with Far Eastern art at least from the 13th century. Things were no different in Wilanów. First the king and then successive owners, including Stanisław Kostka Potocki, systematically enriched the collection with works of Far Eastern art. They included original Chinese and Japanese products, export products inspired by European models, but also products whose provenance was wrongly identified and the object had nothing in common with Chinese products. In 1895, a French expert preparing a description of the collection found in the palace, mentioned a Chinese white enamel tray – presumably the one that is still present in the collection – in a three-winged glass-case (no. 5) standing in Chinese rooms. In the course of time, the provenance attributed wrongly to the tray was corrected. It was associated with factories from remote Russian regions. It is a very interesting single object in the collection. Silver decorations are set in a layer of enamel baked on copper plate. The trick was to adjust the temperature of baking so that silver would not melt. The flat vessel is decorated with carefully made decorative elements in relatively simple form arranged in eight symmetrical fields. In the middle part, in the oval, Orpheus is shown playing the lyre to animals engrossed in listening.

Joanna Paprocka-Gajek